Westworld’s Lisa Joy is making her feature film directorial debut with the cyberpunk thriller Reminiscence that will hit theaters and HBO Max on August 20. While speaking with Empire Magazine, the filmmaker briefly teased some ideas she is developing for a follow-up movie, but isn’t calling it a sequel but a “cousin.”
“It’s a distant cousin, not a sequel. It’s an evolution in theme and a conception of the world and man’s place within it. Plus, there’s a lot of action. I wanted to create a new type of action,” teases Joy. “It’s taking different bits from different cultures and kind of fusing a new way of approaching action that I think will be exciting,” Lisa Joy teased to Empire about her plans for an untitled second film.
At one time, there was going to be a Black Cat (a Spider-Man character) movie at Sony Pictures written by Lisa Joy before the project was altered to be team-up film Silver & Black to be directed by Gina Prince-Bythewood (The Old Guard). The Marvel project ultimately was killed and the fate of the character in future films is up in the air.
Joy is behind the Amazon Prime Video series adaptation of the William Gibson cyberpunk novel The Peripheral and is also developing a series based on the beloved video game franchise Fallout.
REMINISCENCE – Nick Bannister (Jackman), a private investigator of the mind, navigates the darkly alluring world of the past by helping his clients access lost memories. Living on the fringes of the sunken Miami coast, his life is forever changed when he takes on a new client, Mae (Ferguson). A simple matter of lost and found becomes a dangerous obsession. As Bannister fights to find the truth about Mae’s disappearance, he uncovers a violent conspiracy, and must ultimately answer the question: how far would you go to hold on to the ones you love?
Benedict Cumberbatch has been busy shooting scenes for Marvel’s Spider-Man: No Way Way alongside his Doctor Strange sequel, Doctor Strange In The Multiverse of Madness, that will be directed by Sam Raimi (Evil Dead, Army of The Dead, Darkman, Spider-Man 1-3) and co-starring Elizabeth Olsen as the actress reprises the Scarlet Witch role.
He’ll continue to be busy next year as French studio StudioCanal has announced via The Playlist that production on the WWII film, War Magician, will begin in 2022. Colin Trevorrow (Jurassic World, Jurassic World: Dominion) will be directing from a script penned by E. Nicholas Mariani that is based on the novel by David Fisher. The movie focuses on the real-life magician and illusionist Jasper Maskelyne (playe by Cumberbatch) was enlisted by the British Army to help fight the Nazis during WWII.
'WAR MAGICIAN' is set to shoot for STUDIOCANAL in 2022. Colin Trevorrow is attached to direct Benedict Cumberbatch in the feature based on the book by David Fisher. https://t.co/TSYffgzmPSpic.twitter.com/ei2vwuGTYR
Jasper Maskelyne was a world famous magician and illusionist in the 1930s. When war broke out, he volunteered his services to the British Army and was sent to Egypt where the desert war had just begun. He used his skills to save the vital port of Alexandria from German bombers and to ‘hide’ the Suez Canal from them. He invented all sorts of camouflage methods to make trucks look like tanks and vice versa. On Malta he developed ‘the world’s first portable holes’: fake bomb craters used to fool the Germans into thinking they had hit their targets. His war culminated in the brilliant deception plan that won the Battle of El Alamein: the creation of an entire dummy army in the middle of the desert.
Colin Trevorrow had famously been developing the ninth Star Wars film under the tile Star Wars: Duel of The Fates, only to exit and most of his work scrapped as J.J. Abrams and Chris Terrio put together Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker.
A release date for War Magician wasn’t mentioned but I’m sure they’re hoping for an awards friendly fall/winter spot.
Netflix is moving forward with a second series set within the fantasy world of The Witcher, as they’re assembling a cast for their prequel The Witcher: Blood Origin. Their flagship series starring Henry Cavill (Man of Steel, Mission: Impossible – Fallout) has wrapped on Season 2 in the United Kingdom.
Set 1,200 years before the world of The Witcher, Blood Origin will tell the story of the creation of the first prototype Witcher, and the events that lead to the pivotal ‘conjunction of the spheres’, when the worlds of monsters, men, and elves merged to become one.
The streaming giant has officially announced today that action star Michelle Yeoh has nabbed a role in Blood Origin, revealing she’ll play an elf. Yeoh’s recent credits include Star Trek Discovery, Marco Polo, Last Christmas, Crazy Rich Asians, Dr. Karina Mogue in James Cameron’s Avatar sequels, Karen Gillan’s action flick Gunpodwer Milkshake, and Marvel’s upcoming Asian-led superhero blockbuster Shang-Chi & The Legend of The Ten Rings (will be released on September 3).
The Witcher: Blood Origin has cast Michelle Yeoh as Scían. The very last of her nomadic tribe of sword-elves, she is an artist with the blade, on a deadly quest that will change the fate of the Continent.
Irish actor Laurence O’Fuarain (Game of Thrones, Vikings) had recently joined the series in the role of Fjall. Jodie Turner-Smith (Without Remorse) was going to star as well before her reported exit.
The original series is based on the novels by Polish fantasy author Andrzej Sapkowski that was eventually turned into the internationally popular video game franchise from CD Projekt Red. Netflix is also developing an 10-episode anime series based on their new game release Cyberpunk 2077 that will be titled Cyberpunk: Edgerunners and seems like only a matter of a time before a live-action project is announced.
The Ronin can confirm and exclusively reveal a brand new Marvel Studios LLC company as they’ve set the name as Maglev Train Productions. It’s been announced a while back that Ryan Coogler would be behind a Wakanda series for Disney+ from Marvel Studios’ team. Maglev Train Productions, is likely a direct nod to the train system in Wakanda and was the location of the big third act fight between Killmonger and T’Challa.
Just so people don’t get confused thinking this would be for Black Panther 3, the first two movies used the LLCs Kimoyo Productions (Black Panther) and Kimoyo Productions II (Black Panther: Wakanda Forever). A reference to the tech-based bracelet multiple characters from Wakanda wear.
This means the untitled Wakanda project is officially a go at Marvel Studios.
However, we’re still waiting on some concrete details about the project and how they’ll move forward with the Black Panther franchise without recasting the T’Challa role. It’s been expected that we could see a series focus on the female warriors of Wakanda, the Dora Milaje.
Actor Stephen Dorff recently worked with Oscar-winner Mahershala Ali on third season of HBO’s True Detective, but it sounds like the former Blade actor wouldn’t have advised Ali to take on the Blade mantle. Dorff spoke with The Indepenent (via The Hollywood Reporter) and proceeded to hammer the modern Marvel Studios movies, specifically, Scarlett Johansson’s Black Widow solo film.
“I still hunt out the good shit because I don’t want to be in Black Widow. It looks like garbage to me. It looks like a bad video game. I’m embarrassed for those people. I’m embarrassed for Scarlett! I’m sure she got paid five, seven million bucks, but I’m embarrassed for her. I don’t want to be in those movies. I really don’t. I’ll find that kid director that’s gonna be the next [Stanley] Kubrick and I’ll act for him instead,” Stephen Dorff said.
Mr. Dorff had played vampire villain Decaon Frost in 1998’s Blade, the successful R-rated film led by Wesley Snipes and directed by Stephen Norrington that was released two years before Fox’s X-Men. It’s regarded as the film that proved to Marvel that they could make successful films with their popular and obscure characters.
I guess fans that wanted Stephen Dorff to play the MCU’s Wolverine might want to pump those breaks. Then again, Ethan Hawke had a similar opinion only to join the Disney+ series Moon Knight, starring opposite with Oscar Isaac.
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.
Universal Pictures delaying F9: The Fast Saga has paid off for the studio as the sequel is breaking miltuple pandemic records as Box Office Mojo has the film sitting at an international total of $500.3 million with $126 million coming from domestic box office.
The last installment, The Fate of The Furious, made an impressive final total of $1.2 billion.
Vin Diesel recently told Regal Movies in an interview that Furious 10 (parts 1-2) will begin shooting in January. With the main movies winding-down, there are plenty of offshoots in the works from Universal Pictures such as a Hobbs & Shaw sequel in development along with Michelle Rodriguez and Charlize Theron getting spinoffs as well. Diesel has also mused about potential prequels as well.
We’ll keep our fingers crossed that Sung Kang’ Han will get his own film too because it only makes sense to bring him back to give him a spinoff adventure.
While it’s not complete picture of the theater industry completely healed, it’s a good sign that other summer films might end up doing well as Black Widow, Snake Eyes, and The Suicide Squad are coming up. The problem at the moment is that vaccine numbers have stalled in the U.S. and the Delta variant quickly becoming the dominate version of COVID-9 across the globe, when many countries are behind in their vaccinations.
F9: THE FAST SAGA – Dom Toretto is living the quiet life off the grid with Letty and his son, but they know that danger always lurks just over the peaceful horizon. This time, that threat forces Dom to confront the sins of his past to save those he loves most. His crew soon comes together to stop a world-shattering plot by the most skilled assassin and high-performance driver they’ve ever encountered — Dom’s forsaken brother.
Earlier in the year, Marvel Studios’ producer/executive Nate Moore revealed that the Disney+ shows were the first time that films universe, the MCU, connects directly with Marvel shows. This comes after Marvel Television head Jeph Loeb exited the company and Kevin Feige took over the television division (killing multiple shows including a Ghost Rider series) after becoming Marvel’s chief creative officer, re-branding as Marvel TV Studios.
“When Disney+ was announced we realized that there was an opportunity to interweave a cinematic universe with a television universe which has never been done before,” Nate Moore said in a Disney+ special Marvel Studios: ASSEMBLED focusing on The Falcon & The Winter Soldier.
You can see that clip below spotted by The Playlist.
This would confirm that Marvel Studios only sees the series that they make are the shows that are canon in the MCU because Moore’s statements were cleared by both Disney and Marvel, since this was their own segment and not a random interview. Even if it was an interview, Moore is so high-up at Marvel Studios that what he says is gospel, just like when Kevin, Victoria or Louis speak upon what the studio is doing.
Now, Guardians of The Galaxy franchise writer and director James Gunn (who speaks with Marvel Studios brass on a regular basis) is under this impression too while interacting with fans on Twitter and dismissing that Agents of SHIELD/Agent Carter are MCU Canon, despite what fans think or desperately want to believe is true.
James Gunn has completed work on The Suicide Squad (releases August 6), will wrap on his HBO Max series Peacemaker this month (releasing January 2022), and Chris Pratt says Guardians of The Galaxy Vol.3 (will hit theaters on May 5, 2023) begins shooting this November.
The Ronin can confirm that cinematographer Seamus McGarvey has joined the production of Wonka, the prequel film about Willy Wonka that will be played by Timothee Chalamet (Dune). McGarvey is best known for his work on Marvel’s The Avengers, Gareth Edwards’ Godzilla reboot, Atonement, and Bad Times At The El Royale.
Willy Wonky had been previously played by Gene Wilder and Johnny Depp.
Paul King, the director of the first two Paddington movies, is at the helm with production taking place at Warner Bros. Studios Leavesden in Watford, England.The facility in Watford is the home base of the Potterverse franchise and has been one of the key places that the modern era of DC Comics movies are shot as The Batman, The Flash, and Aquaman & The Lost Kingdom have recently used their stages.
Paul King and Simon Farnaby co-wrote the latest incarnation of the script, the prequel film is said to include song and dance numbers, just like the last two movies. King had been attached to Disney’s live-action Pinocchio movie before exiting to focus on Wonka and was replaced with Robert Zemeckis (Back To The Future 1-3)
Christopher Nolan’s longtime production designer Nathan Crowley (Tenet, Inception, The Dark Knight, John Carter, Interstellar) is also confirmed for the film and had been previously announced.
The production team being assembled would suggest the project might be bigger than people might have originally imagined. An official release date for Wonka hasn’t been announced by Warner Bros., but there is an expectation it will be released sometime in 2023.
Below are some examples of Seamus McGarvey’s work.
WILLY WONKA & THE CHOCOLATE FACTORY – A sweet boy from a poor family dreams of finding one of five golden tickets hidden inside chocolate bar wrappers which will admit him to the eccentric and reclusive Willy Wonka’s magical factory. One after another, tickets are discovered by ghastly children – but will the lad find the last remaining one and have all his dreams come true?
Friday marked the 25th anniversary of German director Roland Emmerich‘s alien invasion film “Independence Day,” but it wasn’t the only big sci-fi spectacle he had been working on for 20th Century Fox.
In the wake of David Fincher‘s “Alien 3,” it felt like 20th Century Fox was over the “Alien” franchise, and Sigourney Weaver leading it. Ellen Ripley had killed herself at the end of the film making subsequent sequels seemingly moot after their lead character’s death and flopping at the box office. Thinking they were done with the Ripley saga, between “Alien 3” and “Alien Resurrection” the studio tried to develop an early incarnation of an “Alien vs. Predator” movie years before the Paul W.S. Anderson version.
A rumor appeared in 1992 (same year that “Universal Soldier” is released) that Emmerich was going to direct an “AVP” film based on the popular Dark Horse Comics run, this wasn’t hard to imagine because 1990’s “Predator 2” had given audiences a nod to the comic book crossover as they added a xenomorph skull on a wall of trophies in the predator ship at the end of the film. In 1994, “Stargate” is released and that success leads to another original humans vs. aliens project with the 1996 box office juggernaut “Independence Day,” Toho and TriStar Pictures feel confident enough to allow Roland Emmerich to direct a modern “Godzilla” reboot using CGI special effects.
In 1996, “Alien Resurrection” begins shooting in Los Angeles with French director Jean-Pierre Jeunet overseeing the sequel and Ellen Ripley is brought back via the wonders of cloning (originally going to be a clone of Newt), thanks “Jurassic Park.” The film ends with the survivors landing in Paris and leaves the door open for a fifth installment.
In the November 1997 issue of Starlog Magazine, screenwriter Dean Devlin (“Stargate,” “Independence Day,” “Godzilla“) was interviewed about his Fox Television series “The Visitor” and asked about the status with “Alien vs. Predator” he replied, “For the time being, it’s dead. We wanted to do it if they had not just decided to do ‘Alien Resurrection,’ and now we’re all just waiting around to see how that film does. If it really works, the studio is going to want to continue the franchise with just the alien. If that were to happen, then we won’t be involved at all.”
This interview taking place before “Alien Resurrection”s late November release and while the sequel made slightly more than “Alien 3,” it still didn’t meet studio expectations. The following year, Roland and Dean released their critical disaster “Godzilla,” which was ridiculed and likely could have been a reason why 20th Century Fox ultimately didn’t want them handling a crossover to their two lucrative sci-fi franchises.
Speaking of “Predator 2,” Arnold Schwarzenegger was originally going to return as Dutch in the sequel before the role was reworked as Peter Keyes for actor Gary Busey and there has been a longstanding rumor that Arnold was going to star in this “AVP” movie, there might be something behind that.
In 1991, before Emmerich’s “Universal Soldier” starring Jean-Claude Van Damme was released in 1992, Schwarzenegger visited the film’s set, and we have a bunch of photos that documented that visit. There is a possibility that Arnold was there to get a read on Roland Emmerich and speak to Jean-Claude Van Damme about his experience working with him.
JCVD’s star was rising in the 1990s and had played the first incarnation of the alien hunter in “Predator” before leaving during Stan Winston‘s redesign of the creature (with some help from James Cameron) to lead his action film “Bloodsport” instead of being hidden behind a predator costume.
Producers had been trying to lure him back to the “Predator” franchise every chance they got and a crossover with a huge budget along with the right director could be attractive enough for Arnold to get involved. A reminder, the studio was looking to move past Weaver since Ripley was dead and Schwarzenegger was hot as a pistol at the box office, Dutch was theoretically still alive and every “Predator” sequel since there have been attempts to have him appear.
“Something similar to what we did with Aliens. A bunch of great characters, and of course Sigourney [Weaver]. I’ve even discussed the possibility of putting him [Arnold Schwarzenegger] into the Alien movie,” Cameron told the BBC in 2003 about the possibility of adding Schwarzenegger to his “Alien 5.”
Paul W.S. Anderson begins shooting “Alien vs. Predator” in Prague at the end of 2003 and essentially kills “Alien 5,” finally ending the Ellen Ripley saga for good.
James Cameron pivots to “Avatar” and the film still holds the global box office record thanks to a re-release with four sequels on the horizon.
The original version of “Alien 5” would see Ridley Scott direct with Cameron producing and co-writing (possibly with “Alien Resurrection” screenwriter Joss Whedon writing too) and would take Ripley to the homeworld of the xenomorph. The project was never made, but Ridley Scott returned to tackle his prequel “Prometheus” attempting to explore the origin of Space Jockey (engineers) and was a producer on Neill Blomkamp‘s new “Alien 5” incarnation (approved by James Cameron) that would have acted as a direct sequel to “Aliens” (ignoring the other two sequels) before that also stalled, “Alien: Covenant” stepping in to fill the void.
Scott is currently producing Noah Hawley‘s “Alien” series at FX that will be set on Earth and return the franchise to its class warfare root. He’s also talked-up a third prequel film still being in the works that has previously used the working title of “Alien: Awakening.”
Quentin Tarantino spoke to The Big Picture Podcast (via The Playlist) to promote his novelization of Once Upon A Time In Hollywood. During that chat, the filmmaker revealing that around the time of his Grindhouse double-feature experiment (Death Proof and Planet Terror) flopped at the box office he was offered a couple of IP projects such as DC Comics film Sgt. Rock and Westworld remake that was being written by Billy Ray. The latter would have been Tarantino’s first entry into the sci-fi genre before attempting to get a Star Trek film together with the help of Mark L. Smith (The Revenant).
If you’re not familiar with Westworld, it was an original film that was released back in 1973 and was written/directed by author Michael Crichton, who is best known as the writer of Jurassic Park and The Lost World. It focuses on a futuristic theme park with realistic robots that exist to be killed and screwed by guests, that’s until the robots malfunction and start killing their human guests.
Westworld is a futuristic theme park where paying guests can pretend to be gunslingers in an artificial Wild West populated by androids. After paying a sizable entrance fee, Blane (James Brolin) and Martin (Richard Benjamin) are determined to unwind by hitting the saloons and shooting off their guns. But when the system goes haywire and Blane is killed in a duel with a robotic gunslinger (Yul Brynner), Martin’s escapist fantasy suddenly takes on a grim reality.
The project eventually was remade at HBO as a series from Jonathan Nolan and Lisa Joy, it’s heading into it’s fourth season.
Billy Ray is certainly a competent screenwriter with credits such as The Comey Rule, Richard Jewell, Terminator: Dark Fate, Gemini Man, Captain Phillips, The Hunger Games, State of Play, and the Bad Robot WWII horror movie Overlord.
Quentin Tarantino plans on retiring from feature film directing after making his 10th movie, but has yet to announce that will be and has working on a Bounty Law mini-series that will likely be next for him.
THE RONIN 