Yesterday, Brie Larson did an interview with SiriusXM Stars (captured by and shared online by fans as the full interview was on their app), where she talked about the routine of shooting The Marvels directed by Nia Dacosta (Candyman) and compared the massive sets on the production to her own private Disneyland.
Confirming that production is indeed underway in the United Kingdom.
.@brielarson has advice for women looking to develop their own projects. 🎬 Check out her @SiriusXMStars interview on the SiriusXM App. pic.twitter.com/TPbU9qHgoS
Director Nia DaCosta recently spoke with Entertainment Weekly about the Captain Marvel sequel and how Marvel Studios is giving her more freedom than she’s had on her last two projects.
“It’s a lot less traumatizing to work on for sure [laughs]. But this movie also deals with specific, personal, sometimes sad things. But no, it’s been nice to work in a different world for sure. It’s amazing. [It’s] more [freedom] than I’ve had on anything. It’s great because we’re all just comic-book nerds who want to make a great comic-book movie.”
There is a proximity to the Skrull event series Secret Invasion (shooting in England and Scotland), which is also shooting close to Longcross and likely means the cast members on both shoots could crossover. It’s also assumed that Iman Vellani’s Ms. Marvel series will also plant seeds for The Marvels too.
Larson also teased alien worlds and off-world settings, which is nice to hear considering that the best parts of Captain Marvel took place on other planets than Earth.
Zawe Ashton was previously announced as playing a villain, but we’re still waiting on confirmation of that that role will be.
Disney has given the sequel a release date of November 11, 2022.
Hugh Jackman might be one of the longest running comic book actors in a single role spending nearly twenty years consistently playing X-Men’s most popular character, Wolverine, from 1999 to 2017.
There seemed to be some confusion when Marvel Studios decided to keep Ryan Reynolds’ Deadpool (Deadpool 3 in active development and “might” begin shooting in 2022) and not doing the same for the Singerverse, the impression was that Kevin Feige would be rebooting those characters alongside Fantastic Four.
Jackman, even before the release of Logan (featuring the death of his character) announced he would be hanging up his claws and starting championing actors like Tom Hardy (would later take Venom role at Sony Pictures). However, with The Multiverse becoming a key thing in Phase Four, fans and unverified rumors have been pointing towards Hugh returning.
While doing the first rounds of interviews to promote his upcoming sci-fi thriller Reminiscence, he’s now had to reaffirm he’s ready to give new actors the character to play with.
First off, during a chat on Jake’s Takes (via Comic Book), the Aussie actor said he still hasn’t changed his mind.
“I’m hearing about this from you [Hamilton], and there’s nothing in my inbox from Kevin Feige means it’s probably, no matter what idea I came up with, not on the table. Let’s just be clear that, but now, I realized, before we shot Logan, I was like, we got the idea. We knew what it was going to be-ish, right? And I thought this is it. And that really helped me, it really helped knowing I was going into my last season, that it was my last season that I made the most of it. And it’s still a character I hold close to my heart. But I know it’s done. Tell that to whoever you want to. Please tell it to Ryan [Reynolds]. Because he’s like, doesn’t believe anything’s I’m joking, please.”
That’s not the only interview where it was brought-up, as Jackman essentially said the same thing to Screen Rant.
“It’s in my past, man. Don’t tell anyone, alright? Let me just say one more thing. Because as I said that, there’s not a day goes by where I’m not unbelievably grateful for having been part of that MCU Universe. Particularly to be there at the beginning of it, and to watch it. To see Kevin Feige going from being an assistant to a producer and a mate of mine, to where he is today. And that was a role of a lifetime. So, I don’t ever want people to feel that when I say I’m done, it’s a glib thing. It was one of the great chapters of my life.”
I’m guessing Hugh Jackman is going to have a long press tour spending way too much time telling interviewers that he’s still done with the Wolverine role after making the announcement ages ago.
The problem is that fans and outlets rarely take actors at their word, so, you’ll see plenty of folks who might be disappointment with the comments to just assume they’re lying and echo that on social media. Sadly, we’re likely going see fans believe he’ll return (without solid confirmations) until Marvel Studios finally announces the new actor.
Warner Bros. and actor Yahya Abdul-Mateen II (Candyman, HBO’s Watchman) have been working together on a consistent basis with Aquaman, The Matrix 4, Aquaman & The Lost Kingdom, and will begin shooting George Miller’s Furiosa soon in Australia.
Well, Warner Bros. has just picked up another project that stars the rising talent, according to The Hollywood Reporter. They’re just acquired the dystopian thriller By All that will be led by Yahya Abdul-Mateen II and has director Steven Caple Jr. (Creed II) attached.
The story kicks off in the aftermath of a tragic event and follows Donte, a man struggling to make ends meet who is forced to go on the run in a world without police, where justice is crowd-sourced. The studio and the actor sparked to the action thriller given its provocative and timely premise about the imbalance of power in communities and how it warps the sense of responsibility, family, and friendship.
The filmmaker is deep into production on Paramount’s Transformers: Rise of The Beast.
Yahya’s next big release will be the Candyman soft-reboot from director Nia DaCosta (The Marvels) and producer Jordan Peele, finally heading to theaters on August 27.
CANDYMAN – For as long as residents can remember, the housing projects of Chicago’s Cabrini Green neighborhood were terrorized by a word-of-mouth ghost story about a supernatural killer with a hook for a hand, easily summoned by those daring to repeat his name five times into a mirror. In present day, a decade after the last of the Cabrini towers were torn down, visual artist Anthony McCoy (Yahya Abdul-Mateen II; HBO’s Watchmen, Us) and his girlfriend, gallery director Brianna Cartwright (Teyonah Parris; If Beale Street Could Talk, The Photograph), move into a luxury loft condo in Cabrini, now gentrified beyond recognition and inhabited by upwardly mobile millennials.
The Suicide Squad is getting some positive reactions from fans, critics, and casual moviegoers alike. But despite all the praise the film from James Gunn, it looks like a popular DC Comics character was nixed from the sequel.
Fans have spotted that Slade Wilson, aka, Deathstroke was supposed to lead Team Two in the film via concept artwork (See below) in the production offices. However, we know that Bloodsport, played by Idris Elba, was the character that ultimately chosen. It’ll be interesting to find out why they wanted Deathstroke in the film in the first place and why they pivoted.
Em novas artes conceituais do filme, podemos ver que o Deathstroke estava sendo considerado para liderar o Esquadrão Suicida ao invés do Bloodsport. pic.twitter.com/Jib3xgKw6K
I’m sure we’ll see get some insight from James Gunn in the near future.
If you’re not aware, Joe Manganiello was cast as Deathstroke for a button scene in Justice League with the idea he would appear in Ben Affleck’s Batman movie and had a solo film in development from The Raid director Gareth Evans. We don’t know if Manganiello was ultimately going to play Slade Wilson in The Suicide Squad, but it was likely.
Welcome to hell—a.k.a. Belle Reve, the prison with the highest mortality rate in the US of A. Where the worst Super-Villains are kept and where they will do anything to get out—even join the super-secret, super-shady Task Force X. Today’s do-or-die assignment? Assemble a collection of cons, including Bloodsport, Peacemaker, Captain Boomerang, Ratcatcher 2, Savant, King Shark, Blackguard, Javelin and everyone’s favorite psycho, Harley Quinn. Then arm them heavily and drop them (literally) on the remote, enemy-infused island of Corto Maltese. Trekking through a jungle teeming with militant adversaries and guerrilla forces at every turn, the Squad is on a search-and-destroy mission with only Colonel Rick Flag on the ground to make them behave…and Amanda Waller’s government techies in their ears, tracking their every movement. And as always, one wrong move and they’re dead (whether at the hands of their opponents, a teammate, or Waller herself). If anyone’s laying down bets, the smart money is against them—all of them.
The film stars Margot Robbie (“Birds of Prey,” “Bombshell”), Idris Elba (“Avengers: Infinity War”), John Cena (upcoming HBO Max series “Peacemaker,” “Bumblebee”), Joel Kinnaman (“Suicide Squad”), Jai Courtney (the “Divergent” franchise), Peter Capaldi (“World War Z,” BBC’s “Doctor Who” ), David Dastmalchian (upcoming “Dune,” “Ant-Man and the Wasp”), Daniela Melchior (“Parque Mayer”), Michael Rooker (the “Guardians of the Galaxy” films), Alice Braga (“Elysium”), Pete Davidson (“The King of Staten Island,” TV’s “Saturday Night Live”), Joaquín Cosio (“Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse,” TV’s “Narcos: Mexico”), Juan Diego Botto (“The Europeans”), Storm Reid (“The Invisible Man,” “A Wrinkle in Time”, “Euphoria”), Nathan Fillion (“Guardians of the Galaxy,” TV’s “The Rookie”), Steve Agee (“Brightburn,” “Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 2”), Sean Gunn (the “Guardians of the Galaxy” films, the “Avengers” films), Mayling Ng (“Wonder Woman”), Flula Borg (“Ralph Breaks the Internet”), Jennifer Holland (“Brightburn,” upcoming HBO Max series “Peacemaker”) and Tinashe Kajese (TV’s “Valor,” “The Inspectors”), with Sylvester Stallone (the “Rocky,” “Rambo” and “Expendables” franchises), and Viola Davis (“Ma Rainey’s Black Bottom,” “Suicide Squad”).
Amazon Studios and John Wick creator Derek Kolsad are teaming up for an original action film.
Variety reports that Sterling K. Brown (This Is Us) will lead the pic titled Blue Coyote, which will see Brown playing a man on the run from a group of ruthless criminals, but as seen in other Kolstad projects he has a certain set of lethal skills that will be begrudging be used at some point against his would-be killers.
The story revolves around an everyman (Brown) who’s hunted by a ruthless criminal syndicate for his mysterious cargo, and now must navigate the treacherous terrain of Route 66 while unleashing his lethal set of skills in a fight for survival.
Coyote Blue will be the feature film debut for television director Hanelle M. Culpepper, who has worked on Star Trek: Discovery, Star Trek: Picard, Kung Fu, American Crime, Mayans M.C., Samuel L. Jackson’s Apple TV+ limited series The Last Days of Ptolemy Grey, and the upcoming Amazon series adaptation of Neil Gaimen’s Ansani Boys.
Sterling K. Brown is no stranger to action projects with credits such as Hotel Artemis, The Predator, The Rhythm Section, and had a brief role in Marvel’s billion-dollar hit Black Panther playing the father of Michael B. Jordan’s Erik Killmonger.
Kolstad was recently behind the Bob Odenkirk actioner Nobody (sequel in early development) and worked with head writer Malcolm Spellman on Marvel’s hit streaming series The Falcon & The Winter Soldier.
With Culpepper busy with Amazon’s Anasni Boys, it’s unknown when we can expect Blue Coyote to begin shooting.
Still, it’s interesting to see Sterling K. Brown make the big jump to action lead and should be a fun ride given how he’s grown as a solid actor over the years. We don’t normally see seasoned actors given these type of roles and Brown’s involvement should easily elevate the material, just like with Bob Odenkirk in Nobody.
According to James Cameron and producer Jon Landau, principal photography has wrapped on Avatar 2 and Avatar 3 (both motion-capture and live-action portions), but there are two more films to be made with their attention moving on to Avatar 4 an Avatar 5.
One of the unanswered questions of these four upcoming sequels is how they’ll be bringing back Stephen Lang’s villainous Colonel Miles Quaritch, as he died in the original movie. However, they have the ability of to clone Na’vi bodies, aka, avatars and there is assumption that Quaritch could simply be a clone or RDA having multiple versions Quaritch all over their off-world operations.
Lang recently spoke to Collider while promoting his horror film Breathe 2 and dished about his reaction to reading the Avatar 5 script (a bulk of the scripts were written before filming on Avatar 2 started). Highlighting his emotional reaction and calling it “beautiful” multiple times.
“When I finished the last script, I was weeping. I just thought it was so beautiful. Yeah, the final script, because he’s telling a great, great story, an original story, a beautiful, beautiful story, and I was just incredibly moved by it. I hope and I trust and believe that audiences will be too, because one of the things that he does really, really well is he moves it from the page to the stage in a way that that is very literal. You know what I mean? You really see it. What you read is what you get from him, I think, and more.”
Even more interesting than Quaritch’s resurrection, is how the dynamic will look like with Edie Falco’s (Sopranos) General Ardmore joining the franchise as the new head of RDA operations on Pandora and how compelling that new villain will be.
Baring any other delays, Avatar 2 will be released on December 22, 2022.
John Wick 4 hasn’t stopped adding new cast members and the latest one is a doozy.
Deadline reports that veteran character actor Clancy Brown (The Punisher, Billions, SpongeBob SquarePants) has nabbed a role in the action sequel, who is likely best known for his roles in films such as Highlander, Shawshank Redemption, and Starship Troopers.
Director Chad Stahelski and Clancy Brown have a Highlander connection, as Stahelski is attached to direct a reboot of the fantasy action film for Lionsgate. Given that project is spending a portion of its production shooting in Paris, it feels like it’s only a matter of time before French action star Christopher Lambert is announced next.
John Wick: Chapter 3 – Parabellum ended with John Wick surviving the fall from the roof of The Continental hotel after Ian McShane’s Winston shot him. Winston’s motivations weren’t entirely clear as he didn’t seem shocked that Mr. Wick got away and could be giving The High Table a false sense of security. Wick eventually lands at the feet of Laurence Fishburne’s Bowery King, who had his organization taken away from him by The High Table and convinces John to go to war with him against the mysterious group of criminal syndicate puppet masters.
The newest additions to the cast consist of Japanese action star Hiroyuki Sanada as Watanabe, Hong Kong action star Donnie Yen playing Wick’s old pal, British martial artist Scott Adkins (The Expendables 2, Doctor Strange), Marko Zaror (Machete Kills, Alita: Battle Angel), Atomic Blonde’s Bill Skarsgard, Stowaway’s Shamier Anderson, and the film’s female lead played by Japanese-British singer Rina Sawayama.
Returning actors are Ian McShane as Winston, Lance Reddick as Charon and Laurence Fishburne back as the Bowery King. Meanwhile, we’re still in the dark about established characters played by Halle Berry, Asia Kate Dillion, John Leguizamo, Peter Stormare, Common, Jason Mantzoukas, Anjelica Huston, Said Taghmaoui, Yayan Ruhian, and Cecept Arif Rahman making an appearance in John Wick 4.
John Wick 4 will hit the big screen on May 27, 2022, and Lionsgate had confirmed plans to make John Wick: Chapter 5, but will no longer shoot back-to-back with the next installment. Franchise creator and architect, Derek Kolstad, stated that he won’t be involved in the next two films and suggested John Wick 5 could be the final pic.
Marvel Studios is pumping out a multitude of Disney+ shows with a heap of new ones that are likely going to be announced before the end of the year. Next on the docket to go into production is Marvel’s big Skrull event, Secret Invasion, and we have a tiny production update to share.
The Ronin is hearing that with production expected to begin this month (under the working title Jambalaya) it won’t be just filming in the London area as a portion may spend time in Scotland.
However, where in Scotland hasn’t been revealed or for how long.
This wouldn’t be the first Marvel Studios has shot projects there. Scotland was previously used for the box office juggernauts Avengers: Infinity War with scenes filmed in Edinburgh and St. Abbs doubling for Norway in Avengers: Endgame.
We first revealed back in June that French-Canadian cinematographer Sylvaine Dufaux (Future Man) has been added to Secret Invasion’s production team. Dufaux also did various camera/director of photography work on films such as Solo: A Star Wars Story, Source Code, The Fountain, Destin Daniel Cretton’s The Glass Castle, X-Men: Days of Future Past, X-Men: Apocalypse, John Wick: Chapter 2, and The United States vs. Billie Holiday.
The crossover event’s impressive cast already consists of Samuel L. Jackson as Nick Fury, Ben Mendelsohn as Skrull leader Talos, Oscar-winner Olivia Colman (The Favourite, Hot Fuzz, The Crown), four-time Emmy nominee Emilia Clarke (Game of Thrones, Solo: A Star Wars Story), Kingsley Ben-Adir (One Night In Miami, Peaky Blinders) said to be playing a villain, and most recent addition to the Marvel series is character actor Christopher McDonald (Hacks, Happy Gilmore).
There is some expectation that the series will have a connection to The Marvels and might end up have cross-pollination between the two projects’ casts, but this has yet to be confirmed.
Secret Invasion alongside Moon Knight and She-Hulk are aiming for a release on Disney+ in 2022.
Marvel Studios has been doing an excellent job of jumping between varied genres from war, espionage, action, supernatural, comedy, horror, fantasy, sci-fi, and space operas.
There seems to be one particular notch in their belt missing, that is a western.
Many have compared superhero films to the western genre being the most dominant/popular genre before making way to other trends. What would happen if Marvel Studios tackled a group of western superheroes? It’s something that doesn’t come that often when folks are talking up future projects or their wish lists.
We’re now this deep into the MCU and Marvel has not started adapting their western characters. Those include a large string of heroes from their old Wild West/Mighty Marvel Western comics and the rarely mentioned superhero team The Rangers.
I think you could do a Rangers series where you essentially get a mash-up of Sergio Leone’s Dollars Trilogy, The Magnificent Seven, Young Guns, Tombstone, True Grit, and many more. Marvel could end up combining their various western heroes and placing them in the 1800s.
Here is a rundown of characters that jump out to me as solid contenders for a hypothetical Rangers roster set in the Marvel Cinematic Universe.
Phantom Rider is the original incarnation of Ghost Rider, who was later renamed when the blazing skulled biker version was thrust into pop culture a decade later with Johnny Blaze and obviously is still the better known of the two.
There have been many people that took on the superhero persona such as Carter Slade, Jamie Jacobs, Lincoln Slade, Reno Jones, Hamilton Slade, J.T. Slade, and Jamie Slade (Hamilton’s daughter).
Reno Jones was a black incarnation of the hero and going that route in the MCU could be a huge nod to Bass Reeves, the real-life black lawman that inspired The Lone Ranger and in The Watchmen series on HBO had a huge impact on Hooded Justice.
Phantom Rider appeared in the original Ghost Rider film played by Sam Elliot.
Like with their major Asian superhero Shang-Chi, Marvel Studios could do some modernization and image repair of their lesser known Native American characters as seen with a new character like Demon Rider.
Native American heroes like Red Wolf and Apache Kid (Alan Krandal) don’t deserve to be completely erased because their comics were made by culturally/racially insensitive people, the former has been given a modern update and I think Red Wolf most certainly could be a mantle passed down generation to generation we’ve seen with Baron Zemo and Union Jack.
You could also add a character like Spirit Rider/Demon Rider, aka, Kushala. She was around in the 1800s and could add a supernatural/horror element.
How you change things is bringing Native American writers and creators into the writers’ room/creative process. A recent example is the Taika Waititi-produced FX series Reservation Dogs, which hopefully will lead to more mainstream projects featuring indigenous actors/creatives.
The Kid Trio are likely Marvel’s best known gunslingers with Two-Gun Kid (Clay Harder/Matt Hawk), Kid Colt (Blaine Colt), and Rawhide Kid (Johnny Bart/Johnny Clay). They also did multiple team-ups in the comics and could easily get their own spinoff series.
Rawhide Kid is an openly gay character and could make for some major inclusion.
There are only of a couple of female characters with Avenger member Firebird (Bonita Juarez), Arizona Annie, Shooting Star (Victoria Star), Swift Cloud (Jackie Cassidy), and Spotted Doe. However, Marvel could easily create new characters like Demon Rider or gender swap the excessive amount of male characters since not all of them would likely get starring roles.
Similar to Marvel’s expansive horror character lineup, the studio has just as many of these outlaw, gunslinger, and bounty hunter characters from the old west to pull from for years to come.
The many other characters in their back pocket include Black Rider/Black Mask (Matthew Masters), Kid Slade (Matt Slade), Outlaw Kid (Lance Temple), Gunhawk (William Downing), Kid Cassidy (Richard Cassidy), Ringo Kid (Rand), Western Kid (Tex Dawson), Boom Boom Brown, Tarantula (Clay Riley), The Raven (Thorn Trask), Wolf Waco, Hurricane (Harold Kane), Richard Trask, Tall Bear, Caleb Hammer, Wyatt Earp, Iron Mask (Don Hertz), and super-powered Rangers team member Texas Twister (Drew Daniels).
Marvel Studios could take advantage of Alberta’s growing film and television production industry (alongside the Canadian dollar and tax incentives) as the Canadian city could double for many western American terrain. Alberta was used for Clint Eastwood’s Unforgiven, The Revenant, The Assassination of Jesse James By The Coward Robert Ford, Little Big Man, Shanghai Noon, Brokeback Mountain, Legends of The Fall, Let Him Go, and Predator 5.
Marvel’s Moon Knight series is still filming and we have some brief updates on the MCU project expected to debut on Disney+ in 2022.
Moon Knight, aka Marc Spector (Oscar Isaac), 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.
There were rumblings that WandaVision writer Peter Cameron was working on an unannounced Marvel Studios series, but Cameron himself refuted this on his Twitter account by clarifying that the project has been already announced by Marvel. We’re now hearing that project is actually Moon Knight and Cameron is expected to be contributing/writing on the superhero series alongside Jeremy Slater (Fantastic Four, The Umbrella Academy) and Beau DeMayo (The Witcher, The Originals, The Witcher: Nightmare of The Wolf).
Emily VanCamp‘s Sharon Carter is said to be appearing, although, it’s unknown if it’ll be a simple brief cameo or something more. Carter was revealed in The Falcon & The Winter Soldier as the show’s villainous puppet master, The Power Broker, as she spent a lot of time growing a criminal empire in Madripoor.
Oscar Isaac’s Marc Spector once worked for the C.I.A. and may have a history with Sharon Carter, who left S.H.I.E.L.D. to work with the C.IA. at the end of Captain America: The Winter Soldier.
French actor/model/dancer Loic Mabanza is working on the series, however, his role is unknown or how big it will be. You can see below that the French actor has some impressive action chops thanks to his dance background.
Actor, Loic Mabanza, is in Budapest and has been training heavily. He’s posted Instagram stories of him training at the gym Oscar trains at in Brooklyn. He follows May Calamawy, Mad Gene Media, Josh Holland, and stuntwomen, Sara Leal and Estelle Darnault. pic.twitter.com/8ttZqlknpP
Mabanza isn’t the only French actor involved with Moon Knight as Gaspard Ulliel’s (Brotherhood of The Wolf, Hannibal: Rising, A Very Long Engagement) British agency revealed he is playing Midnight Man.
We’re also hearing that May Calamawy is playing a character that will be action-focused, whether that is friend or foe of Marc Spector remains to be seen. It’s still unclear who May and Ethan Hawke (reportedly the villain) are officially playing on the show, but we’ll likely get some sort of announcement from Marvel Studios in the near future.
The directing team consists of Mohamed Diab, Justin Benson, and Aaron Moorhead.
THE RONIN 