The Ronin is hearing that Miracle Workers and Baywatch actor Jon Bass may have landed an undisclosed role in Marvel’s She-Hulk series, which is currently filming in Atlanta, Georgia. Bass is likely best known for his comedic roles but it’s unclear how large the part could be given that Maslany’s Jennifer Walters is a defense lawyer and is expected to be interacting with multiple characters on the show.
Interestingly enough, Jon’s TBS anthology comedy series Miracle Workers shoots in Atlanta, Georgia and you can see a promotional video the show did for Made In Georgia below. One of the show’s writers happens to be Ant-Man & The Wasp: Quantumania screenwriter Jeff Loveness, which is potentially noteworthy as well.
Jennifer is the cousin of Avengers member Dr. Bruce Banner aka Hulk and after a blood transfusion from Bruce is granted her own Hulk powers becoming She-Hulk. The series officially will see the return of Tim Roth as Emil Blonsky aka Abomination, Mark Ruffalo back as Banner, Renee Elise Goldsberry as Amelia, and Ginger Gonzaga.
The 10-episode series will be directed by Kat Coiro and Anu Valia with Emmy-winner Jessica Gao (Rick & Morty) set as head writer.
Rian Johnson has reportedly added rom-com queen Kate Hudson to the growing cast of Knives Out 2.
According to The Hollywood Repoter, Johnson has given Hudson an undisclosed role as she becomes one of the many new additions to the whodunit sequel. Kate joins a fantastic cast that 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), and Leslie Odom Jr. (Murder On The Orient Express, One Night In Miami).
I have to assume they’ll continue to add more actors, because why not?
Craig plays detective Benoit Blanc and is likely going to solve some sort of murder on a cruise ship or hotel in Greece, given all the Americans among the cast.
Filming on Knives Out 2 begins next month in Greece and Netflix has yet to give it a release date, the streaming service normally doesn’t announce dates until they’re about to begin promotion.
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.
I think we’ve been all waiting long enough for Lucasfilm to finally begin shooting the long-delayed Indiana Jones 5 as they’ve finally started adding new cast members alongside Harrison Ford such as British actress Phoebe Waller-Bridge (Solo: A Star Wars Story, Fleabag), Danish actor Mads Mikkelsen (Fantastic Beasts 3, Casino Royale, Rogue One: A Star Wars Story, Another Round), German actor Thomas Kretschmann (King Kong, Valkyrie, Blade II). Boyd Holbrook (The Predator, Narcos, Logan), and Shaunette Renée Wilson (The Resident).
Lucasfilm is currently in pre-production on the next installment of the Indiana Jones franchise. At the helm is James Mangold, director of the Academy Award-winning Ford v Ferrari, and Indy himself, Harrison Ford, will be back to continue his iconic character’s journey. Indy will begin shooting late spring of 2021 and will arrive July 2022.
James Mangold took-up directing duties once Steven Spielberg exited the sequel and also wrote the latest incarnation of the script.
While the main stage facility is likely going to be Pinewood/Shepperton in the United Kingdom (a UK shoot is confirmed), The Ronin has learned that Lucasfilm is indeed planning to shoot some sequences on the East Coast of The United States, most likely New York/New Jersey. It’s worth mentioning that Yale University was used in Indiana Jones & The Kingdom of The Crystal Skull to double for Marshall College as they shot other various scenes in Connecticut as well.
MANGOLD: “I’m mentally living in 60’s NYC right now cause that’s where all the movies I’m working on take place.”
Confirmed crew members include legendary composer John Williams, production designer Adam Stockhausen (The French Dispatch, The Grand Budapest Hotel, Widows, Ready Player One), and cinematographer Phedon Papamichael (Ford v Ferrari, Walk The Line, 3: 10 To Yuma).
Disney has chosen to give Indiana Jones 5 a release date of July 29, 2022.
The Ronin has come across information that points at actress Amber Midthunder as being in the mix for the upcoming Predator 5 from director Dan Trachtenberg (10 Cloverfield Lane). Amber is likely best known from her roles in shows such as the X-Men series Legion, the western thriller Hell or High Water, and the new Roswell reboot.
The actress posted a bunch of blood droplets on a image post from Trachtenberg’s Instagram account for some special effects test they were conducting behind the scenes. A post that that happened to be liked by the president of 20th Century Studios, Steve Asbell, which feels like a strong hint she is indeed involved with the film.
Amber isn’t a stranger to productions shot in Canada both Legion (Vancouver) and the upcoming Liam Neesen action flick The Ice Road (Winnipeg) were shot in the country, which means she likely won’t have a lot of issues working in Calgary, Alberta. Apparently, the third season of Roswell, New Mexico was supposed to complete filming in April and could mean Amber has an opening in her schedule.
UPDATE (AUGUST 14, 2021): Amber Midthunder posted these images a few weeks back on Instagram that are likely from the Calgary Stampede (a huge yearly event in the city), and would confirm she’s in Alberta.
Filming on Predator 5 is set to begin early next month in Calgary, Alberta as Dan has assembled a nifty production team that consists of cinematographer Jeff Cutter (10 Cloverfield Lane), production designer Kara Lindstrom (Den of Thieves), and stunt coordinator Steven McMichael (Damnation).
Given how soon production begins I have to assume casting announcements are going to be made in the next couple of weeks. Interestingly enough, the new film shares the same casting director that is also working on Martin Scorsese’s Killers of The Flower Moon, another film expected to have a large cast of native actors and could signal that Dan might be aiming to fill other roles with unknowns.
It likely means that the lawsuit that is reportedly coming from the original screenwriters of the 1987 film likely won’t have a huge impact on delaying the fifth installment’s shoot.
A release date has yet to be announced by Disney or 20th Century Studios but there had been teases from trades about it potentially being released next summer.
PREDATOR – Dutch (Arnold Schwarzenegger), a soldier of fortune, is hired by the U.S. government to secretly rescue a group of politicians trapped in Guatemala. But when Dutch and his team, which includes weapons expert Blain (Jesse Ventura) and CIA agent George (Carl Weathers), land in Central America, something is gravely wrong. After finding a string of dead bodies, the crew discovers they are being hunted by a brutal creature with superhuman strength and the ability to disappear into its surroundings.
The Ronin has learned that Canadian actor and stuntman Kyle Strauts is most likely going to be reprising the role of the alien hunter in Dan Trachtenberg’s Predator 5, although we weren’t able to confirm. Kyle previously suited-up in Shane Black’s The Predator and posted a heap of behind-the-scenes images of the Emissary Predators that got cut out of the final cut, which Kyle played.
Kyle recently worked with Kick-Ass 2 director Jeff Wadlow on the revival of Are You Afraid of The Dark? in British Columbia.
Filming on Predator 5 is set to begin early next month in Calgary, Alberta as Dan has assembled a nifty production team that consists of cinematographer Jeff Cutter (10 Cloverfield Lane), production designer Kara Lindstrom (Den of Thieves), and stunt coordinator Steven McMichael (Damnation).
We’re still waiting on casting announcements concerning who’ll be playing the humans in the new film, but we’re hearing that Dan might end up hiring unknowns for some of the lead roles.
There is also a good chance that ADI is working on the creature/special effects.
While trades have teased a Summer 2020 release for the film, Disney/20th Century Studios haven’t announced a date for the sci-fi action flick.
Marvel has a limited amount of Asian superheroes and villains, so, it was sort of a one-two gut punch when the studio decided to avoid casting Asian actors with The Mandarin in Iron Man 3 and The Ancient One in Doctor Strange.
Luckily, Marvel Studios used Shang-Chi & The Legend of The Ten Rings to modernize the Mandarin as the father of Simu Liu’s Asian-American superhero taking the place of Dr. Fu Manchu, an even bigger Asian stereotype villain. This reworking was thanks in part to the film’s writing team of Dave Callaham, Destin Daniel Cretton, and Andrew Lanham.
In retrospect, it sounds like studio head Kevin Feige is owning up to that mistake concerning The Ancient One while speaking with Men’s Health (spotted by The Playlist) he admitted that could have done better reworking the character instead of simply hiring a white actor to avoid a stereotype landmine.
FEIGE: “We thought we were being so smart, and so cutting-edge. We’re not going to do the cliché of the wizened, old, wise Asian man. But it was a wake-up call to say, ‘Well, wait a minute, is there any other way to figure it out? Is there any other way to both not fall into the cliché and cast an Asian actor?’ And the answer to that, of course, is yes.”
Shang-Chi having a mostly Asian cast and the hiring of Gemma Chan as Sersi in Chloe Zhao’s Eternals when the major role could have gone to a white actor are signs the studio is committed to incremental change to give audiences stronger Asian characters in their superhero blockbusters. Hiring more Asian creatives is just as important as hiring more Asian talent to star in these projects.
Back in December, Senior Entertainment Reporter Brandon Katz of the Observer dropped a juicy rumor on the Post Cred Podcast that Jonathan Majors (Da 5 Bloods, Lovecraft Country), who had been recently cast as Kang The Conqueror in Ant-Man & The Wasp: Quantumania, was going to be showing-up first in Tom Hiddleston’s Loki series in June.
Well, The Ronin has recently come across similar information independently of Katz/Observer, which would bolster his original claim that we’ll see Jonathan’s MCU introduction in the Disney+ show before the release of Ant-Man 3. However, the size or scope of the appearance has yet to be determined but given the character’s connection to the Time Variance Agency, it could have plot importance to future MCU projects beyond the Ant-Man sequel set to shoot this summer at Pinewood Studios UK.
KC Walsh from Geeks Worldwide also backed up Brandon’s claim back in December.
Last month, Katz outlined in a piece for the Observer how Kang could be introduced in Loki.
The visually-striking show is said to help establish some of the ground rules of The Multiverse, which will be explored again in future releases such as Sam Raimi’s Doctor Strange In The Multiverse of Madness and possibly even more. I personally hope that Marvel Studios doesn’t overuse the Multiverse too much as the sci-fi narrative tool could become a storytelling crutch similar to time-travel.
It’s head writer is Michael Waldron (Doctor Strange 2, Rick & Morty) with Kate Herron (Sex Education) directing the episodes as production took place in Atlanta, Georgia.
Loki will debut June 9 on Disney+ with subsequent episodes dropping regularly on Wednesdays.
LOKI – Picking up immediately after Loki steals the Tesseract (again), he finds himself called before the Time Variance Authority, a bureaucratic organization that exists outside of time and space, forced to answer for his crimes against the timeline and given a choice: face deletion from reality or assist in catching an even greater threat.
With Discovery and WarnerMedia’s new merger news it seems like the future of the day-and-date model is seemingly already eroding. There had been an announcement back in December that WarnerMedia would be releasing their 2021 slate in theaters and HBO Max (for a month) on the same day. This model was used for most of their films already and is expected to be used on other upcoming releases, excluding one.
Deadline is echoing previous talk that Dune would avoid the HBO Max day-and-date model and debut at the Venice Film Festival in September before it’s domestic release on October 1, heading to HBO Max on a later date.
Deadline hears that Dune, the high-profile Denis Villeneuve sci-fi remake out this fall, will not adhere to the day-and-date release pattern established for the entire 2021 slate. Instead, it will premiere in Venice in September and then enter theaters for a time before finding its way to streaming service HBO Max.
WarnerMedia seems to be refuting the report as seen with the Twitter below, causing further confusion.
#Dune will premiere in theaters and on HBO Max on the same day in the US. (Source: Warner Bros.) https://t.co/SiFpbz0nK2
It’s worth noting that the official Legendary website only lists a theatrical release for Dune in October and zero mention of HBO Max.
Legendary wasn’t notified about the day-and-date before AT&T/WarnerMedia decided to throw Godzilla Vs. Kong and Dune into that mix. There had been reports that Legendary was ready to bring a lawsuit against the distributor after they squashed a $200 million offer from Netflix for Godzilla Vs. Kong and then turned around to dump the film on streaming without a premium fee. The movies released on HBO Max does not require anything but a subscription to the service which doesn’t exactly bring any real revenue to Warner Bros. Pictures, but luckily Godzilla Vs. Kong had a great box office run when other films have been struggling before and after its’ release.
DUNE – A mythic and emotionally charged hero’s journey, DUNE tells the story of Paul Atreides, a brilliant and gifted young man born into a great destiny beyond his understanding, who must travel to the most dangerous planet in the universe to ensure the future of his family and his people. As malevolent forces explode into conflict over the planet’s exclusive supply of the most precious resource in existence—a commodity capable of unlocking humanity’s greatest potential—only those who can conquer their fear will survive.
The film stars Oscar nominee Timothée Chalamet (“Call Me by Your Name,” “Little Women”), Rebecca Ferguson (“Stephen King’s Doctor Sleep,” “Mission: Impossible – Fallout”), Oscar Isaac (the “Star Wars” franchise) Oscar nominee Josh Brolin (“Milk,” “Avengers: Infinity War”), Stellan Skarsgård (HBO’s “Chernobyl,” “Avengers: Age of Ultron”), Dave Bautista (the “Guardians of the Galaxy” films, “Avengers: Endgame”), Stephen McKinley Henderson (“Fences,” “Lady Bird”), Zendaya (“Spider-Man: Homecoming,” HBO’s “Euphoria”), David Dastmalchian (“Blade Runner 2049,” “The Dark Knight”), Chang Chen (“Mr. Long,” “Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon”), Sharon Duncan-Brewster (“Rogue One: A Star Wars Story,” Netflix’s “Sex Education”), with Oscar nominee Charlotte Rampling (“45 Years,” “Assassin’s Creed”), with Jason Momoa (“Aquaman,” HBO’s “Game of Thrones”), and Oscar winner Javier Bardem (“No Country for Old Men,” “Skyfall”).
The DCEU is chugging along with David F. Sandberg is set to direct Shazam! Fury of The Gods with a release date of June 2, 2023. Returning cast members include Zachary Levi as Shazam, and Asher Angel as Billy Batson, Jack Dylan Grazer as Freddy Freeman, Faithe Herman as Darla Dudley, Grace Fulton as Mary Bromfield, Jovan Armand as Pedro Pena, Ian Chen as Eugene Choi, Cooper Andrews as Victor Vasquez, Marta Milans as Rosa Vasquez, Meagan Good, Michelle Borth, Ross Butler, D.J. Cotrona, and Adam Brody.
The new additions are Helen Mirren as Hespera, Lucy Liu as Kalypso, and Rachel Zegler.
It doesn’t look like Mark Strong’s Dr. Thaddeus Sivana will be coming back for the next film as he revealed to Den of Geek and is happy to see a group of female villains stepping up for the sequel.
STRONG: “Dr. Sivana isn’t in Shazam! 2. What’s happened is, I think Helen Mirren and Lucy Liu and perhaps someone else — they’ve got some female villains in. And to be honest with you, I’m very happy to take a back seat to some female villains and let them have a go, because judging by the work that Emma Thompson and Emma Stone have done in Cruella, it’s about time.”
However, Mark didn’t close the door on Shazam! 3.
STRONG: “Who knows? He’s still got unfinished business with Mister Mind.”
Filming on Fury of The Gods is confirmed for Atlanta, Georgia as the film’s lead Zachary Levi officially landed in the city not too long ago as revealed by a recent Instagram post. The same city that is being used to shoot Dwayne Johnson’s Black Adam, a foe of Levi’s Shazam! and will introduce the Justice Society to DCEU. The proximity to the two productions could see a crossover sooner than expected, but we’ll have to wait and see.
SHAZAM! – We all have a superhero inside of us — it just takes a bit of magic to bring it out. In 14-year-old Billy Batson’s case, all he needs to do is shout out one word to transform into the adult superhero Shazam. Still a kid at heart, Shazam revels in the new version of himself by doing what any other teen would do — have fun while testing out his newfound powers. But he’ll need to master them quickly before the evil Dr. Thaddeus Sivana can get his hands on Shazam’s magical abilities.
Folks might be unfamiliar with how British actor John Boyega developed his career in Hollywood and it all started with Joe Cornish’s alien invasion comedy Attack The Block, the 2011 R-rated parody saw a group of London toughs led by Boyega’s Moses as animal-like alien invade their estate block. The group of hoodlums pivot to become protectors of fellow residents when it’s clear the aliens aren’t terribly friendly.
Attack The Block had a similar tone to Edgar Wright’s fantastic zombie flick Shaun of The Dead, which wasn’t that surprising as Edgar was a producer and has a longstanding working relationship with Joe Cornish. You might remember that the pair once co-wrote the original script of Marvel’s Ant-Man only to exit over creative differences.
The success of the cult film helped push John towards the chase for a franchise role as he had teased an interest in playing Marvel’s Blade in Attack The Block press interviews, taking the mantle from Wesley Snipes, almost a decade before Mahershala Ali was announced as the new Eric Brooks. It ultimately led to John auditing for J.J. Abrams and Lucasfilm to play Finn in Star Wars: The Force Awakens officially launching his career to a completely different level.
There has been talk from director Joe Cornish was considering about making Attack The Block 2 and there is now confirmation by Deadline that Boyega is set to return with Joe also returning to write and direct the mature sci-fi comedy. Edgar Wright is back as producer as well via Complete Fiction Pictures.
The original co-starred Nick Frost (Shaun of The Dead, Hot Fuzz) and Jodie Whittaker (Doctor Who), but it remains to be seen if they’ll reprise their roles.
It’s unknown when they’ll want to begin production as Joe is a tad busy shooting the Netflix series Lockwood over the summer.
ATTACK THE BLOCK – Trainee nurse Sam is walking home to her flat in a scary South London tower block when she’s robbed by a gang of masked, hooded youths. She’s saved when the gang are distracted by a bright meteorite, which falls from the sky and hits a nearby parked car. Sam flees, just before the gang are attacked by a small alien creature that leaps from the wreckage. The gang chase the creature and kill it, dragging its ghoulish carcass to the top of the block, which they treat as their territory. While Sam and the police hunt for the gang, a second wave of meteors fall. Confident of victory against such feeble invaders, the gang grab weapons, mount bikes and mopeds and set out to defend their turf. But this time, the creatures are bigger. Much bigger. Savage, shadowy and bestial, they are hunting their fallen comrade and nothing will stand in their way. The estate is about to become a battleground. And the bunch of no-hope kids who just attacked Sam are about to become her and the block’s, only hope.
THE RONIN 
