Korean filmmaker Bong Joon Ho made waves with his Oscar-winning thriller Parasite, earning four awards including ones for Best Pictures and Best Director.
Screen Daily (spotted via The Playlist) has revealed that the director is looking at making an animated feature film after developing it since 2018 and has completed a script in January. The CGI animation project will explore the drama between humans and sea creatures. However, this won’t be the next film but will happen after that next film.
Animation studio 4th Creature Party will be heading up the project . The company has previously worked with Bong Joon Ho on his previous films The Host, Snowpiercer, and the Netflix film Okja.
The full CGI animation will deal with the drama that arises between deep sea creatures and human beings. 4th Creative Party will produce. Primarily based in Seoul with branches in Busan and Beijing, the company has worked on VFX for films such as Bong’s The Host, Snowpiercer and Okja, as well as Park Chan-wook’s Old Boy, Stoker and The Handmaiden.
It’s interesting that Pixar is about to release their own sea creature movie next month with the Italian-set Luca, however, the two projects are likely going to be very different from each other in the end.
It was announced today by Dwayne Johnson on Instagram that his big Disney film Jungle Cruise will be heading to Disney+’s Premier Access and theaters on July 30. This comes after they announced a hybrid release for Scarlett Johansson’s Black Widow on July 9, that film had originally planned to be released in May 2020 before the pandemic kept delaying it’s theatrical release.
Jungle Cruise is hoping to be the next Pirates of The Caribbean, becoming a franchise based on a Disney theme park ride but we’ll have to see if they’ll able to be successful on a global level with this hybrid model. This move will likely lead to more hybrid summer releases as while vaccinations are increasing in the United States, the domestic box office won’t fully recovery until herd immunity is reached. Vaccine hesitancy and anti-vaxxer narratives might make that difficult to happen by July, despite President Biden’s July 4 goal. Variants of the COVID-19 virus could also cause further headaches to the industry.
While Godzilla Vs. Kong’s box office success had shown audiences would be willing to come out to theaters for an event film, studios are still being cautious and offering home viewing options.
JUNGLE CRUISE – Inspired by the famous Disneyland theme park ride, Disney’s JUNGLE CRUISE is an adventure-filled, Amazon-jungle expedition starring Dwayne Johnson as the charismatic riverboat captain and Emily Blunt as a determined explorer on a research mission. Also starring in the film are Edgar Ramirez, Jack Whitehall, with Jesse Plemons, and Paul Giamatti. Jaume Collet-Serra is the director and John Davis, John Fox, Dwayne Johnson, Hiram Garcia, Dany Garcia and Beau Flynn are the producers, with Doug Merrifield serving as executive producer.
There has been a growing number of YouTube channels and websites that hellbent on pushing bogus Star Wars gossip for views/clicks. One of the biggest lies circulated from the group of butt-hurt fans known as the “fandom menace” is that Marvel Studios’ Kevin Feige is being lined-up to replace Lucasfilm’s Kathleen Kennedy and that Kennedy is on the cusp of being fired by Disney (started in the wake of Star Wars: The Last Jedi’s release). This stems from a vocal minority online that have spun a narrative that Kennedy is the real problem behind every single hiccup with the Star Wars franchise, which for the most part comes off as misogynistic as a lot of the gripes have been cited as adding female leading characters and diversity being a priority. It comes off like the same group that have directed a lot of their ire towards actress Brie Larson and her Marvel movie Captain Marvel.
Well, Variety released an article recently commenting on the power structure of Disney’s various studios and specifically mentioned that Kevin Feige has “no ambition” to run Lucasfilm. This would debunk false fan speculation for another couple of months before it’s resurrected by sketchy online sources looking for attention.
After it was announced in 2019 that Feige would produce a “Star Wars” movie, there were rumors that he might assume more control of Lucasfilm. However, insiders say that Feige is fully committed with his Marvel duties and has no ambition to lead Lucasfilm or take more of a role. Few details have emerged about the “Star Wars” film he wants to make, and no production timeline has been set.
The bunk rumor was birthed from legit trade reports that Kevin is aiming to produce an untitled Star Wars film with screenwriter Michael Waldron (Loki, Doctor Strange 2, Rick & Morty) attached to work on a script. However, Feige was granted the new role of chief creative officer at Marvel by Disney. This essentially gave him full creative control of the company and allows him to oversee everything Marvel-related. With that in mind, it really wouldn’t make sense that he would throw that away to run another studio division that is making money and earning Emmy awards.
There have also been chatter among those same fans that Jon Favreau and Dave Filoni are looking to replace Kennedy as well. The problem with that theory is they’re way too busy producing, writing, directing and running multiple Disney+ shows to be stepping back from their current creative roles to become administrators.
Today, Amazon has announced a third director has joined their Lord of The Rings series that has a massive budget of $465 million for Season 1 (five season commitment) and is still shooting down in Auckland, New Zealand. It’s massive budget revealed by trade reports.
The streamer dropped in an officially press release that Swedish-French television director Charlotte Brandstrom (The Witcher, The Man In The High Castle) has joined the fantasy series loosely based on the work of author J.R.R. Tolkien and taking place within the Second Age of Middle-Earth. The era that saw the rise of Sauron after the banishment of the first Dark Lord, Morgorth, the fall of the island kingdom of Númenor, the creation of the Rings of Power, and Sauron’s ultimate defeat (for a time).
She’ll direct two episodes alongside J.A. Bayona and Wayne Che Yip.
Continuing on the work of Spanish filmmaker J.A. Bayona and British Chinese Director Wayne Che Yip, Brändström joins the international ensemble cast, currently filming in New Zealand, to direct two episodes. Brändström is an International Emmy Award®-nominee for Julie, chevalier de Maupin. She has also directed over 30 feature films, mini-series, and movies-of-the-week including episodes of The Man in the High Castle, Outlander, The Witcher and the upcoming series Jupiter’s Legacy.
Amazon Studios’ forthcoming series brings to screens for the very first time the heroic legends of the fabled Second Age of Middle-Earth’s history. This epic drama is set thousands of years before the events of J.R.R. Tolkien’s The Hobbit and The Lord of the Rings. Beginning in a time of relative peace, the series follows an ensemble cast of characters, both familiar and new, as they confront the long-feared re-emergence of evil to Middle-earth. From the darkest depths of the Misty Mountains, to the majestic forests of the elf-capital of Lindon, to the breathtaking island kingdom of Númenor, to the furthest reaches of the map, these kingdoms and characters will carve out legacies that live on long after they are gone.
The show’s massive cast includes actors Robert Aramayo, Owain Arthur, Nazanin Boniadi, Tom Budge, Morfydd Clark, Ismael Cruz Córdova, Ema Horvath, Markella Kavenagh, Joseph Mawle, Tyroe Muhafidin, Sophia Nomvete, Megan Richards, Dylan Smith, Charlie Vickers, Daniel Weyman, Lenny Henry, Peter Mullan (Trainspotting, Children of Men), Lloyd Owen, Augustus Prew, Peter Tait, Benjamin Walker (Heart of The Sea, Abraham Lincoln: Vampire Hunter), Cynthia Addai-Robinson (Arrow, Power), Simon Merrells, Maxim Baldry, Ian Blackburn, Kip Chapman, Anthony Crum, Maxine Cunliffe, Trystan Gravelle, Thusitha Jayasundera, Fabian McCallum, Geoff Morrell, Alex Tarrant, Leon Wadham, and Sara Zwangobani.
Episodes are expected to begin airing on Prime Video in 2022 and we’re hearing they’ll continue to use Auckland for the production of subsequent seasons.
The latest addition to Rian Johnson’s Knives Out 2 has been announced.
The Hollywood Reporter has revealed that Moonlight actress Janelle Monae will take an undisclosed role in the sequel. Monae will join a cast that consists of Daniel Craig as Benoit Blanc, Dave Bautista (Spectre, Blade Runner 2049, Army of The Dead), and Edward Norton (Fight Club, Rounders, 25th Hour).
Netflix made a historical deal with Rian and Daniel Craig for at least two Knives Out sequels for a massive $400+ million, the two earning $100 million each. The first installment for Netflix will begin shooting next month in Greece and we’ll likely continue to see more announcements for the cast as Johnson taking cues from Agatha Christie’s Hercule Poirot novels and various mystery shows.
Knives Out was nominated for Best Original Screenplay and made an impressive $311.4 million at the global box office on a budget of $40 million.
While this will be a sequel, Daniel Craig is expected to be the only returning cast member at the moment as they’ll likely focus a new group of murder suspects in the European-set whodunit.
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.
While James Gunn has been set-out to make multiple Guardians of The Galaxy films, he once mused about the idea of adapting Marvel Comics supervillain team Thunderbolts for the big screen. The group is essentially Marvel’s version of The Suicide Squad and various members have been introduced over the years to the Marvel Cinematic Universe.
When Gunn was fired from the third Guardians movie he met with Warner Bros. and led to him writing/directing their sequel The Suicide Squad. During a Q&A session on his Instagram stories, James reaffirmed to a fan that he isn’t looking to make a Thunderbolts movie for Marvel Studios and that The Suicide Squad “scratched that itch.”
This doesn’t mean that Marvel Studios won’t pursue a Thunderbolts project just because Gunn isn’t stepping away from his original idea of adapting the team. As previously mentioned, Marvel seems to be aiming to leave the door open for them to be assembled at some point as Daniel Bruhl’s Baron Zemo ended-up in Thunderbolt Ross’ super-prison The Raft by the final episode of The Falcon & The Winter Soldier series.
Other folks that might be part of the roster could include Sam Rockwell’s Justin Hammer, William Hurt’s Thunderbolt Ross aka Red Hulk, Emily VanCamp’s Sharon Carter, Hannah John-Kamen’s Ghost, Tim Roth’s Emil Blonsky aka Abomination, and the newly added John Walker aka U.S. Agent played by Wyatt Russell. Black Widow’s Yelena Belova and Taskmaster could also be contenders depending on the outcome of that film.
It’ll be interesting to see if Marvel if we’ll see the Thunderbolts introduced to the Marvel Cinematic Universe before Captain America 4. I’m also curious if the MCU version could combine Dark Avengers and Thunderbolts into one streamlined group.
Gunn has said that Guardians of The Galaxy Vol.3 is going to be end of his journey but isn’t ready to say he’s closing the door on making another Guardians project down the line.
A24 will be releasing the visually stunning fantasy film The Green Knight from filmmaker David Lowery that is loosely based on the Arthurian poem Sir Gawain & The Green Knight. Dev Patel’s Sir Gawain is a member of King Arthur’s Knights of The Round Table, being part of the public domain allows the studio not to worry about rights issues and gives them creative freedom to tinker with the mythology.
THE GREEN KNIGHT – An epic fantasy adventure based on the timeless Arthurian legend, The Green Knight tells the story of Sir Gawain (Dev Patel), King Arthur’s reckless and headstrong nephew, who embarks on a daring quest to confront the eponymous Green Knight, a gigantic emerald-skinned stranger and tester of men. Gawain contends with ghosts, giants, thieves, and schemers in what becomes a deeper journey to define his character and prove his worth in the eyes of his family and kingdom by facing the ultimate challenger. From visionary filmmaker David Lowery comes a fresh and bold spin on a classic tale from the knights of the round table.
The film releases in July 30 and has some extremely impressive visual effects shots from the wonderful Weta Digital, the high-profile effects house has some experience world-building with Peter Jackson’s Lord of The Rings and Hobbit trilogies.
I believe that A24 and David Lowery have an opportunity here to do something special with The Green Knight by slowly developing their own fantasy franchise with reasonably budgeted standalone R-rated films tackling various points of ancient myths. It’s also fiscally responsible to spend money on one movie at a time instead of pouring in a huge amount of money on a trilogy upfront. There are plenty of other characters worth exploring in solo films such as Merlin and Sir Lancelot among other stories linked to the Arthurian legends alone.
With the popularity of Game of Thrones, it was apparent that adult audiences are very much interested in fantasy genre material and hopefully The Green Knight can scratch that itch for the time being. I think the studio would be smart to at least consider having Lowery produce or direct some follow-ups of The Green Knight before branching off to other legends.
Once they’ve explored enough Arthurian tales they could move on to other myths such as Beowulf, Greek epic The Odyssey, the adventures of demigods like Perseus or Hercules, and Sigurd & The Dragon alongside the other tales in the massive world of Norse mythology. Unlike other studios perusing public domain material, they could assemble a great group of filmmakers to really bring life to these ancient stories by putting some real effort into developing them as real feature films, not sequel bait.
Lowery is currently busy shooting the Disney movie Peter Pan & Wendy in Vancouver.
Margot Robbie’s Harley Quinn has three feature films and the actress is still pining for Warner Bros. to move forward with Harley and Poison Ivy’s relationship as seen in the cartoons and comic books. The pair of female rogues have been longtime favorites and were first paired-up in the Batman animated series from the 1990s.
While speaking with Den of Geek, Margot says she is still pestering the studio about it but it’s unknown if we’ll see more Harley Quinn after The Suicide Squad.
ROBBIE: “Trust me, I chew their ear off about it all the time. They must be sick of hearing it, but I’m like, ‘Poison Ivy, Poison Ivy. Come on, let’s do it.’ I’m very keen to see a Harley-Poison Ivy relationship on screen. It’d be so fun. So I’ll keep pestering them. Don’t worry.”
This isn’t the first time Robbie has been chatting up the idea of seeing Ivy and Harley together on the big screen. She said the following during a chat with Pride Source.
ROBBIE: “If you read the comics you know that Poison Ivy and Harley have an intimate relationship. In some comics they convey it as a friendship; in other comics you can see that they’re actually sexually involved as a couple. I’ve been trying to—I would love to have Poison Ivy thrown into the universe, because the Harley and Poison Ivy relationship is one of my favorite aspects of the comics, so I’m looking to explore that on screen.”
Originally, there were plans for a Gotham City Sirens film that would have brought Selina Kyle aka Catwoman, Poison Ivy, and Harley Quinn together before the studio pivoted to make Cathy Yan’s Birds of Prey instead pairing her with heroines Huntress and Black Canary.
The Suicide Squad is set for release on August 6, 2021.
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.
The film stars Margot Robbie (“Birds of Prey,” “Bombshell”), Idris Elba (“Avengers: Infinity War”), John Cena (upcoming HBO Max series “Peacemaker,” “Bumblebee”), Joel Kinnaman (“Suicide Squad”), Jai Courtney (the “Divergent” franchise), Peter Capaldi (“World War Z,” BBC’s “Doctor Who” ), David Dastmalchian (upcoming “Dune,” “Ant-Man and the Wasp”), Daniela Melchior (“Parque Mayer”), Michael Rooker (the “Guardians of the Galaxy” films), Alice Braga (“Elysium”), Pete Davidson (“The King of Staten Island,” TV’s “Saturday Night Live”), Joaquín Cosio (“Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse,” TV’s “Narcos: Mexico”), Juan Diego Botto (“The Europeans”), Storm Reid (“The Invisible Man,” “A Wrinkle in Time”, “Euphoria”), Nathan Fillion (“Guardians of the Galaxy,” TV’s “The Rookie”), Steve Agee (“Brightburn,” “Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 2”), Sean Gunn (the “Guardians of the Galaxy” films, the “Avengers” films), Mayling Ng (“Wonder Woman”), Flula Borg (“Ralph Breaks the Internet”), Jennifer Holland (“Brightburn,” upcoming HBO Max series “Peacemaker”) and Tinashe Kajese (TV’s “Valor,” “The Inspectors”), with Sylvester Stallone (the “Rocky,” “Rambo” and “Expendables” franchises), and Viola Davis (“Ma Rainey’s Black Bottom,” “Suicide Squad”).
It doesn’t look like we’ll be seeing Regina King direct Blade, The Vampire Hunter or the new black Superman film that is being developed by Warner Bros./Bad Robot, she’s decided another comic book project altogether.
After directing the Oscar-nominated film, One Night In Miami, she’s landed a high-profile feature adaptation of the Image Comics property Bitter Root for Legendary and producer Ryan Coogler. The news comes from The Hollywood Reporter and sounds a little similar to Lovecraft Country.
Bitter Root is set in 1924 during the Harlem Renaissance and tells of the Sangeryes, a family of once-great monster hunters, who face an evil that descends upon New York.
Screenwriter Bryan Edward Hill (Power Rangers) is behind the film’s script.
It’s unknown when Legendary wants Bitter Root to begin shooting but this likely means she could be too busy to tackle films for Marvel Studios or DC Films at this time. Allowing other names floated by trades to tackle Blade and Superman as it looks like the two projects are eyeing a production start in 2022.
Ryan Coogler is about to begin shooting on Black Panther: Wakanda Forever this July with a spinoff series for Disney+ also in the works.
Marvel Studios casting real-life couple John Kraskinski and Emily Blunt for their Fantastic Four reboot from Spider-Man: No Way Home director Jon Watts is starting to feel like stretch given recent comments from the pair of actors.
Emily has been on Marvel’s radar going back to Iron Man 2 as she was originally attached to play Black Widow before 20th Century Fox exercised a contract and pulled her off the film leading to Scarlett Johansson taking the role instead. She was later in the mix to play Peggy Carter with John up for the Steve Rogers, neither landed the project.
Speaking on The Howard Stern Show, Emily Blunt revealed that despite online rumblings neither of them have got a call from Marvel about the reboot and even downplayed her enthusiasm for superhero roles entirely. After striking out twice before you can’t really blame Emily for feeling like the genre isn’t for her. There had been similar rumors about her being wanted for Carol Danvers aka Captain Marvel but has since denied multiple times in interviews that was ever a thing.
BLUNT: “That is fan-casting. No one has received a phone call. That’s just people saying, ‘Wouldn’t that be great?’ It’s not that it’s beneath me. I love Iron Man and when I got offered Black Widow I was obsessed with Iron Man. I wanted to work with Robert Downey Jr., it would’ve been amazing but I don’t know if superhero movies are for me. They’re not up my alley. I don’t like them. I really don’t.”
This comes after hubby John Krasinski also nixed rumors last year and has recently landed a deal with Paramount Pictures that will likely keep him busy for ages.
Emily recently worked with Disney for the Jungle Cruise movie based on the theme park ride and if successful will likely spawn sequels. An Edge of Tomorrow sequel has been in the works for ages but as Blunt has stated multiple times it all comes down to scheduling with Tom Cruise and director Doug Liman.
Tenet actor John David Washington has voiced some interest in playing Reed Richards.
Back in February, Deadline reported the production was only early stages of development and didn’t have screenwriters attached. With 2023 release dates dwindling and Blade expected to be third 2023 release, there is a good shot that we won’t see Fantastic Four until sometime in 2024. We still don’t have a timeline as Watts is still seemingly working on the final days of shooting Spider-Man: No Way Home and will have to spend most of 2021 in post-production before it’s December release.
THE RONIN 