Author: Christopher Marc

Posted on in Film News

‘Black Widow’ Director Cate Shortland Game To Return For A Sequel & Teases Florence Pugh’s Yelena Belova Taking Over Franchise

Black Widow will see the end of Scarlett Johansson’s run as Natasha Romanoff after debuting as the character in Iron Man 2 back in 2010. There is already speculation that Yelena Belova (played by Florence Pugh) is going to take up the mantle in the MCU and this was bolstered when Pugh joined the cast of the Hawkeye series, there are also hints that Marvel Studios is slowly assembling a version of The Thunderbolts too.

Well, if it was up to Cate Shortland a sequel would be in the cards.

While speaking with the Radio Times, the Black Widow director Cate Shortland has revealed that she could see a sequel could happen with another character and that she’s already game to return to make it, if Marvel decided to do that.

“I think following a different character, yes. I think Scarlett is really happy that she’s leaving the party, you know, and she’s not the last to leave. She decided she wanted to go. And I don’t think she would want to come back at the moment,” the filmmaker told the Radio Times when asked about the possibility of a sequel and alluding to Florence Pugh’s Yelena Belova taking over the mantle.

Cate Shortland also sounds interested in returning for this hypothetical sequel, “I mean, all the beautiful fights and the spectacle, and I think just creating something really fun and joyous is pretty addictive. So yeah, I would do it again. Yes.”

Black Widow will hit theaters and Premier Access on July 9.

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: RADIO TIMES

Posted on in Film News

‘Kill Bill 3’: Quentin Tarantino Would Cast Uma Thurman’s Daughter Maya Hawke As The Adult Version Of B.B.

There are heap of projects that Quentin Tarantino talks-up during interviews that will likely never see the light of day, one good example is his Vega Brothers film that was his white whale project that he would talk about that ultimately couldn’t be made because Michael Madsen and John Travolta aged-out of those roles decades ago.

Another one he consistently talks about is the fabled Kill Bill 3, set 20 years after the events of Kill Bill Vol.1 and Kill Bill Vol.2 that sees Beatrix Kiddo aka The Bride and her daughter B.B. getting their own dose of revenge twisted upon them.

Quentin Tarantino has brought up Kill Bill 3 again while speaking with Joe Rogan to promote his new novelization of Once Upon A Time In Hollywood (via The Playlist), mentioning that he would hire Uma Thurman’s real daughter to play the grown-up version of B.B. in the third movie. Actress Maya Hawke (Fear Street, Little Women, Once Upon At Time In Hollywood) having recently worked with Tarantino isn’t hard to imagine that would have been a good fit.

“I think it’s just revisiting the characters twenty years later and just imagining the Bride and her daughter, Bebe, having 20 years of peace, and then that peace is shattered,” he explained. “And not the Bride and Bebe are on the run and just the idea of being able to cast Uma [Thurman] and cast her daughter Maya [Hawke] in the thing would be fucking exciting,” Tarantino said.

Interestingly enough, the original B.B. actress from Kill Bill Vol. 2 does appear briefly in Once Upon A Time In Hollywood, as Perla Haney-Jardine plays the girl that sells Cliff Booth the acid soaked joint.

Tarantino also mused about other potential characters that could appear, “Elle Driver is still out there, Sophie Fatale got her arm cut off, but she’s still out there. They all got Bill’s money. Actually, Gogo had a twin sister Shiaki and so her twin sister could show up.”

As far was we know, neither Kill Bill 3 or his hypothetical remake of Reservoir Dogs will actually be his tenth and final film. However, I wouldn’t be shocked if Tarantino decided to give these ideas a mini-series treatment similar to what he plans to do with his six-part Bounty Law series.

SOURCE: JRE

Posted on in Film News

Quentin Tarantino Explains That Cliff Booth & Bruce Lee Match Was Inspired By Lee’s Documented Tension On ‘The Green Hornet’ Set With American Stuntmen

Quentin Tarantino is making the press rounds to promote his novelization of his Oscar-winning film Once Upon A Time In Hollywood and the topic of the controversial scene with Bruce Lee was brought-up while speaking on the Joe Rogan podcast (via THR). Many people including Lee’s own daughter Shannon Lee took the fictional scene as disrespectful to the late actor, as it pretty much only showed him as being a boastful loud-mouth.

“I can understand his daughter having a problem with it, it’s her fucking father, I get that. But anybody else [can] go suck a dick. If you look at it, it’s obvious Cliff tricked him, that’s how he was able to [beat him,] it’s explained a bit more in the book,” Tarantino said of backlash towards the sequence.

Tarantino then cited Matthew Polly’s book Bruce Lee: A Life as one of the reasons for fictionalized match on the set of Green Hornet, “The stuntmen hated Bruce on The Green Hornet, it’s in Matthew Polly’s book. Bruce had nothing but disrespect for American stuntmen and was always hitting them. He was always tagging them with his feet and his fists and it got to the point where they refused to work with them.”

This isn’t a new revelation, as the filmmaker previously said that folks like Cliff Booth saw actors like Bruce Lee, who do their own stunts, as a threat to their business. A sort of changing of the guard and shift in the industry. It’s possible that Quentin Tarantino could have spent a little more time explaining that background perspective, tension with the stunt team, and potentially could have gave the characterization of Bruce Lee more scenes to establish that his time working on Green Hornet wasn’t actually pleasant for him.

His horrible experience working in Hollywood isn’t news to people that have followed the career of Bruce Lee. The legendary actor/martial artist (born in San Francisco) ultimately left Hollywood to pursue a second film career in Hong Kong as his options in America were limited being a man with Asian/Eurasian background. Bruce had been a child actor in Hong Kong before leaving for the United States. His first breakout role was in the 1950 film The Kid that he starred alongside his father, Lee Hoi-Chuen, a comic book film of all things.

One of the last straws was his horrible experience working in the television industry and after being mistreated on The Green Hornet, he attempted to land his own series with Kung Fu and the role of Kwai Chang Caine was ultimately gifted to a young David Carradine (Kill Bill) because of his famous father, John Carradine. Despite Carradine having zero experience with martial arts when he was hired, an obvious slight to Lee to hire a white actor to play an Asian character and felt he could have more success overseas.

Bruce Lee was indeed a headstrong personality as he famously ignored Chinese traditions by teaching westerners martial arts and writing books about the subject in English. This was seen as an act of hostility towards the martial arts community and caused lots of tension as he starred in Hong Kong films that essentially launched the Kung Fu film genre’s popularity in the United States. However, by most accounts Bruce was an intelligent, inclusive, and loving human being.

It’s also worth noting that Jackie Chan, who worked as a stunt man for Bruce Lee had nothing but kinds words about his experiences. And even recalls Bruce’s reaction when he accidentally struck him during their scenes together on Enter The Dragon.

Tarantino could have been a lot more tactful with his portrayal, for sure.

SOURCE: JRE

Posted on in Film News

Steve Buscemi Theorizes Mr. Pink From ‘Reservoir Dogs’ Got Away & Became The Buddy Holly Waiter In ‘Pulp Fiction’

Quentin Tarantino recently mused about remaking his first big directorial effort Reservoir Dogs as his final feature film, but also dismissed the idea in the same breath.

Cast member Steve Buscemi appeared on The Late Late Show With James Corden and revealed his own theory about the fate of his character Mr. Pink, the one character that seemingly got away from both the shootout and cops. What happened to Mr. Pink has long been a creative exercise but Buscemi is echoing a theory that sees him having a direct connection to Tarantino’s follow-up Pulp Fiction.

“I don’t know if anyone else thinks about this, but because my character of Mr. Pink in Reservoir Dogs was such a cheapskate, and he didn’t like to tip, I thought it was poetic justice that my next film with Quentin, I play a waiter. I even like to think that maybe Mr. Pink got away somehow in Reservoir Dogs and he’s hiding out as the Buddy Holly waiter. And he probably gets tipped terribly. That’s his fate,” Steve Buscemi told the late night host.

It’s certainly poetic justice, however, Mr. Pink would have had the diamonds from the heist, so there would have to be some extra explanation about what happened to the stolen goods that led him to become a waiter. Maybe, he’s a huge gambler and blew all the money making horrible bets or a rough weekend in Las Vegas. Then again, if he’s a cheapskate he could have a mental thing about spending that money.

RESERVOIR DOGS – Six criminals with pseudonyms, and each strangers to one another, are hired to carry out a robbery. The heist is ambushed by police and the gang are forced to shoot their way out. At their warehouse rendezvous, the survivors, realizing that they were set up, try to find the traitor in their midst.

SOURCE: THE LATE LATE SHOW WITH JAMES CORDEN

Posted on in Film News

‘Knives Out 2’: Ethan Hawke Spotted On Set In Greece Confirming He Has Joined The Sequel’s Cast

This week saw the start of production on John Wick: Chapter 4, Aquaman & The Lost Kingdom, Black Panther: Wakanda, and Rian Johnson’s sequel to Knives Out. The latter has seen a bunch of set photos trickle-out over the last couple of days and they’ve revealed a brand new casting addition.

Daily Mail has posted a heap of set photos from Greece that confirms that Ethan Hawke has joined the massive cast. His participation in Knives Out 2 is a little odd since he was supposed to have a major role in Marvel’s Moon Knight series, shooting in another country would give the impression that his reported villain role was smaller than we have originally imagined.

The impressive cast of Knives Out 2 already consists of Daniel Craig (No Time To Die), Dave Bautista (Blade Runner 2049, Spectre, Guardians of The Galaxy, Army of The Dead), Edward Norton (Fight Club, The Incredible Hulk, Rounders, Moonrise Kingdom), Janelle Monae (Moonlight, Hidden Figures), Kathryn Hahn (WandaVision), Jessica Henwick (The Matrix 4, Game of Thrones), Kate Hudson (Almost Famous), Madelyn Cline, and Leslie Odom Jr. (Murder On The Orient Express, One Night In Miami).

Craig returns as the comedic Southern detective Benoit Blanc as it seems like a group of Americans are the target of a new murder mystery in Greece, I wouldn’t be terribly shocked if it involves another bunch of rich/entitled characters if the set photos are anything to go by.

When the Knives Out sequels were first announced they made headlines because when Netflix closed a massive deal with Johnson and Craig worth a massive $400 million to secure the next two installments.

KNIVES OUT – The circumstances surrounding the death of crime novelist Harlan Thrombey are mysterious, but there’s one thing that renowned Detective Benoit Blanc knows for sure — everyone in the wildly dysfunctional Thrombey family is a suspect. Now, Blanc must sift through a web of lies and red herrings to uncover the truth.

SOURCE: THE DAILY MAIL

Posted on in Film News

Cameras Have Officially Started Rolling On ‘Black Panther: Wakanda Forever’ In Atlanta According To Kevin Feige

Well, it looks like director Ryan Coogler and Marvel Studios have started production slightly earlier than expected on their Black Panther sequel, Black Panther: Wakanda Forever.

Variety seems to have got word directly from Marvel Studios head Kevin Feige that filming has officially stared on the stages in Atlanta, Georgia on Tuesday. Adding that Danai Gurira, Letitia Wright, Daniel Kaluuya, Winston Duke, Lupita Nyong’o, Florence Kasumba, and Angela Bassett are expected to reprise their roles from the original.

While there have been many fan-fueled online rumors of how they’re going to be moving forward with the second film, Marvel brass has confirmed they will neither recast T’Challa nor use a digital version of the late Chadwick Boseman. This sort of leaves fans questioning what they ultimate plan to do here.

It’s not the only Marvel project shooting in Atlanta at the moment as Tatiana Maslany’s She-Hulk series is deep into production as we speak that will see the return of Mark Ruffalo’s Professor Hulk and Tim Roth’s Abomination, we recently got a sneak peek at the Hulk villain’s updated design in the latest trailer for Shang-Chi & The Legend of The Ten Rings.

Disney has given Black Panther: Wakanda Forever a prime summer release date of July 8, 2022 and Ryan Coogler is developing a Wakanda series for Disney+ as well.

BLACK PANTHER – After the death of his father, T’Challa returns home to the African nation of Wakanda to take his rightful place as king. When a powerful enemy suddenly reappears, T’Challa’s mettle as king — and as Black Panther — gets tested when he’s drawn into a conflict that puts the fate of Wakanda and the entire world at risk. Faced with treachery and danger, the young king must rally his allies and release the full power of Black Panther to defeat his foes and secure the safety of his people.

SOURCE: VARIETY

Posted on in Film News

‘Doctor Strange’s Scott Adkins To Kick People To Death In ‘John Wick 4’

Production on John Wick 4 is officially underway in Germany and another action star is expected to join the film’s lineup. According to Deadline, British martial arts actor Scott Adkins (The Expendables, Doctor Strange, Zero Dark Thirty) is in negotiations with director Chad Stahelski and Lionsgate to take an undisclosed role.

Adkins is best known for his impressive kicks and acrobatics. It’ll be interesting to see if he’ll be playing a villain working on behalf of the High Table.

Others joining Keanu Reeves in the sequel include Japanese action star Horiyuki Sanada as Watanabe, Hong Kong action star Donnie Yen playing Wick’s old pal, Atomic Blonde’s Bill Skarsgard, Stowaway’s Shamier Anderson, and the film’s female lead played by Japanese-British singer Rina Sawayama. While it’s unknown if we’ll see Asia Kate Dillion, Common or Halle Berry return, franchise stars Laurence Fishburne and Ian McShane are set to reprise their roles.

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 Ronin recently confirmed cinematographer Dan Laustsen would be back behind the camera.

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

Quentin Tarantino Reveals Jennifer Lawrence Almost Appeared In ‘Once Upon A Time In Hollywood’ As Squeaky Fromme

Quentin Tarantino and Jennifer Lawrence have been trying to work together since he was trying to assemble a cast for his western The Hateful Eight, as the actress was once being eyed to play the foul-mouthed outlaw Daisy Domergue. Tarantino confirmed the potential casting to Entertainment Weekly in 2015 and spoke about the missed opportunity being due to her extremely busy schedule.

“I can see her doing a good job with this role, so we went to talk about it and everything. She was just doing me a courtesy to see me, I think. She was doing Joy. She had to do all this publicity on the Hunger Games movies. There was just no fucking way in the world that she was available,” the filmmaker said.

They reportedly tried again to work together on Once Upon A Time In Hollywood, but that didn’t happen either. Tarantino briefly mentioned during an interview on the podcast WTF With Marc Maron (via The Playlist), that Jennifer Lawrence was supposed to play Manson Family mamma bear Squeaky Fromme in the film before Dakota Fanning ultimately took the part.

“Early on, in the pre-production of Once Upon A Time In Hollywood, I flirted around with the idea of—and [by the way], I couldn’t be happier with what Dakota Fanning did, it’s one of the best performances in the movie, she’s amazing as Squeaky Fromme, she becomes [her]. But early on, I investigated the idea of Jennifer Lawrence playing Squeaky, so she came down to the house to read the script cause I wasn’t letting it out,” Tarantino told host Marc Maron about his early idea to cast Jennifer Lawrence as Fromme.

Considering that Quentin Tarantino is going to hang up his spurs as a feature film director with his tenth and final film, the pair are going to have to make sure they align their schedules or this might happen a third time.

SOURCE: WTF WITH MARC MARON

Posted on in Television News

EXCLUSIVE: James Gunn’s ‘Peacemaker’ Series Adds ‘Game Of Thrones’ & ‘Lost In Space’ Cinematographer Sam McCurdy

The Ronin can confirm that James Gunn’s HBO Max series Peacemaker has added British cinematographer Sam McCurdy, who is likely best known for shooting Neil Marshall’s Blackwater episode of Game of Thrones. Pacemaker is a direct spinoff of Gunn’s upcoming sequel The Suicide Squad focusing on the origins of John Cena’s character Christopher Smith.

Oh f*ck, it’s Peacemaker! HBO Max is set to explore the origins of the Peacemaker character, the master of weapons from the highly anticipated upcoming The Suicide Squad film, in the new Max Original action-adventure-comedy series Peacemaker. HBO Max has given a straight-to-series order of eight episodes for the first season of the show. John Cena will reprise his role from The Suicide Squad movie to star in the series, and the film’s acclaimed writer/director James Gunn will write all eight episodes of Peacemaker and will direct multiple episodes, including the first.

Sam McCurdy also worked with Neill Marshall on his feature films Dog Soldiers, The Descent, Doomsday, and Centurion. Other credits include Netflix’s Lost In Space (Neil Marshall again), The Hills Have Eyes 2, The Devil’s Double, Into The Badlands, Pennyworth, and Carnival Row.

He isn’t the only seasoned cinematographer on the DC Comics project as Michael Bonvillain (Westworld, Zombieland, Cloverfield, Hansel & Gretel: Witch Hunters, Outside The Wire) was announced a while back.

The show’s directing team working alongside James Gunn consists of Jody Hill (Eastbound & Down), Rosemary Rodriguez (Jessica Jones), and Brad Anderson (Boardwalk Empire).

Production on Peacemaker is said to be wrapping up next month and actor Chris Pratt revealed on Jimmy Kimmel Live! that he expects Guardians of The Galaxy Vol.3 to begin filming in November.

James Gunn previously announced that Peacemaker will debut on HBO Max sometime in January 2022 and you’ll get your first real taste of John Cena as the character on August 6 in The Suicide Squad.

THE SUICIDE SQUAD – 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.

Posted on in Film News

Quentin Tarantino Muses About A 3 Hour & 20 Minutes Cut Of ‘Once Upon A Time In Hollywood’ If He Had Been Able To Make It Longer

Quentin Tarantino fans like myself have longed for extended cuts of his films, case in point, Kill Bill: The Whole Bloody Affair, is a version where the two movies are combined. However, this version hasn’t been released or if it has I certainly missed out on it.

This idea of extended cuts is more or less directors being allowed to show the film without studio expectations of runtime, the longer a movie if the theory is that audiences will get bored or will limit the amount of screenings that can be played in a theater.

When it came to Once Upon A Time in Hollywood, Tarantino left out a bunch of footage but decided to write a novelization of the film to expand those characters and the world they inhabit. During a chat with comedian/actor Marc Maron on his podcast WTF With Marc Maron (via The Playlist), Quentin revealed that if he were to assemble a longer cut with the footage he took out it could end up around 3 hours and 20 minutes.

“I think if I were to put it all together, in a way where I would use everything that I wanted and didn’t have to worry about time, it would probably be around 3 hours and 20 minutes or something,” Tarantino said to host Marc Maron.

Hopefully, that version can see the light of day but I wouldn’t count your chickens, just yet.

ONCE UPON A TIME IN HOLLYWOOD – Actor Rick Dalton gained fame and fortune by starring in a 1950s television Western, but is now struggling to find meaningful work in a Hollywood that he doesn’t recognize anymore. He spends most of his time drinking and palling around with Cliff Booth, his easygoing best friend and longtime stunt double. Rick also happens to live next door to Roman Polanski and Sharon Tate — the filmmaker and budding actress whose futures will forever be altered by members of the Manson Family.

SOURCE: WTF WITH MARC MARON