Author: Christopher Marc

Posted on in Film News

Dwayne Johnson Wraps Filming On DC Comics Movie ‘Black Adam’

Black Adam has been shooting in Atlanta and star Dwayne Johnson has announced on Instagram that filming has wrapped. The character is best known as the antagonists of Captain Marvel, now know as Shazam!, and Johnson has spent over a decade trying to get the DC Comics film going finally getting cameras rolling this year after various hiccups.

Interestingly enough, while there have been downplays of a crossover with Zachary Levi’s Shazam! until a Black Adam 2 or Shazam! 3. This despite Black Adam and Shazam! Fury of The Gods shooting at the same time in Atlanta recently.

The supporting cast includes Aldis Hodge as Carter Hall aka Hawkman, Noah Centineo as Al Rothstein aka Atom Smasher, Quintessa Swindell as Maxine Hunkell aka Cyclone, Pierce Brosnan as Doctor Fate, Sarah Shahi as Adrianna Tomaz aka Isis, and Marwan Kenzari expected to play the film’s villain.

“Honored and proud to say that’s an official wrap on BLACK ADAM. I knew many years ago, the opportunity for me to make BLACK ADAM would be a ONCE IN A CAREER EVENT. It has been my true honor to go shoulder to shoulder with over 1,000 brilliant and hungry crew of filmmakers and storytellers to bring the antihero known as, BLACK ADAM to life. This has been one for the ages and easily the hardest labor and toughest grind mentally and physically of my entire career. Worth. Every. Second.”

SOURCE: DWAYNE JOHNSON

Posted on in Film News

MGM’s ‘Thomas Crown Affair’ Remake Starring Michael B. Jordan Lands Screenwriter; Produced By The Russo Brothers

MGM Studios is looking to be acquired by Amazon for a massive $8.45 billion and is chugging along with various high-profile projects in development, speaking of which, there is an update on their third Thomas Crown Affair incarnation that will be led by Michael B. Jordan (Black Panther, Without Remorse, Creed) as the titular gentleman thief.

The project, produced by The Russo Brothers via AGBO, has finally landed a screenwriter. Deadline says that Wes Tooke has been enlisted to help with the remake, his credits include Roland Emmerich’s WWII actioner Midway and the Universal Monsters comedy from Lord/Miller.

A director has yet to announced, but given how quickly the Russo Brothers jumped into projects like Cherry and the big Netflix spy action flick The Gray Man, it’s possible the sibling duo could consider directing the remake themselves.

Thomas Crown was previously played by Steve McQueen and Pierce Brosnan in their respective versions.

Michael B. Jordan is a busy guy as he’ll make his feature directorial debut with Creed III that might co-star Jonathan Majors (Lovecraft Country, Ant-Man & The Wasp: Quantumania, Da 5 Bloods, Devotion) along with his potential follow-up to Without Remorse as Rainbow Six could move forward at Paramount/Amazon. Jordan has also mentioned a desire to return to the Killmonger role if/when Marvel wants him, despite the character’s death in Black Panther.

THOMAS CROWN (1999) – Bored billionaire Thomas Crown (Pierce Brosnan) decides to entertain himself by stealing a Monet from a reputed museum. When Catherine Banning (Rene Russo), an investigator for the museum’s insurance company, takes an interest in Crown, a complicated back-and-forth game with romantic undertones begins between them. In an attempt to find out where Banning’s loyalties lie, Crown returns the painting and essentially turns himself in, hoping that Banning’s feelings for him will lead to an escape.

SOURCE: DEADLINE

Posted on in Film News

‘Doctor Strange 2’ Stunt Coordinator Team Includes ‘Overlord’s Jo McLaren & ‘Mission: Impossible – Fallout’s Liang Yang

Director Sam Raimi is returning to the world of Marvel Comics films with Doctor Strange In The Multiverse of Madness, which has wrapped filming at Longcross Studios in Surrey, England. Raimi’s Spider-Man movies alongside Blade and X-Men helped launch the popularity of the characters leading to the formation of the Marvel Cinematic Universe at Marvel Studios. 

One of the interesting elements of the production are the folks assembled to handle the action in the Doctor Strange sequel. The team of stunt coordinators consists of seasoned vets such as Jo McLaren and Brycen Counts, with Liang Yang taking the role of fight coordinator. Their combined knowledge and vast credits in the stunt community should give the sequel a bit of an elevated edge when it comes to action sequences. 

McLaren did stunt double work for Angelina Jolie in the original Tomb Raider movies before rising up the ranks working as a stunt coordinator on things like the J.J. Abrams-produced WWII horror film Overlord, Annihilation, Enola Holmes, The Favourite, Doctor Who, and the Alex Garland tech-thriller series Devs. 

In December 2019, McLaren confirmed her involvement with the sequel during an interview with FanSided. 

Brycen Counts has the most experience with Marvel Studios as he was the assistant stunt coordinator on Spider-Man: Homecoming, Spider-Man: Far From Home, Ant-Man & The Wasp, and did additional work on Black Panther. He was recently the stunt coordinator on Charlize Theron’s hit comic book film The Old Guard at Netflix. 

Yang (Morbius, Wonder Woman 1984) is likely more recognizable out of the trio thanks to his standout on-camera scene in Christopher McQuarrie’s Mission: Impossible – Fallout where he beats the stuffing out of both Tom Cruise and Henry Cavill during the big Paris bathroom fight scene. He also was Emily Blunt’s stunt double on Edge of Tomorrow alongside working on big action sequences for Rogue One: A Star Wars Story and Star Wars: The Last Jedi. 

Marvel has been hiring some impressive stunt people lately such as Olivier Schneider (No Time To Die, Taken, Spectre, Fast & Furious 6) for Oscar Isaac’s Moon Knight series, which is filming in Budapest.

Doctor Strange In The Multiverse of Madness will hit screens on March 25, 2022, and we’ll likely have the first trailer by the fall. 

Posted on in Television News

Marvel Studios Officially Confirms ‘Loki’ Season 2; Will Likely Shoot In London

Long before we even got our hands on the first footage for the Loki series, the project’s LLC (Limbo Productions I LLC) seemingly gave away the studio’s intention to pursue a second season this was supported by trade reports that head writer/series creator Michael Waldron would be involved in Season 2 alongside a Star Wars film that Kevin Feige would be producing for Lucasfilm.

Back in April, The Ronin caught word of something Loki related shooting in London. That seemingly didn’t happen and won’t be happening for some time, potentially next year. It was a possibility that Season 2 would be moving from Atlanta to London. A reason this makes sense is that a bulk of the cast including folks such as lead Tom Hiddleston and Loki’s director Kate Herron are British. After an extended production in Atlanta during the height of the pandemic, you could understand if there were requests to shift filming across the pond for Season 2.

We’re already going to see stuff like the Skrull event Disney+ series Secret Invasion primarily film in London,so, moving Loki there wouldn’t be that shocking.

While I won’t spoil any of the plot details of the Season 1 finale, the show ended without a stinger just confirmation from Marvel that Season 2 was officially a go. You can see the image above clearly stating this. The episode does leave on a cliffhanger and it’ll be interesting to see how many more seasons we’ll get beyond Season 2.

There is also an expectation that Ms. Marvel is getting a second season with production heading to the United Kingdom too.

Posted on in Film News

‘WandaVision’s Matt Shakman Becomes Third Director Hired For ‘Star Trek 4’; Paramount Aims For Spring 2022 Production Start

Paramount Pictures released Star Trek Beyond in 2016 and has been mulling over the next steps for Star Trek 4 for ages now. They’ve been churning-out multiple Star Trek series but for some reason just couldn’t settle with the right incarnation for the fourth installment, directors S.J. Clarkson (Jessica Jones) and Noah Hawley (Fargo, Legion) previously being attached to helm the sequel.

Deadline is now reporting a third candidate has stepped in, as Paramount has hired WandaVision director Matt Shakman to hopefully bring Star Trek 4 past the finish line after various hiccups uring the project’s development. The outlet adds that a new script has been penned by Lindsey Beer and Geneva Robertson-Dworet with an aim to get cameras rolling by next spring.

This announcement would seemly nudge to us that Hawley has joined Clarkson by exiting.

J.J. Abrams and Bad Robot are returning to produce. It’s also assumed that we’ll see the return of Chris Pine, Zachary Quinto, Zoe Saldana, Karl Urban, Simon Pegg, and new addition Sofia Boutella as well.

An earlier incarnation was going to involve time-travel and allow Pine’s Captain Kirk interact with his father George Kirk, who was played by a young Chris Hemsworth before he was cast by Marvel for Thor. Apparently, contract negotiations fell apart leading to the project dissolving.

Quentin Tarantino and Mark L. Smith (The Revenant) had been developing their own film based on the gangster episode of the original series. However, that project doesn’t seem like it will be happening.

Star Trek 4 likely won’t be ready for release until spring or summer of 2023.

STAR TREK BEYOND – A surprise attack in outer space forces the Enterprise to crash-land on a mysterious world. The assault came from Krall (Idris Elba), a lizard-like dictator who derives his energy by sucking the life out of his victims. Krall needs an ancient and valuable artifact that’s aboard the badly damaged starship. Left stranded in a rugged wilderness, Kirk (Chris Pine), Spock (Zachary Quinto) and the rest of the crew must now battle a deadly alien race while trying to find a way off their hostile planet.

SOURCE: DEADLINE

Posted on in Television News

EXCLUSIVE: ‘Rogue’ Director M.J. Bassett Joins Amazon’s ‘Jack Reacher’ Series Reboot

The Ronin can confirm that British director M.J. Bassett is part of the directing team of Amazon’s series reboot of Jack Reacher, previously a film franchise led by Tom Cruise and will have Alan Ritchson (slightly more aligned with Reacher’s stature/size) taking over the role in the show.

Bassett had been once involved with Amblin’s new Halo series but dropped out and recently she was behind the recent Megan Fox actioner Rogue. Her others credits include Altered Carbon, Iron Fist, Nightflyers, Strike Back, Endangered Species, Ash vs Evil Dead, and Silent Hill: Revelation.

Bassett joins The Wachowskis as part of the growing club of trans women directors tackling action projects, the more the merrier.

We previously first reported Amazon hired Bodyguard director Thomas Vincent for Jack Reacher.

The first season is reportedly based on Lee Child’s novel Killing Floor.

Jack Reacher comes to the little town of Margrave looking for information about the mysterious death of a guitar player named Blind Blake. Instead, he finds one of the largest counterfeiting operations in history.

Skydance and Amazon are already partners on their popular Jack Ryan series based on the Tom Clancy novels led by John Krasinski, which is heading into it’s third season.

Posted on in Television News

Guillermo del Toro’s Horror Anthology Series ’12 After Midnight’ Enlists ‘Nightmare Alley’ & ‘The Strain’ Production Designer; Jennifer Kent Also Directing

A new horror anthology from writer/producer Guillermo del Toro is coming to Netflix with the show titled Guillermo del Toro Presents 12 After Midnight (formerly 10 After Midnight), and it allows the filmmaker to honor the genre he loves. Guillermo del Toro is directing some episodes of the anthology alongside Australian director Jennifer Kent (The Nightingale, The Babadook). More directors will be announced later on. 

In this new genre-defining anthology series, acclaimed Academy Award-winning filmmaker Guillermo del Toro will present a collection of personally curated stories, that are both equally sophisticated and horrific. Creator and executive producer del Toro will bring his own visionary style as both a writer and director to certain episodes. In addition, he will handpick a team of the genre’s best writers and exciting new filmmakers to bring his selection of stories to life.

The Ronin can confirm that the horror series has added seasoned production designer Tamara Deverell (Star Trek: Discovery), who had recently worked with del Toro on his latest feature film Nightmare Alley and his vampire series The Strain. Deverell will work alongside art director Brandt Gordon (Nightmare Alley, Crimson Peak, Total Recall, Suicide Squad, Shazam!)

We’ve also learned that the production team will have visual effects supervisor Dennis Berardi, who has a fantastic body of work with projects such as Shazam!, Crimson Peak, Monster Hunter, Antlers, The Shape of Water, The Strain, Nightmare Alley, Vikings, and The Strain. 

Filming is already underway in Toronto, Ontario, Canada, and will wrap sometime in February. 

A longtime producing partner of del Toro, J. Miles Dale, is behind the series. His credits consist of Nightmare Alley, Antlers, Scary Stories To Tell In The Dark, The Shape of Water, The Strain, Mama, Shadowhunters, The Thing (2011), and Scott Pilgrim vs. The World. 

12 After Midnight will drop on Netflix sometime in 2022. 

Posted on in Film News

Deadpool & Korg React To The ‘Free Guy’ Trailer; Could We Get An MCU Team-Up In ‘Deadpool 3’?

Using that Disney hype machine to help promote their upcoming film Free Guy, co-stars Ryan Reynolds and Taika Waititi have teamed-up to reprise their Marvel Comics characters to do a parody reaction video highlighting the trailer for Free Guy coming next month to theaters.

Interestingly enough, this is sort of the first film Wade Wilson has ever interacted with a character directly from the Marvel Cinematic Universe (granted this likely isn’t official canon or is it?) since being acquired by Disney. We’re also seeing him in a very PG-13 format which might be new for some given his raunchy foul-mouthed antics.

It’ll be neat to see if Deadpool and Korg do eventually feature together in a future Marvel project as Deadpool 3 feels like a good spot for that interaction. Reynolds had previously teased an idea he had for Hugh Jackman’s Wolverine to appear in a road trip film and now I can’t only think about how cool it would be if Taika’s Korg took that spot instead.

As it sits, Deadpool 3 will officially kept it’s R-rating and has a script being penned by The Molyneux Sisters (Bob’s Burgers), however, a director hasn’t been named. I think it would be nifty if Taika Waititi, a noted workaholic, tried to sneak in and direct Deadpool 3 before another Thor installment or possibly even his Star Wars movie. Taika works fast and could likely churn-out a sequel pretty quickly as fans are patiently waiting for the mutants to join the Marvel Cinematic Universe.

Posted on in Film News

‘Wheel Of Time’ Film Trilogy In The Works With Zack Stentz Penning First Installment ‘Age Of Legends’

Not too long ago, Amazon Studios and Radar Pictures revealed that they had wrapped filming on Season 1 of their live-action fantasy series based on The Wheel of Time novels and were moving forward with Season 2 ahead of the show’s premiere on Prime Video, an impressive announcement given how costly a show like that would be.

Expansion of the franchise is continuing even further as it was announced today via The Hollywood Reporter that Radar Pictures is also moving forward with a planned film trilogy set in the fantasy world of author Robert Jordan. Screenwriter Zack Stentz (X-Men: First Class, Thor) will tackle the first installment, Age of Legends, that takes place thousand years before the events of the Amazon series.

Zack Stentz, co-writer of Thor and X-Men: First Class, has begun work on a script for Age of Legends, to be based on Jordan’s bestselling series of books, The Wheel of Time, which is already the subject of a long-gestating TV show at Amazon Studios. The fantasy and sci-fi film will be produced by Rick Selvage and Larry Mondragon of iwot productions and Ted Field and Justin Smith of Radar Pictures.

Details on the other two films weren’t mentioned.

Here is the official rundown of the upcoming series debuting on Prime Video:

The Wheel of Time is one of the most popular and enduring fantasy series of all-time, with over 90 million books sold. Set in a sprawling, epic world where magic exists and only certain women are allowed to access it, the story follows Moiraine (Rosamund Pike), a member of the incredibly powerful all-female organization called the Aes Sedai, as she arrives in the small town of Two Rivers. There, she embarks on a dangerous, world-spanning journey with five young men and women, one of whom is prophesied to be the Dragon Reborn, who will either save or destroy humanity.   
 
The Wheel of Time was adapted for television by executive producer/showrunner Rafe Judkins (Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D., Hemlock Grove). Larry Mondragon and Rick Selvage of Red Eagle Entertainment (Winter Dragon), Ted Field and Mike Weber of Radar Pictures (Jumanji: Welcome to the Jungle, Winter Dragon), Darren Lemke (Shazam!, Goosebumps, Winter Dragon), Marigo Kehoe and Uta Briesewitz will also serve as executive producers, with Briesewitz set to direct the first two episodes. Rosamund Pike will serve as Producer and Harriet McDougal and Brandon Sanderson as consulting producers. The Wheel of Time is co-produced by Amazon Studios and Sony Pictures Television.

SOURCE: THE HOLLYWOOD REPORTER

Posted on in Film News, Trailers

TRAILER: Disney Releases First Footage For Transformation Flick ‘Turning Red’ Teases Canadian Setting; Coming March 2022

Today, Pixar and Disney have released the first teaser trailer for their very next big feature film release. Apparently, won’t be dumped on Disney+ like Soul or Luca. Directed by Chinese-Canadian director Domee Shi, who won an Oscar for the Pixar short Bao, it focuses on a young teenage girl Mei Lee (voiced by Rosalie Chiang), who turns into a giant red panda when too excited.

It’s interesting that there are some clues to this potentially being a Pixar film that is set in Canada, mainly, because Mei is sporting a Canadian flag shirt in one scene and has a Canadian pin on her backpack. Worth pointing out the panda and logo are also using the Canadian flag colors. You can also see the CN Tower at one point which means this takes place in Toronto, Ontario, Canada. Yippie!

Canadian actress Sandra Oh (Killing Eve) voices Mei’s mother as well.

TURNING RED – Growing up is a beast. Check out the new trailer for the upcoming all-new original feature film “Turning Red” from Pixar Animation Studios’ director Domee Shi, who won an Oscar® for her 2018 short film, “Bao.” Young actress Rosalie Chiang lends her voice to Mei Lee, a 13-year-old who suddenly “poofs” into a giant red panda when she gets too excited (which is practically ALWAYS). Sandra Oh voices Mei Lee’s protective, if not slightly overbearing mother, Ming, who is never far from her daughter—an unfortunate reality for the teenager. Directed by Shi and produced by Lindsey Collins, Disney and Pixar’s “Turning Red” releases March 11, 2022.

SOURCE: DISNEY