Author: Christopher Marc

Posted on in Film News

Danai Gurira’s Okoye Returning In ‘Black Panther: Wakanda Forever’ & Spinoff Series At Disney+

Despite the loss of actor Chadwick Boseman to colon cancer last year, Marvel Studios seems to be looking to expand the world of Black Panther’s fictional country of Wakanda with the sequel Black Panther: Wakanda Forever set to begin filming this summer in Atlanta and a spinoff Wakanda series in the works at Disney+ from filmmaker Ryan Coogler.

This expansion will apparently have Danai Gurira’s Okoye as a key player, as the actress is reportedly locked-in for the sequel and the untitled Disney+ series. The news first appeared in an expansive piece about Hollywood attorneys from The Hollywood Reporter, but was later backed-up independently by outlets such as Collider and Deadline.

However, there seems to be some confusion if Danai will be in two different Black Panther spinoff shows for Disney+ or simply part of the Ryan Coogler project that was previously announced. We’ll have to wait for clarity from Marvel/Disney on that front.

Okoye is one of the Dora Milaje, Wakanda’s group of female special forces warriors, and survived the snap. We learned thanks to Avengers: Endgame that Okoye was still active in the heroics department before Thanos was defeated and half of the universe was resurrected by Tony Stark.

It’s unclear how big Okyoe’s role will be in either project and will be some time until we get some more concrete information about this Wakanda show. However, it seems all but confirmed that it will follow the Dora Milaje as teased with their appearance in The Falcon & The Winter Soldier. We have to assume at this point the show will have actress Florence Kasumba among the cast as well.

Marvel Studios has gone on the record about not employing a digital version of Chadwick Boseman or recasting the T’Challa role, making it a bit of a mystery how exactly they plan on moving forward with Black Panther: Wakanda and who will ultimately take up the mantle. The Challenge Day scene from the first film seems to indicate that multiple royals from the various Wakandan tribes could be in consideration and it not being a complete sure bet that Shuri is the next Black Panther just because it happened in the comic books.

We’re still in the dark who will be the sequel’s antagonist. Trade reports revealed that Mexican actor Tenoch Huerta (Narcos) was in talks to play a an unnamed villain. Fans have speculated for years that that Prince Namor of Atlantis or Fantastic Four’s Doctor Doom of Latveria could be potential baddies looking to pick a fight with the technologically advanced nation in the second film.

It’ll be interesting if they’d ever consider prequels taking place during the era of King T’Chaka.

Black Panther: Wakanda Forever will hit theaters on July 8, 2022.

Posted on in News

Sony CEO Yoshida Kenichiro Says Sony Pictures Isn’t For Sale

Every couple of months film and business trades run speculative interviews with analysts or “activist investors” claiming that Sony Pictures is poised for a big sale to places like Apple, Amazon, or Netflix. None of this is anything but opinion dressed-up as an editorial/interview, instead of based on concrete information or reporting. It usually comes after a shift in the industry like the Walt Disney Company acquiring 21st Century Fox or when telecoms company AT&T got their hands on a media giant like Time-Warner.

After the WarnerMedia-Discovery and Amazon-MGM deals being announced this month, it seems like we should prepare for another run of wild claims and speculation that Sony Pictures is next to be sold-off.

However, that doesn’t seem to be case, according to the person that actually runs the company. There is now a real statement coming from Sony CEO Yoshida Kenichiro while speaking with the Financial Times (via The Hollywood Reporter), Kenichiro says that while they’re open to partner with streaming services they’re not going to sell the film division.

KENICHIRO: “There is drastic realignment in the media industry, but I think our strategy of creating content as an independent studio while working with various partners will work.” 

It’s worth mentioning that Sony did strike deals with Netflix and Disney recently, but that has to do with post-theatrical window streaming rights of feature films and they’ve been working towards a television deal with Amazon that includes the Spider-Man spinoff series Silk. These deals will expand their presence in the streaming space, far from an actual acquisition. One of the big reasons for moves like this is that Sony doesn’t have their own streaming service, so, licensing their content to multiple suitors isn’t that surprising as the media landscape changes.

The Hollywood Reporter also added a comment from Sony Pictures Entertainment chief Tony Vinciquerra from the investor day presentation, where he sounded confident that the shows and films in development based on the PlayStation IP will continue the momentum as they have at least ten projects in the pipeline. Those PlayStation projects include Tom Holland’s Uncharted film, an HBO series based on The Last of Us, and a Ghost of Tsushima movie from John Wick franchise director Chad Stahelski.

VINCIQUERRA: “The PlayStation project has tremendous momentum with the establishment of PlayStation productions and ten projects already in development.”

They also have a string of their own Marvel films such as J.C. Chandor’s Kraven The Hunter, Olivia Wilde’s Spider-Woman, Spider-Man: No Way Home, Venom: Let There Be Carnage, and Jared Leto’s vampire flick Morbius. Sony Japan was behind the pressure on the film division to make a deal with Marvel Studios/Disney that led to Tom Holland appearing as Spider-Man in solo films made by Marvel and appearing in their other films as well.

Having a corner of the Marvel Comics rights and developing multiple projects based on their popular PlayStation video game franchises could keep them competitive for the foreseeable future. Franchises like Bad Boys and Jumanji seem to be audience draws the studio can rely on beyond Spider-Man projects.

SOURCE: THE FINANCIAL TIMES

Posted on in News

WarnerMedia Admits They Only Added 11 Million HBO/HBO Max Subscribers In The First Year

HBO Max is starting to look like a big albatross for WarnerMedia after reports that the hybrid release model (Warner Bros. films dropping on the same day in theaters and HBO Max) meant to boost subscriptions to the service has lost the company over a billion dollars (and counting) and the sluggish growth of HBO Max has been dismissed multiple times by both company representatives and defensive subscribers that have championed the platform’s library/original content.

Well, it looks like the subscriber count is indeed as bad we thought.

WarnerMedia (via The Playlist) has released official subscriber information from the last year, as their new streaming service, HBO Max, was launched one year ago today. Revealing in the official chart is that they only added 11.1 million subscribers since they launched the app (See info-graph image below) and are still mixing together HBO numbers with HBO Max numbers, despite lumping the two services together it’s not great growth and could explain the WarnerMedia-Discovery merger that was announced earlier in the month.

The total subscriber count is listed as being 44.2 million subscribers but as we imagined the bulk of these people have HBO subscriptions (around 3/4 of the total 44.2 million) prior to the launch. Making the growth look even worse.

Now, this doesn’t mean HBO Max can’t improve upon these numbers but it stands to reason that WarnerMedia/AT&T’s belief that the hybrid model would bring in a huge amount of subscribers has been nothing short of a disaster. It’s possible piracy played a big role here as HD copies of their shows and high-budgeted films are posted online almost as soon as they’re available on the service, one of the many risk factors to the hybrid release model for their feature films was removing the theatrical window that acts as a buffer to combat piracy.

There is some hope that the WarnerMedia-Discovery merger could place HBO Max in the hands of better management, but there are already industry rumblings the move was meant to make a sale of WarnerMedia easier in the future. Opening up the service to international markets should also help it’s growth.

SOURCE: WARNERMEDIA

Posted on in Television News

‘Green Lantern’: Lee Toland Krieger Directing The First Two Episodes On The HBO Max Superhero Series

A couple days ago it was reported by The Direct that Lee Toland Krieger was attached to director episodes of the HBO Max series Green Lantern, the report was spot on as Deadline confirms the information, adding that Lee will helm the first two episodes of the mature DC Comics show.

Green Lantern will focus on multiple human members of the Green Lantern Corps. such as Finn Wittrock’s Guy Gardner, Jeremy Irvine’s Alan Scott, Jessica Cruz, Simon Baz, Sinestro, and Kilowog. The group consists of a specially selected roster of space cops (mostly aliens) from across the universe that use green power rings to fight evil and that are recharged using a cosmic green lantern.

Lee isn’t a stranger to genre television previously directing episodes of Riverdale, The Chilling Adventures of Sabrina, Deadly Class, Superman & Lois, and Shadow & Bone.

Warner Bros. released a live-action feature film built around Ryan Reynolds as Hal Jordan in 2011, but trilogy plans quickly were squashed when the film failed to meet expectations and the needed box office earnings to move forward with sequels. Zack Snyder attempted to include John Stewart (played by Wayne T. Carr) at the end of the Snyder Cut version of Justice League but the scene was ultimately removed. The studio is said to be still planning to make their Green Lantern Corps. movie that has been in development stages for years now that reportedly will feature a two-hander with Jordan and Stewart as the main characters.

SOURCE: THE DIRECT & DEADLINE

Posted on in Film News

‘Kraven The Hunter’: Sony Approached Keanu Reeves, Brad Pitt, John David Washington & Adam Driver – ‘Spider-Man’ Spinoff Releases January 2023

Yesterday, it was announced that Sony Pictures had selected British actor Aaron Taylor-Johnson (Kick-Ass, Bullet Train, Avengers: Age of Ultron) to lead their latest Spider-Man spinoff film, Kraven The Hunter. The project will focus on Sergei Kravinoff aka Kraven, a Russian aristocrat turned big-game hunter that becomes a major antagonist of Marvel superhero Spider-Man as a member of The Sinister Six and half-brother of fellow villain The Chameleon.

Some of the names rumored for the role were indeed true, as Deadline reporter Justin Kroll tweeted a list of names that Sony Pictures had considered to play Kraven but they had passed. Those high-profile names were Keanu Reeves (John Wick, The Matrix), Brad Pitt (Once Upon A Time In Hollywood, Fight Club, Inglorious Basterds), John David Washington (Tenet), and Adam Driver (House of Gucci, Logan Lucky, Star Wars: The Force Awakens).

However, Aaron Taylor-Johnson reportedly “blew away” Sony brass thanks to footage from his latest project, Bullet Train.

I find it interesting that the latter two actors being co-stars in Spike Lee’s Oscar-winning film BlacKkKlansman, the filmmaker had been attached to make a Nightwatch movie for the studio with a script from Luke Cage showrunner Cheo Hodari Coker.

It’s noteworthy that John David Washington was mentioned in the group, as it could signal back to when Black Panther director Ryan Coogler talked about wanting to use Kraven and the actor’s own comments from the Tenet press tour last year mentioning his desire to play Reed Richards in Marvel’s Fantastic Four reboot from Spider-Man: No Way Home director Jon Watts.

Kraven The Hunter will be directed by J.C. Chandor (A Most Violent Year, Triple Frontier) from a scripted penned by Richard Wenk (The Equalizer, The Expendables 2) with Art Marcum and Matt Holloway tackling rewrites. The duo of screenwriters aren’t strangers to studio genre projects working on Iron Man, Punisher: War Zone, Transformers: The Last Knight, Men In Black: International, and the upcoming Tom Holland video game movie Uncharted.

Sony is attempting to build their own cinematic universe featuring various Spider-Man friends and foes. Some of those upcoming films consist of Venom: Let There Be Carnage, Jared Leto’s vampire flick Morbius, Olivia Wilde’s Spider-Woman movie, and a Madame Web movie. It remains to be seen of these movies will or will not be directly connected to Marvel Studios’ cinematic universe, as hiring the former Quicksilver actor would suggest that Kraven isn’t connected to the hard-canon MCU.

The Spider-Man spinoff has landed a release date of January 13, 2023 from Sony Pictures and suggests that production could begin by 2022.

SOURCE: DEADLINE

Posted on in Film News

‘Evil Dead Rise’: Aussie Actresses Alyssa Sutherland & Lily Sullivan Join HBO Max Horror Flick – Begins Filming Next Month In New Zealand

A new Evil Dead movie, titled Evil Dead Rise, is coming from New Line Cinema with franchise stewards Sam Raimi and Bruce Campbell attached to produce. The horror project is heading to WarnerMedia’s streaming service HBO Max from Lee Cronin, who will write and direct.

We finally know the first two actors that have joined the cast of Evil Dead Rise, as The Hollywood Reporter mentions that Australian actresses Alyssa Sutherland (Vikings, The Mist) and Lily Sullivan (Jungle) will play sisters in the horror film. Traditionally, the films focus on murderous demons called Deadites that jump into the bodies of human hosts possessing them after being unleashed by reading from the Necronomicon aka Book of The Dead.

The new film’s synopsis mentioned in the report reveals the setting will move from the cabin in the woods to the city and takes place in a high-rise skyscraper.

Evil Dead Rise takes the undead action away from the cabin in the woods and into the city as two estranged sisters’ reunion is cut short when flesh-possessing demons thrust them into a battle for survival. 

Filming on Evil Dead Rise is said to begin sometime next month in New Zealand with previous crew members from Ash vs. The Evil Dead joining the production team including production designer Nick Bassett (Sweet Tooth, Guns Akimbo, Kung Fury 2) and stunt coordinator Stuart Thorp (Zero Dark Thirty, Avatar). Stuart recently worked on James Cameron’s Avatar 2 and Avatar 3 while they were shooting at Stone Street Studios in Wellington.

The Evil Dead franchise has led to three movies, a reboot film, and even a television series that brought back Bruce Campbell’s iconic Deadite slayer Ash. It also helped filmmaker Sam Raimi make an impact before tackling bigger movies down the line like the original Spider-Man trilogy for Sony Pictures.

SOURCE: THE HOLLYWOOD REPORTER

Posted on in Film News

Zack Snyder Says His ‘Seven Samurai’ Inspired ‘Star Wars’ Movie Idea Is Being Reworked “As A Sci-Fi Thing” Outside of That Universe

In the early days of Disney acquiring Lucasfilm and the Star Wars rights, there were various reports that the studio was open to multiple film pitches from filmmakers. One of those pitches was reportedly from Army of The Dead director Zack Snyder and would have been a possible Jedi film inspired by the works of Akira Kurosawa’s Seven Samurai. Akira’s film The Hidden Fortress had been a notable inspiration to the original trilogy, so going back to those classic samurai films for ideas sort of sounded appealing at the time.

Here is how that original report from Vulture described the project back in 2013, alluding to the project being an anthology project similar to things like Rogue One: A Star Wars Story and Solo: A Star Wars Story.

He is in fact developing a Star Wars project for Lucasfilm that is set within the series’ galaxy, though parallel to the next trilogy. It will be an as-yet-untitled Jedi epic loosely based on Akira Kurosawa’s 1954 classic Seven Samurai, with the ronin and katana being replaced by the Force-wielding knights and their iconic lightsabers.

If you’re unfamiliar with the iconic Japanese film, it follows a group of ronin (former samurai that no longer serve a master/lord) that come together to save a poor village of farmers against relentless bandits in an attempt to restore their honor. Seven Samurai was famously remade as the equally popular Hollywood western, The Magnificent Seven.

The project ultimately wasn’t made and Snyder instead established the DCEU with Man of Steel, Batman v Superman, and Justice League. However, Snyder has confirmed to the Happy Sad Confused podcast (via The Playlist) that he indeed was trying to get that project going at Lucasfilm (prior to the Disney acquisition) but has instead pivoted to rework the idea as something else outside of the Star Wars universe, but will still be set within the science-fiction genre.

SNYDER: “We talked about it, but it never [happened]. I’ve been working on it away from the ‘Star Wars’ universe, on my own, as a sci-fi thing…It’s still a sci-fi thing. It’s the same story. Now, I’m just going to let ‘Star Wars’ be ‘Star Wars.’”

“The 11-year-old me still wants to make that, and now, I know how to. So, maybe we’ll see that someday.”

Could Netflix end up giving Zack Snyder the money to make the project? It’s possible as the streaming giant is keen on continuing the working relationship with the filmmaker as they build a franchise around his zombie film Army of The Dead, after Warner Bros. passed on it.

SOURCE: HAPPY SAD CONFUSED PODCAST

Posted on in Television News

Marvel’s ‘Secret Invasion’ Adds ‘Happy Gilmore’ Actor Christopher McDonald

Marvel Studios is hyping-up Secret Invasion as their big crossover event series, which says a lot considering that while WandaVision and The Falcon & The Winter Soldier seemingly helped to set up future film projects there wasn’t much of a event/crossover status they felt sort of self-contained in their own pockets of the Marvel Cinematic Universe.

Secret Invasion’s premise is that the shape-shifting Skrulls have been infiltrating all positions of power across the globe, even replacing various members of the Avengers over the years since they arrived on Earth back in the 1990s. However, the aliens were introduced in Captain Marvel as refugees and in Spider-Man: Far From Home were essentially covering for Nick Fury/Maria Hill as they’re seemingly off-world as the Skrulls are building a space station for the humans.

Another casting addition to Secret Invasion has been revealed by Deadline, as American character actor Christopher McDonald has landed an undisclosed role in the Marvel series that they claim is newly created and could crossover other projects including film. He most recently worked on the HBO Max series Hacks and might be best known as Shooter McGavin in the Adam Sandler golf comedy Happy Gilmore.

This wouldn’t be all that shocking as Secret Invasion and the Captain Marvel sequel The Marvels are expected to shoot around the same time in the United Kingdom, having cast members appear in both projects isn’t hard to imagine at this point given Marvel is calling the series a “crossover event.”

McDonald joins an impressive and growing cast that already consists of Samuel L. Jackson as Nick Fury, Ben Mendelsohn as Skrull leader Talos, Oscar-winner Olivia Colman (The Favourite, Hot Fuzz, The Crown), four-time Emmy nominee Emilia Clarke (Game of Thrones, Solo: A Star Wars Story), and Kingsley Ben-Adir (One Night In Miami, Peaky Blinders) said to be playing a villain.

The show’s head writer is Kyle Bradstreet with directors Thomas Bezhucha (Let Him Go) and Ali Selim (The Looming Tower) recently announced.

Filming is said to begin this fall in the United Kingdom and possibly Europe.

SOURCE: DEADLINE

Posted on in Television News

‘WandaVision’ Head Writer Jac Schaeffer Signs Overall Deal With Marvel Studios & 20th Television

Jac Schaeffer first made waves at Marvel Studios when she was originally hired pen the new Black Widow script (currently has story credit), after the first incarnation of the female superhero project fell apart at Lionsgate and Marvel Studios decided to finally give Scarlett Johansson’s Natasha Romanoff the solo spinoff film they had been teasing since the Iron Man 2 press rounds. She would later become the head writer and executive producer of Marvel Studios’ first series to air on Disney+, WandaVision, which was considered a huge success and looks like will be making more MCU shows for the foreseeable future.

Schaeffer has landed a lucrative 3-year overall deal with Marvel Studios and 20th Television to develop multiple shows, according to Variety. The Marvel Studios projects, of course, will land on Disney+, but potential titles or characters weren’t mentioned in the announcement.

Marvel’s next wave of shows on the Disney streaming platform include Loki (June 9), the animated series What-If…? (August?), Hawkeye (late 2021), Ms. Marvel (late 2021), Moon Knight (2022), She-Hulk (2022), Secret Invasion (2022), Armor Wars, Ironheart, a Wakanda series from Ryan Coogler, and a spinoff featuring Hawkeye supporting character, Echo.

It’ll be interesting to see if they ultimately attempt a second season of WandaVision, but that would likely depend on how Sam Raimi’s Doctor Strange In The Multiverse of Madness ends and if Wanda aka Scarlet Witch survives that ordeal.

There are plenty of existing characters that Jac Schaeffer could end up developing a series around such as Tessa Thompson’s Valkryie, Florence Pugh’s Yelena Belova (will appear on Hawkeye), Natalie Portman’s Jane Foster aka Lady Thor, and Karen Gillan’s Nebula. That’s if they don’t attempt to launch other Marvel characters via shows such as the rebooted MCU versions of X-Men’s female team members like Rogue, Storm or Psylocke.

I guess we’ll have to be patient to find out what her new Marvel shows will be.

SOURCE: VARIETY

Posted on in Film News

‘Kraven The Hunter’: Aaron Taylor-Johnson Nabs Titular Role In Sony’s ‘Spider-Man’ Spinoff Movie Directed By J.C. Chandor

Sony Pictures is developing a heap of Marvel movies set within their own Spider-Man cinematic universe with Venom: Let There Be Carnage and Morbius on the horizon. Another big project is one focused on Spidey villain Kraven The Hunter that was written by Art Marcum, Matt Holloway, and Richard Wenk with J.C. Chandor set to director.

Sony has found their Kraven, as The Wrap reports that British actor Aaron Taylor-Johnson has landed the titular role in the Marvel spinoff film. The actor isn’t new to comic book adaptations as he played Quicksilver in Avengers: Age of Ultron, took the lead role in the two Kick-Ass movies, and has a role in the Kingsman prequel The King’s Man. He most recently joined the cast of David Leitch’s Japanese-set action film Bullet Train that stars Oscar-winner Brad Pitt.

While many people are under the impression that the spinoffs could end up part of the Marvel Cinematic Universe, it’s clear that hiring Marvel’s Quicksilver actor is a sign that the two universes aren’t as connected as fans believed.

SOURCE: THE WRAP