Director Rian Johnson has taken to Twitter to officially announced that cameras have started rolling on Knives Out 2 in Greece.
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).
Aaaaaaaand WE’RE OFF! Day one of filming on the next Benoit Blanc mystery. Thanks to all the lovely patient people here in Greece for letting us do all this murdering on their peaceful shores. pic.twitter.com/SUFptCpl3G
The Ronin previously confirmed that cinematographer Steve Yeldin would reuniting, yet again, with Johnson for the sequel.
The setting of Greece would suggest that the sequel will likely focus on a murder in a hotel, cruise ship, or possibly among a group of American tourists.
The Knives Out sequels made headlines 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.
Well, it’s official! Lionsgate has announced on Twitter that their next installment of the John Wick franchise has officially started filming at Babelsberg Studios in Germany.
John Wick 4 will see some impressive new additions joining Keanu Reeves such as 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.
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.
Netflix is developing a new crime action film from director Gareth Evans, the main man behind the two fantastic installments on The Raid franchise. The new project, Havoc, sounds like it will be a solid crime flick with Tom Hardy and Forest Whitaker headlining the project.
The action pic takes place after a drug deal gone wrong and centers on a bruised detective who must fight his way through a criminal underworld to rescue a politician’s estranged son, while unraveling a deep web of corruption and conspiracy that ensnares his entire city.
Variety reports a string of casting additions have joined Havoc, they include Timothy Olyphant (The Mandalorian, Justified, Once Upon A Time In Hollywood), Justin Cornwell (Training Day, Umbrella Academy), Jessie Mei Li (Shadow & Bone, Last Night In Soho), Malaysian actress Yeo Yann Yann, Quelin Sepulveda, character actor Luis Guzmán (Boogie Nights, Carlito’s Way), Sunny Pang (Heatshot), and UFC MMA fighter Michelle Waterson.
The project is part of Evans’ exclusive deal with Netflix.
As Marvel Studios has wrapped on Doctor Strange 2, Spider-Man: No Way Home, Thor: Love & Thunder, and a handful of their live-action shows. They still have a bunch of things that will begin shooting this year. It’s going to be a big year for Marvel sequels with The Marvels, Black Panther: Wakanda Forever, and Ant-Man & The Wasp: Quantumania are on deck alongside James Gunn’s potentially last Guardians installment, Guardians of The Galaxy Vol.3.
Franchise lead Chris Pratt (Star-Lord) appeared on Jimmy Kimmel Live! to promote his upcoming Amazon Prime Video film The Tomorrow War and confirmed the third film’s production scheduling will be November to April. However, despite already reading the script the actor couldn’t dish any details.
“We will be shooting at the end of this year to beginning of next year, like November to, maybe, April,” Chris Pratt old the late night talk show host when asked about the sequel’s production schedule.
It’s been confirmed that Guardians 3 will be filming in the United Kingdom under the working title Hot Christmas and was given a prime release date of May 5, 2023.
Today, Apple has finally announced that it’s original series Foundation will debut on Apple TV+ on September 24, with three episodes out of the first season’s 10-episode run. The show is based on the epic and expansive world created by author Isaac Asimov and the adaptation was overseen by showunner by David S. Goyer (Blade, Batman Begins, Kryton).
When revolutionary Dr. Hari Seldon predicts the impending fall of the Empire, he and a band of loyal followers venture to the far reaches of the galaxy to establish The Foundation in an attempt to rebuild and preserve the future of civilization. Enraged by Hari’s claims, the ruling Cleons – a long line of emperor clones – fear their grasp on the galaxy may be weakening as they’re forced to reckon with the potential reality of losing their legacy forever.
Director James Wan has taken to Instagram to announce that the Aquaman sequel, Aquaman & The Lost Kingdom, has begun filming on the United Kingdom stages and the photo also confirmed that cinematographer Don Burgess is back after shooting the last installment.
Wan’s photo below showcases an icy set and reiterates the sequel’s working title of Nercus, a reference to King Mongo’s kingdom aka The Black City.
Filming will be taking place at Warner Bros. Studios. Leavesden in Watford, England and a bit of a change-up of shooting location as the first film was shot at Village Roadshow Studios in Australia. The English facility is also being used for The Flash movie alongside recently wrapped Warner Bros. pics such as The Batman and Fantastic Beasts 3.
Other DC Comics films in production include Dwayne Johnson’s Black Adam that is about finish up soon and David F. Sandberg’s Shazam!: Fury of The Gods recently just started down in Atlanta.
Aquaman & The Lost Kingdom is set for release on December 16, 2022 pitting it against James Cameron’s Avatar 2.
As production as begun on the seventh Transformers film, Transformers: Rise of The Beasts, a new voice actor has been enlisted by Paramount Pictures for a key role in the giant robot vs robot big screen saga. The latest installment will be bringing various characters from the Beast Wars cartoon to the film franchise.
Character actor Ron Perlman, likely best known as the actor behind the original toy Hellboy movies has joined the project playing Maximal leader, Optimus Primal, a Prime that transforms into a giant gorilla instead of a semi-truck. The news comes from the folks over at Collider.
Perlman’s other credits include Pacific Rim, Blade II, Sons of Anarchy, Drive, Enemy At The Gates, Alien Resurrection, The Lost City of Children, Cronos, and Monster Hunter.
Returning to the action and spectacle that first captured moviegoers around the world 14 years ago with the original Transformers, Transformers: Rise of the Beasts will take audiences on a ‘90s globetrotting adventure and introduce the Maximals, Predacons, and Terrorcons to the existing battle on earth between Autobots and Decepticons. Directed by Steven Caple Jr. and starring Anthony Ramos and Dominique Fishback, the film arrives in theatres June 24, 2022.
Originally, filmmaker Destin Daniel Cretton was attached to direct a Japanese-set crime series based on the non-fiction novel Tokyo Vice by journalist Jake Adelstein, but had to exit due to scheduling conflicts with his Marvel Studios film Shang-Chi & The Legend of The Ten Rings, that was shooting in Australia. Instead, HBO Max ended up hiring the best replacement imaginable for a crime series, Michael Mann. Since he was the creative force behind the original Miami Vice series.
The Ronin has been able to confirm that one of the show’s cinematographers is Diego Garcia, who worked on the Nicolas Winding Refn thriller series Too Old To Die Young and the upcoming Jennifer Lawrence drama at A24 from director Lila Neugebauer.
One of the other names mentioned for the series has been Westworld cinematographer John Grillo.
Tokyo Vice is a firsthand account of a young American journalist (Elgort) working the Tokyo Metropolitan Police beat. Elgort stars as Adelstein as he embeds himself into the Tokyo Vice police squad to reveal corruption. The series chronicles Adelstein’s daily descent into the sordid underbelly of Tokyo, where nothing and no one is truly what or who they seem.
Ken Watanabe, Rinko Kikuchi, Rachel Keller, and Ella Rumpf also have key roles.
Tokyo Vice’s production resuming happened to take place around the same time Destin Daniel Cretton was finishing up principal photography on Shang-Chi and moving into post-production. Cretton remains as the show’s executive producer alongside Michael Mann and series leads Ken Watanabe and Ansel Elgort.
Director Michael Mann is best known for his impressive body of work that consists of Thief, Manhunter, Heat, The Insider, Collateral, Miami Vice, Public Enemies, and Blackhat. Oddly enough, he never directed an episode of the Miami Vice series but did helm a single episode of the Chicago-set show Crime Story starring the late Dennis Farina.
The impressive part of the series is that they’ve done a lot of filming in country in Japan, which is notoriously expensive for foreign/western productions because of the endless red tape and scheduling that is involved. I also can’t imagine the added costs with pandemic delays and protocols thrown into the mix.
The Ronin can confirm that director Danny Boyle has been working with Oscar-winning cinematographer of Slumdog Millionaire, Anthony Dod Mantle, on his biopic series at FX about the British punk bank The Sex Pistols. Mantle’s credits also include the gorgeous Alex Garland comic book film Dredd, T2 Trainspotting, 127 Hours, Antichrist, Trance, Rush, 28 Days Later, Millions, The Last King of Scotland, and the HBO series The Undoing.
Anthony has a stunning eye and at the very least Pistol is going to look spectacular as you can see with some select samples of his work below.
The six-episode series comes from the perspective of guitarist Steve Jones and is based on his book Lonely Boy. It was adapted by Craig Pearce and Frank Contrell Boyce.
Pistol’s extensive young cast consists of Thomas Brodie-Sangster (The Queen’s Gambit) as Sex Pistols manager Malcolm McLaren, Talulah Riley (Westworld) set to play punk design icon Vivienne Westwood, Toby Wallace as Steve Jones, Anson Boon as Johnny Rotten, Louis Partridge as Sid Vicious, Jacob Slater as Paul Cook, Christian Lees as Glen Matlock, Iris Law as punk icon Soo Catwoman, Maisie Williams (Game of Thrones) as punk icon Jordan, Dylan Llewellyn as Wally Nightingale, Sydney Chandler as Chrissie Hynde, and Emma Appleton as Nancy Spungen.
That’s not the only reunion on the show’s crew as production designer Kave Quinn is also confirmed for the Apple series. Quinn previously working with Boyle on Trainspotting, Shallow Grave, and A Life Less Ordinary. Other credits are Matthew Vaughn’s Layer Cake starring Daniel Craig pre-James Bond, Harry Brown, The Woman In Black, and the FX series Black Narcissus starring British actress Gemma Arterton.
Danny Boyle famously was originally attached to No Time To Die (known back then as just Bond 25), but left over creative differences with the script and decided to make his Beatles-themed comedy Yesterday instead.
FX hasn’t announced an official air date for Pistol.
Earlier in the week, I mentioned a desire to see Loki series director Kate Herron tackle Marvel’s X-Men reboot. Keeping with the mutant topic, I’ve been watching the Aussie hitman series Mr. Inbetween from FX (now it’s in it’s third season) lately and I can’t help to get huge Wolverine vibes from this show. I’m come to the conclusion that the show’s creator/writer Scott Ryan (also stars as Ray) and director Nash Edgerton (brother of actor Joel Edgerton) could be the perfect duo to bring a solo Wolverine series to life for Marvel Studios.
The show is dark, emotional, funny and action-packed something that I believe would be extremely attractive to Marvel. Nash Edgerton, like the John Wick fellas Chad Stahelski and David Leitch, is a director with a background as a stuntman.
If you’re unfamiliar with the show here’s a rundown and trailer from Mr. Inbetween.
Mr. Inbetween stars Scott Ryan as Ray Shoesmith, a hitman for hire who makes a life out of balancing his criminal activities with his obligations to friends and family. He tries to be a father to Brittany (Chika Yasumura), his daughter with his ex-wife, a loving boyfriend to Ally (Brook Satchwell), and a good caretaker to his sick brother Bruce (Nicholas Cassim). Ray also covers for his friend Gary (Justin Rosniak) when needed, and follows his boss Freddy’s (Damon Herriman) orders without question.
Marvel hasn’t officially announced any upcoming plans for any Wolverine projects despite online rumors of a Wolverine show potentially being in the works. Officially, they are indeed moving forward Ryan Reynolds’ Deadpool 3 with writers working on the script and lacking any real updates are expected to reboot the X-Men movies sometime in the future.
Giving Wolverine his own series could be a way to properly tackle his military service during World War II that has been teased a couple of times, a real version of the Weapon X Program, Logan’s connections to Department H/Alpha Flight, his time in Japan/Madripoor, and potentially what he was up to during the Cold War against the Soviet Union. It could also help give other characters on the X-Men roster to take more leading roles in the MCU reboot.
We don’t have any idea who’ll ultimately take the Wolverine role from Hugh Jackman, but I’m leaning towards former Batman contender Cillian Murphy (The Dark Knight Trilogy, Peaky Blinders, 28 Days Later, Dunkirk, A Quiet Place Part II). The Irish actor has rubbed shoulders with plenty of MCU stars co-starring with Brie Larson in Free Fire, Chris Evans in the sci-fi thriller Sunshine alongside appearing with Thor’s Chris Hemsworth and Spider-Man’s Tom Holland in Ron Howard’s In The Heart of The Sea.
He’s a little bit older, however, not too much older than Moon Knight’s Oscar Isaac (42) or Doctor Strange’s Benedict Cumberbatch (44). While Cillian is slightly younger than Marvel’s new Blade actor Mahershala Ali (47).
Murphy is one of the few cast members from Danny Boyle’s Sunshine that hasn’t landed an MCU role as Chris Evans became Captain America, Benedict Wong plays Doctor Strange pal Wong, Hiroyuki Sanada briefly appeared as sword wielding Yaukza boss killed by Clint Barton in Avengers: Endgame, and Michelle Yeoh will be seen in Shang-Chi this September.
If they wanted to hire a younger actor, Aussie lad Dacre Montgomery (Power Rangers, Stranger Things, Baz Lurman’s Elvis Biopic) wouldn’t be a horrible choice and he happens to have family connection to Canada. His Power Rangers co-star Naomi Scott took the Princess Jasmine role in Disney’s live-action Aladdin movie with Stranger Things leads playing Marvel characters as David Harbour is The Red Guardian in Black Widow and Charlie Heaton played Cannonball in The New Mutants.
I can’t help but be reminded that Legion and Fargo showrunner Noah Hawely was developing a Doctor Doom film for 20th Century Fox before the merger, who knows if that will ever see the light of day. However, Hawley has since pivoted to an Earthbound series set within the Alien universe for FX On Hulu that has Ridley Scott (Raised By Wolves, Prometheus, Alien, Blade Runner, Alien: Covenant) attached to produce. I wouldn’t be shocked if we eventually saw Marvel Studios also look at the creatives at FX and Hulu to develop shows for them like Scott Ryan and Nash Edgerton.
Hiring a couple of Aussies could help the idea of shooting a would-be Wolverine series at Fox Studios Australia in Sydney, New South Wales, Australia. Fox Studios also happens to be where Mr. Inbetween is shot.
It’s the same studio facility used for The Matrix, Star Wars: Attack of The Clones, Star Wars: Revenge of The Sith, Superman Returns, X-Men Origins: Wolverine, The Wolverine, Mad Max: Fury Road, Alien: Covenant, Shang-Chi & The Legend of The Ten Rings, Thor: Love & Thunder, and George Miller’s upcoming Mad Max: Fury Road prequel Furiosa.
Anyways, we’ll keep our fingers crossed Marvel will consider them for a hypothetical Wolverine series.
THE RONIN 