Author: Christopher Marc

Posted on in Television News

EXCLUSIVE: FX’s Samurai Series ‘Shōgun’ Adds ‘Reprisal’ Director Jonathan van Tulleken

FX is finally moving forward with their long-gestating series remake of Shōgun that originally aired back in 1980 and starred legendary Japanese actor Toshiro Mifune (Yojimbo, Seven Samurai) as Lord Yoshii Toranaga. Their new incarnation of the samurai series will be led by Hiroyuki Sanada and British actor Cosmo Jarvis.

It was written by Justin Marks and Rachel Kondo, which is based on the novel from author James Clavell.

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, a woman with invaluable skills but dishonorable family ties who must prove her value and allegiance.

The Ronin can exclusively reveal that director Jonathan van Tulleken (Trust, Misfits, Top Boy, Reprisal) has signed on to the samurai series and will helm an undisclosed amount of episodes.

Sanada is currently busy with Chad Stahelski’s John Wick: Chapter 4 taking a role alongside franchise star Keanu Reeves and will appear in David Leitch’s Japanese-set action pic Bullet Train starring Brad Pitt. Other Hollywood credits include Westworld, The Last Samurai, Mortal Kombat, Army of The Dead, The Wolverine, Avengers: Endgame, Sunshine, Rush Hour 2, and 47 Ronin.

Production on will take place from late August to June of next year in Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada.

Speaking of Toshiro Mifune, Bryan Cogman (Game of Thrones, Amazon’s Lord of The Rings) is developing a contemporary series remake of Akira Kurosawa’s classic Yojimbo, that originally starred Mifune. Remakes from the west aren’t new for Yojimbo, as Sergio Leone did his version with A Fist Full of Dollars starring Clint Eastwood and there is the lesser known gangster version Last Man Standing from director Walter Hill that starred Bruce Willis.

Shōgun likely won’t be ready to drop until later in 2022.

Posted on in Film News

EXCLUSIVE: ‘Godzilla vs. Kong’ Cinematographer Ben Seresin Joins Jennifer Lopez Assassin Pic ‘The Mother’ Directed By ‘Mulan’s Niki Caro

Back in February, Deadline reported that Jennifer Lopez was attached to star/produce a new action film for Netflix. The Mother has a script penned by Misha Green (Tomb Raider 2, Lovecraft Country) and Andrea Berloff (Straight Outta Compton) it was described as being in the vein of Luc Besson’s The Professional and would see Lopez playing an assassin. 

Lopez will play a deadly female assassin who comes out of hiding to protect the daughter that she gave up years before, while on the run from dangerous men.

The Ronin can exclusively reveal that Kiwi cinematographer Ben Seresin has joined The Mother’s production team and should bring a striking visual flair after being behind Legendary’s Godzilla vs. Kong. Seresin’s other credits include World War Z, Pirates of The Caribbean At World’s End, Pain & Gain, Transformers: Revenge of The Fallen, Unstoppable, Tom Cruise’s The Mummy, and Chaos Walking. 

Fellow Kiwi, director Niki Caro (Mulan), has closed her deal to direct, and we can confirm that Canadian production designer Jean-Francois Campeau (Annie With An E, Bon Cop Bad Cop II) has also joined the production team. 

We’ve learned that filming will take place from early October to late January in Vancouver, British, Columbia, Canada.

Misha Green is currently attached to write and direct MGM’s Tomb Raider sequel starring Oscar-winner Alicia Vikander, she also signed an overall deal with Apple after HBO cancelled Season 2 of Lovecraft Country.

Lopez is coming off the heat from her stripper movie Hustlers and has wrapped on the action-comedy Shogun Wedding. You might remember her kicking serious ass in Steven Soderbergh’s Out of Sight opposite George Clooney, so it’ll be interesting to see her tackling a similar badass role.

HUSTLERS – Working as a stripper to make ends meet, Destiny’s life changes forever when she becomes friends with Ramona — the club’s top money earner. Ramona soon shows Destiny how to finagle her way around the wealthy Wall Street clientele who frequent the club. But when the 2008 economic collapse cuts into their profits, the gals and two other dancers devise a daring scheme to take their lives back.

Posted on in Television News

AMC Settles ‘Walking Dead’ Lawsuit From Frank Darabont & CAA For $200M; More Lawsuits Pending

Frank Darabont (The Mist, Shawshank Redemption) has been battling AMC in court for nearly a decade trying to get money owed from AMC Network as he was due to earn profits from the show The Walking Dead series, a billion-dollar franchise. Darabont was the writer/director that helped develop and launch the zombie drama series back in 2010 and essentially made AMC their name alongside Vince Gilligan’s superb Breaking Bad.

Yesterday, it was announced (via Variety) that AMC had settled with Darabont and CAA for $200 million.

The deal calls for AMC Networks to pay Darabont and CAA a total of $200 million. They will continue to receive a share of future profits from streaming deals tied to “The Walking Dead” and spinoff “Fear the Walking Dead.” But for all other “Walking Dead”-related content, the settlement buys out the plaintiffs’ rights.

Interestingly enough, Frank Darabont isn’t the only one suing to get their Walking Dead money from AMC as Gale Anne Herd, Glen Mazzara, Robert Kirkman, David Alpert, and Charles Eglee are also fighting them in court and launched their own suits back in 2017.

After Darabont and CAA filed the first salvo, “Walking Dead” executive producers Gale Anne Hurd, comic book creator Robert Kirkman, showrunner Glen Mazzara and exec producers David Alpert and Charles Eglee filed a similar suit in 2017.  That suit is still pending in Los Angeles Superior Court, with a trial expected to begin in November.

Everyone involved is rightfully owed money and AMC for whatever decided to stiff the majority of people involved with the series. Hopefully, they don’t have to wait a decade to see results. It’s amazing how much money AMC must have wasted on legal fees to only end up paying $200 million in the end, it’s almost like they should have honored the contracts to begin with. I guess greed is a huge motivator.

SOURCE: VARIETY

Posted on in Television News

‘Loki’ Director Kate Herron Announces She Won’t Be Involved With Season 2

This week, Marvel Studios finally confirmed their intentions to move forward with Season of Loki after the season finale ended on a Multiverse-shattering cliffhanger. However, not everyone will be returning for that second season as director Kate Herron has informed Deadline that she will not be returning and has seemingly exited the show.

“I’m not returning. I always planned to be just on for this and to be honest, season 2 wasn’t in the — that’s something that just came out and I’m so excited. I’m really happy to watch it as a fan next season, but I just think I’m so proud of what we did here and I’ve given it my all. I’m working on some other stuff yet to be announced,” Herron told Deadline in a recent interview about the end of the Loki series.

The director also said this about current plans to work with Marvel in the immediate future, “No, I’m just focused on my own stuff at the moment. I love Marvel and I’d love to work with them again, but my outing with Loki is what I’ve done with them.”

Kate Herron was a massive reason why Loki was such a fun experience and we’ll gladly follow her with whatever her future projects will be.

On a brighter side, head writer Michael Waldron is reportedly going to be still involved with Season 2 in some capacity and it’s expected the we’ll see a bulk of the cast return as well.

The Ronin caught word a while back that show would be filming something in the United Kingdom, but that didn’t end up happening and suggests that Season 2 might be moving location from Altanta to the London area. This still needs to be confirmed but it looks the United Kingdom might become a hub location for some of the Marvel/Disney+ shows as Secret Invasion is getting ready to shoot there in the very near future.

SOURCE: DEADLINE

Posted on in Television News

‘John Wick’ Prequel Series ‘The Continental’ Lands ‘Dead Presidents’ Co-Director Albert Hughes

As John Wick 4 has already begun filming in Germany, Lionsgate is gearing up to finally shoot their spinoff series The Continental. The show on Starz will focus on a young Winston during the 1970s in New York City and will likely explore the character’s rise to power as the overseer of the hotel. There had been an original intention to have Keanu Reeves cameo, but given the period setting it wouldn’t make much sense.

We now have the name of the show’s main directors as The Hollywood Reporter reveals that Albert Hughes, one half of the sibling directing duo The Hughes Brothers, has been selected to direct two out of the three episodes.

Hughes’ credits include Dead Presidents, Book of Eli, the Alan Moore adaptation From Hell, and Menace II Society. The brothers were once enlisted by Warner Bros. to helm their live-action Akira adaptation, but like many others, they eventually exited to pursue other things.

The next big step will be casting the multiple roles for The Continental.

The cast of John Wick: Chapter 4 so far includes Keanu Reeves, Ian McShane,  Lance Reddick, Laurence Fishburne, Horiyuki Sanada, Donnie Yen, Scott Adkins, Marko Zaror, Bill Skarsgard, Shamier Anderson, and Rina Sawayama. Although, it’s unclear if Halle Berry, Asia Kate Dillion, John Leguizamo, Peter Stormare, Common, Jason Mantzoukas, Anjelica Huston, Said Taghmaoui, Yayan Ruhian, and Cecept Arif Rahamn will be reprising their roles from previous installments.  It’s releases on May 27, 2022 and John Wick: Chapter 5 is said to be the final installment of the main franchise.

However, the show isn’t the only spinoff in the works. Lionsgate hired Underworld director Len Wiseman to tackle a female-led action film set within the world of John Wick titled Ballerina. An actress has yet to be officially announced and it will interesting to see where the project’s setting lands in the franchise’s timeline, as it allow Keanu Reeves to appear.

SOURCE: THE HOLLYWOOD REPORTER

Posted on in Film News

Antonio Banderas Reportedly Joins The Impressive Cast Of ‘Indiana Jones 5’

Another addition to the cast of James Mangold’s Indiana Jones 5 has been announced, as Deadline reports that Spanish actor Antonio Banderas (Pain & Glory, Philadelphia) has landed an undisclosed part in the sequel. Banderas is likely best known for his action films such as The Mask of Zorro, The Legend of Zorro, Assassins, The 13th Warrior, Desperado, Once Upon A Time In Mexico, Spy Kids, and supporting role in The Expendables 3.

Jez Butterworth, John-Henry Butterworth and Mangold co-wrote the script.

The rest of the cast consists of British actress Phoebe Waller-Bridge (Solo: A Star Wars Story, Fleabag), Danish actor Mads Mikkelsen (Fantastic Beasts 3, Casino Royale, Rogue One: A Star Wars Story, Another Round), German actor Thomas Kretschmann (King Kong, Valkyrie, Blade II).  Boyd Holbrook (The Predator, Narcos, Logan), Shaunette Renée Wilson (The Resident), and Toby Jones (Jurassic World: Fallen Kingdom, Captain America: The First Avenger).

Production is back in full swing as set photos have confirmed previous plot rumors about the Space Race/Operation Paperclip being a key element of the sequel as revealed by The Illuminerdi, supported before as a sequence set during WWII with a Nazi train were the first set pics that hit online.

Banderas is also involved with another treasure hunter project, as he’ll appear alongside Tom Holland and Mark Wahlberg in Sony’s Uncharted film based on the popular Naughty Dog video game franchise. We’re still waiting for the studio to drop a trailer for that action pic.

This is expected to be the final outing for Ford as Indiana Jones, as previously stated by Lucasfilm’s Kathleen Kennedy and they’ve also dismissed the idea the film will be a reboot as they have reaffirmed it’s a continuation. Despite Harrison Ford’s shoulder injury it looks like Disney will still release Indiana Jones 5 on July 29, 2022, that will go head-to-head with Dwayne Johnson’s DC Comics film Black Adam.

SOURCE: DEADLINE

Posted on in Film News

Kevin Feige Says Melina & Red Guardian’s Return “A Safe Bet” As ‘Black Widow’ Crosses $200M At Global Box Office

Black Widow has officially crossed $200 million internationally at the box office, after an impressive $80.3 million domestic opening last weekend. Sadly, the box office totals for Black Widow won’t include the $60 million Disney claims they earned or future earnings from Premier Access, which will likely deflate the total run once the dust settles. A risk Disney knew they would be facing with a hybrid release strategy.

However, the film is on the path to turn a decent profit and we’ll likely get plenty of sequels/spinoffs.

There does seem to be some hope that not only David Harbour’s Alexei Shostakov aka Red Guardian might be making a comeback soon, but while speaking with the D23 Inside podcast (via The Direct), Marvel’s Kevin Feige suggested that Rachel Weisz’s Melina Vostokoff aka Iron Maiden could also be poised for a return as well.

“It is always the intention that when characters come in, and great great actors come in to the universe, if we have a great time with them, the audience did, that you always want to see them again. I think it’s a safe bet that we definitely want that to happen,” Feige told D23 Inside concerning the possibility of Melina and Alexei making their return to the MCU in the future.

We never actually saw Melina’s Iron Maiden incarnation, so that could be something fun to explore in the future.

Director Cate Shortland has teased a desire to return for Black Widow 2, there seems to be some inference that Yelena Belova (Florence Pugh) will appear in both the Hawkeye series and potentially a Thunderbolts project, and finally David Harbour has teased early talks with Marvel about Red Guardian’s return being open to either a film or Disney+ series (Winter Guard project feels like the smart move).

We’re also assuming that Taskmaster will be back at some point too.

BLACK WIDOW – In Black Widow, Natasha Romanoff confronts the darker parts of her ledger when a dangerous conspiracy with ties to her past arises. Pursued by a force that will stop at nothing to bring her down, Natasha must deal with her history as a spy and the broken relationships left in her wake long before she became an Avenger. Directed by Cate Shortland and produced by Kevin Feige, the movie stars Scarlett Johansson reprising her role as Natasha Romanoff. Florence Pugh stars as Yelena Belova, David Harbour as Alexei Shostakov aka Red Guardian, and Rachel Weisz as Melina Vostokoff.

SOURCE: D23 INSIDE PODCAST

Posted on in Film News

‘John Wick 4’: Ian McShane Officially Returns

Winston is officially back!

We all assumed that Ian McShane would be back for John Wick: Chapter 4, given the cliffhanger of the third movie. But, it’s now official as Deadline has confirmed with Liongate that McShane has closed his deal.

Production is taking place in Berlin with plans to shoot in Paris and Japan.

Shay Hatten and Michael Finch wrote the fourth installment with Chad Stahelski back to direct.

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 consists of Japanese action star Horiyuki 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. 

Other returning actors are 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 Rahamn 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.

SOURCE: DEADLINE

Posted on in Film News

Warner Bros. Rejected ‘L.A. Confidential’ Sequel Set In 1970s Starring Chadwick Boseman Alongside Original Cast

1997’s neo-noir film L.A. Confidential is easily a huge turning point in Hollywood, it earned Kim Basinger an Oscar while essentially making Australian actors Russell Crowe and Guy Pearce stars. The film’s success is undeniable, however, when a sequel was pitched a few years back, Warner Bros. seemingly didn’t want anything to do with it.

The original’s Oscar-winning screenwriter Brian Helgeland spoke with The Ringer (via The Playlist), revealing he had developed a direct sequel set in the mid-70s with author James Ellroy (his novel was adapted for the first movie). He had even secured original cast members Crowe and Pearce to reprise their roles. The kicker is that he wanted the late Chadwick Boseman to play a youg cop, the pitch was ultimately rejected by the studio.

A few years ago, the Oscar-winning filmmaker Brian Helgeland went to Warner Bros. with what seemed like a dynamite movie pitch: a sequel to L.A. Confidential, the 1997 Hollywood cop drama he cowrote with director Curtis Hanson. Helgeland had already secured a top-tier cast, including returning Confidential costars Russell Crowe and Guy Pearce, alongside Chadwick Boseman, who’d be playing a young police officer. He’d developed a new story with L.A. Confidential novelist James Ellroy, one that would be set in the mid-’70s.

“We worked the whole thing out. It was great. And Warners passed,” Helgeland told The Ringer.

Yet another example of studio executives having terrible taste when selecting or rejecting film projects.

L.A. CONFIDENTIAL – Three policemen, each with his own motives and obsessions, tackle the corruption surrounding an unsolved murder at a downtown Los Angeles coffee shop in the early 1950s. Detective Lieutenant Exley (Guy Pearce), the son of a murdered detective, is out to avenge his father’s killing. The ex-partner of Officer White (Russell Crowe), implicated in a scandal rooted out by Exley, was one of the victims. Sergeant Vincennes (Kevin Spacey) feeds classified information to a tabloid magnate (Danny DeVito).

SOURCE: THE RINGER

Posted on in Television News

Robert Downey Jr. Joins HBO’s Vietnam War Spy Series ‘The Sympathizer’ From ‘Oldboy’ Director Park Chan Wook

HBO has secured the rights to an upcoming spy series from Oldboy director Park Chan Wook and A24, an adaptation of Thanh Nguyen’s novel The Sympathizer. It focuses on the tail-end of the Vietnam War with a French-Vietnamese communist spy and should be a thriller show. The project has landed a heavy-hitting western actor as the rest of the cast will be led by a majority of Viennese actors.

Thanh Nguyen’s novel is an espionage thriller and cross-culture satire about the struggles of a half-French, half-Vietnamese communist spy during the final days of the Vietnam War and his resulting exile in the United States. A worldwide search is currently underway for the lead role and the rest of the predominantly Vietnamese ensemble.

Deadline reveals that Robert Downey Jr. had nabbed a supporting role as various American antagonists in the show, a likely nod to the idea that American interventionism is executed and exploited by faceless cogs.

According to insiders, Downey Jr., is set to play multiple supporting roles as the main antagonists, all of whom represent a different arm of the American establishment — including an up-and-coming Orange County Congressman, a CIA agent and a Hollywood film director, among others.

Park Chan Wook has dabbled with the genre before with John Le Carre series adaptation The Little Drummer Girl that starred Michael Shannon, Florence Pugh, and Alexander Skarsgard. He’ll direct episodes alongside being the show’s co-showrunner with Don McKellar.

SOURCE: DEADLINE