Author: Christopher Marc

Posted on in Film News

‘The Mandalorian’ Cinematographer Baz Idoine Confirms He’s Working On ‘Thor: Love & Thunder’

Marvel’s Thor: Love & Thunder (working title The Big Salad) has been filming at Fox Studios Australia in Sydney, New South Wales, Australia with director Taika Waititi returning to make the fourth installment. The film’s mysterious cinematographer has been officially revealed.

Speaking with New Zealand outlet Kea, Baz Idoine confirmed he is currently working on Thor: Love & Thunder. He is best known for his Emmy-winning work on The Mandalorian series and was the second unit cinematographer on American Sniper and Rogue One: A Star Wars Story.

IDOINE: “I can’t talk much about them, but I’m working in Australia at the moment on Thor: Love and Thunder which I’ll be working on until the end of 2021. Then, I’ll just see what happens. Personally, my wife and I are hoping to move back to New Zealand next year.”

Taika and Baz previously worked together on The Mandalorian. This could potentially explain why The Book of Boba Fett was placed into production in the fall instead of Season 3 of The Mandalorian as the show’s cinematographer has been busy working on a Marvel Studios movie. I’m curious if the two will reunite on Taika’s untitled Star Wars movie he is developing for Lucasfilm.

Love & Thunder will introduce the cosmic beings known as The Olympians and will feature cameos from many members of Guardians of The Galaxy, one of the final scenes of Avengers: Endgame saw Thor leaving Earth with the Guardians to go on an adventure in space.

The film’s cast consists of Natalie Portman as Jane Foster aka Lady Thor, Chris Hemsworth as Thor, Christian Bale as Gorr The God Butcher, Tessa Thompson as King Valkyrie of New Asgard, Russell Crowe as Zeus, Matt Damon as fake Loki, Melissa McCarthy as fake Hela, Sam Neill as fake Odin, Luke Hemsworth as fake Thor, Jaimie Alexander as Lady Sif, Chris Pratt as Peter Quill aka Star-Lord, Karen Gillan as Nebula, Dave Bautista as Drax The Destroyer, Pom Klementieff as Mantis, Taika as the lovable Korg, and Sean Gunn as Kraglin.

Thor: Love & Thunder will open in theaters on May 6, 2022.

SOURCE: KEA

Posted on in Television News

Jon Favreau Confirmed To Showrun ‘Rangers of The New Republic’

The Ronin can now confirm that executive producer Jon Favreau is going to be the showrunner on the Star Wars series Rangers of The New Republic. While both Jon and Dave Filoni were originally announced in December as creators and executive producers on The Mandalorian spinoff, a showrunner wasn’t named. I’ve learned that the bulk of the work is going to land on Favreau’s shoulders which isn’t terribly surprising as he was previously the showrunner on last two seasons of The Mandalorian.

Rangers of The New Republic as revealed by Kathy Kennedy takes place in the same timeline of The Mandalorian and will likely include some characters we’ve already been introduced to. It’s possible that Gina Carano’s Cara Dune was wanted for a leading role in the show before she was fired by Lucasfilm.

There was a chance Jon and Dave could have outsourced the showrunner position given how many shows were announced back in December and Season 3 of The Mandalorian seemingly still hasn’t started production. Favreau is most likely going to continue his role as showrunner with Season 3.

It’s still unclear what the pecking order is with The Book of Boba Fett as Jon, Dave, and Robert Rodriguez are all executive producing but we should start learning more information about the series in the coming months. Rogue One’s Tony Gilroy took over as the showrunner on the Andor series and Army of The Dead’s Joby Harold is the showrunner on Obi-Wan Kenobi. Dave Filoni is assumed to be the showrunner of the Ahsoka series.

The Book of Boba Fett is the next series to air on Disney+ this December. Andor and Obi-Wan Kenobi are currently filming in different countries. There are still plans to shoot Season 3 of The Mandalorian at some point but Pedro Pascal is going to be busy this summer shooting HBO’s The Last of Us in Calgary, Alberta, Canada.

Posted on in Television News

‘Andor’: The Shoretroopers From ‘Rogue One’ Returning & Diego Luna’s Cassian Andor Spotted In Set Photos

The Book of Boba Fett and Andor are the next installments of Lucasfilm’s live-action Star Wars projects that will be airing exclusively on Disney+, both are apparently still shooting as Obi-Wan Kenobi just started in California. Andor is said to be skewing more in the realm of a spy thriller and could end up getting multiple seasons similar to The Mandalorian allowing them to explore this fantastic Rogue One corner of the universe.

Some photos from the set of Andor In England have made their way online and confirm that the Shoretroopers, introduced in Rogue One: A Story Story, will be making their return on the show. that takes place five years before the events of Rogue One. The well-designed troopers had previously appeared briefly on Season 2 of The Mandalorian.

You check out some of those set photos making the rounds at Making Star Wars.

Joining Diego Luna will be Adria Arjona (Morbius), Denise Gough, Genevieve O’Reilly as Mon Mothma, Stellan Skarsgard (Thor, Dune, Girl With The Dragon Tattoo), Fiona Shaw, and Kyle Soller. Originally, Alan Tudyk was announced to reprise his role as the smart-mouthed droid K-2SO, but had recently revealed to Collider that he was unlikely going to be involved with Season 1 due to changes made by Tony Gilory when he joined the project and rewriting episodes. He also inadvertently teased Andor would be getting multiple seasons.

TUDYK: “They’re shooting it right now, I’m not in it. But, if it stays on the air, stories keep getting told, I’ll end up in there.I’m going to be in the show. It’s just that the story that Tony [Gilroy] is telling doesn’t involve K-2SO until later on… I can’t be too specific, but I can definitely say that I’m not going to be in the first season.”

Given the show’s setting is five years before Rogue One, this could allow them to cover multiple seasons exploring the Rebellion spy.

Toby Haynes (Sherlock, Doctor Who, Utopia, Black Mirror) will be directing with a writing team that includes Tony Gilroy (Rogue One: A Star Wars Story), Dan Gilroy (Nightcrawler), Beau Willimon (House of Cards), and Stephen Schiff (The Americans).

Andor will debut on Disney+ sometime in 2022.

SOURCE: MAKING STAR WARS

Posted on in Film News

Dave Bautista Turned Down ‘The Suicide Squad’ To Make A Lot More Money & Work With Zack Snyder On ‘Army of The Dead’

Dave Bautista isn’t automatically thought of as a leading man despite leading a handful of projects in the past, but he’s aiming to branch-out from his intimidating supporting roles with his upcoming action-horror flick Army of The Dead, directed by Zack Snyder.

He was originally offered a role in James Gunn’s R-rated DC Comics film The Suicide Squad but reveals to Digital Spy in a recent interview the reasons he decided to do Army of The Dead instead. Those coming down to a bigger role, a lot more money, building a professional relationship with streaming giant Netflix and getting to work with Zack.

BAUTISTA: “James Gunn wrote a role for me in The Suicide Squad, which I was all fired up about, not only because he was making a huge comeback. He’s come back with The Suicide Squad and was rehired by Marvel, and has really been vindicated as far as that whole thing went. I was all up for it, and then I got Army of the Dead, which was not only a lead role for me, but also I really wanted to work with Zack Snyder. I’ve been wanting to work with him for years.”

“I had The Suicide Squad where I got to work with my boy again, even though it’s a smaller role, and then I had Army of the Dead on which I get to work with Zack, I get to build a relationship with Netflix, I get a lead role in a great film – and I get paid a lot more money. I had to call James, and I told him, ‘It breaks my heart, because as a friend, I want to be there with you, but professionally, this is the smart decision for me.'”

You can’t really blame Bautista to make a career move like that to give himself bigger exposure with a leading role over another supporting role.

The film stars Dave Bautista, Ella Purnell, Ana de la Reguera, Matthias Schweighöfer, Nora Arnezeder, Hiroyuki Sanada, Raúl Castillo, Michael Cassidy, Tig Notaro, and Garret Dillahunt.

Army of The Dead will be released on Netflix May 21 and in select theaters on May 14.

ARMY OF THE DEAD – After a zombie outbreak in Las Vegas, a group of mercenaries takes the ultimate gamble by venturing into the quarantine zone for the greatest heist ever.

SOURCE: DIGITAL SPY

Posted on in Film News

Dave Bautista Uncertain About Drax’s Future After ‘Guardians of The Galaxy Vol.3’ & Downplays Marvel’s Desire To Make Drax/Mantis Movie

You might remember that Drax actor Dave Bautista was one of the biggest defenders of director James Gunn when Disney originally fired him from Guardians of The Galaxy Vol. 3 and threatened not to return as Drax if Gunn wasn’t directing the third installment. Luckily, Disney had a change of heart but at that point, James Gunn was already committed to making The Suicide Squad for Warner Bros. further delaying the Guardians sequel and leading to alterations to the existing script when he ultimately returned. 

Gunn has mentioned publicly that Guardians 3 would likely be his final installment and that could be the case for Dave’s Drax as well. The actor spoke with Digital Spy revealing that while he hasn’t read the latest incarnation of the script, he’s not expecting a big future for Drax after the third pic and downplayed the idea of a Drax/Mantis team-up movie coming together. 

BAUTISTA: “I don’t know what the script of the third film is, to be honest with you. There was a script years ago that obviously is going to have to change because the whole direction of the Marvel universe has changed.”

“There were talks for a while about a Drax and Mantis film. It was really because it was James Gunn’s idea. He really wanted to do a Drax and Mantis film. He laid it out to me. I thought it was such a brilliant idea, but I haven’t heard any follow-up from the studio. I don’t think they’re very interested, or it doesn’t fit into the way they have things mapped out. But other than that, no. I mean, as far as my obligations, I’ve got Guardians 3, and that’s probably going to be the end of Drax.”

Director James Gunn is aiming to begin production on Guardians of The Galaxy Vol.3 (working title Hot Christmas) alongside the Holiday Special in the United Kingdom (where the first film shot) before the end of the year as previously mentioned by The Hollywood Reporter back in November. Gunn has been particularly busy with the post-production of his R-rated DC Comics sequel The Suicide Squad and its spinoff HBO Max series Peacemaker (working title Scriptures) starring John Cena, which is still filming in Vancouver. 

Other upcoming projects for Bautista include co-starring with Milla Jovovich in the Geroge R.R. Martin adaptation of his fantasy novella The Lost Lands from Resident Evil filmmaker Paul W.S. Anderson and he’s expected to shoot the alien prison break flick Universe’s Most Wanted next for director Brad Peyton. 

Guardians of The Galaxy Vol.3. is officially set for release on May 5, 2023.

SOURCE: DIGITAL SPY  

Posted on in Film News

Watch First-Look Trailer For Paul Verhoeven’s 17th Century Italian-Set Erotic Lesbian Nun Movie ‘Benedetta’ – Premiering At Cannes This Summer

Dutch filmmaker Paul Verhoeven has had one of the more interesting directorial careers moving between multiple different genres with satirical sci-fi action outings like RoboCop, Starship Troopers and Total Recall alongside thrillers like Basic Instinct, Elle, and Black Book. He’s set to return with his erotic nun movie Benedetta and the French studio Pathe has dropped the first-look trailer as it will debut first at the Cannes Film Festival on July 9, 2021.

The film stars Virginie Efira, Charlotte Rampling, Daphné Patakia, and Lambert Wilson.

Benedetta is based on the 1986 non-fiction book Immodest Acts: The Life of a Lesbian Nun in Renaissance Italy by Judith C. Brown with a script penned by Verhoeven and David Birke. It’s been a longtime coming as they wrapped production back in 2018 and the film has been patiently waiting for a festival reveal after a 2020 premiere at Cannes was cancelled due to the pandemic.

In the late 17th century, with plague ravaging the land, Benedetta Carlini joins the convent in Pescia, Tuscany, as a novice. Capable from an early age of performing miracles, Benedetta’s impact on life in the community is immediate and momentous.

SOURCE: PATHE

Posted on in Film News

Michael B. Jordan Admits He “Bombed” His ‘Star Wars: The Force Awakens’ Audition & Still Open To Reprise ‘Black Panther’ Villain Erik Killmonger

Michael B. Jordan is certainly is a different place in his career after two installments of Creed with a third on the way as he’ll make his feature film directorial debut on Creed III. He also got Marvel redemption after playing Johnny Storm in Fox’s Fantastic Four reboot only to play the complex villain Erik Killmonger in Ryan Coogler’s Black Panther.

Jordan is attempting to launch another franchise with Tom Clancy’s Without Remorse, set directly within the Jack Ryan universe and is attached to reprise his role in a Rainbow Six movie based on the Clancy novel. The new action film is currently playing on Amazon Prime Video and the actor is making the press rounds to promote it.

While speaking on the Variety podcast Just For Variety with Mark Malkin (via The Playlist), the actor revealed not everything has gone his way during his Hollywood journey as he recalls completely messing up an audition for a role in Star Wars: The Force Awakens with J.J. Abrams himself in the room.

JORDAN: “It was probably the Star Wars’ audition that I had with JJ [Abrams], I think. It just wasn’t my best. It was probably my worst to date. I just couldn’t wrap my brain around some of the sides. When you’re reading for these high-level projects, there’s never really any specificity in the sides. Everything is super gray and a secret. Reading it through, I just couldn’t connect it. Definitely bombed that one, for sure.”

I think he’s recovered from that experience and might potentially have a sigh of relief after the publicly frustrating experience cast members of the recent Star Wars trilogy were exposed to on and off the set. Notably, the racism that John Boyega and Kelly Marie Tran faced from so-called “fans” alongside what looked to be both their roles being trimmed at certain points in the trilogy by the studio.

Speaking of Black Panther, Entertainment Tonight also interviewed Jordan and brought up the possibility of him reprising the role of Erik Killmonger (died in last film) at some point. We know that Black Panther: Wakanda Forever is set to shoot this July in Atlanta and could likely conflict with the pre-production/filming of Creed III as Jordan will direct and star making it difficult for him to have a significant role in the Marvel sequel.

JORDAN: “There’s always a love I have for those characters and Erik is definitely one of those that means a lot to me. So only if it’s the right thing and it’s impactful and if I could add something to it. If it means something then, yeah, I wanna be a part of that journey, you know?”

SOURCE: JUST FOR VARIETY & ENTERTAINMENT TONIGHT

Posted on in Film News

Antoine Fuqua’s Sci-Fi Thriller ‘Infinite’ Starring Mark Wahlberg & Chiwetel Ejiofor Heading To Paramount+ Next Month

Originally set for release in theaters on September 24, Paramount Pictures has decided to move their big sci-fi film Infinite to their streaming service Paramount+ for sometime in June. The project directed by Training Day’s Antoine Fuqua stars Mark Wahlberg, Chitwetel Ejiofor, Dylan O’Brien, Toby Jones, Rupert Friend, Jason Mantzoukas, Sophie Cookson, and Wallis Day.

It’s a feature adaptation of the D. Eric Maikranz novel The Reincarnationist Papers.

For Evan McCauley (Mark Wahlberg), skills he has never learned and memories of places he has never visited haunt his daily life. Self-medicated and on the brink of a mental breakdown, a secret group that call themselves ‘Infinites’ come to his rescue, revealing to him that his memories are real – but they are from multiple past lives. The Infinites bring Evan into their extraordinary world, where a gifted few are given the ability to be reborn with their memories and knowledge accumulated over centuries. With critical secrets buried in his past, Evan must work with the Infinites to unlock the answers in his memories in a race against time to save humanity from one of their own (Chiwetel Ejiofor) who seeks to destroy it.

Chiwetel Ejiofor was recently seen in the popular Netflix comic book film The Old Guard alongside Oscar-winner Charlize Theron and is expected to have wrapped filming on Sam Raimi’s Doctor Strange In The Multiverse of Madness for Marvel Studios. The latter project potentially seeing him finally becoming the big-bad version of his MCU character Baron Karl Mordo.

This could be a potential sign of other studios looking to dump their summer and fall releases on streaming services to avoid low audience turn-out to focus on adding new/original content to places like Paramount+, a streamer that is going to need an influx of new films and series if it’s going to become competitive.

I’ll be interested to see if Paramount+ ends up getting their hands on other big Paramount movies later in the year. Showtime’s high-profile series adaptation of the Halo video game franchise recently moved to the streaming service not too long ago.

SOURCE: DEADLINE

Posted on in Film News

‘Tenet’ Star John David Washington Joins Sci-Fi Pic ‘True Love’ From ‘Rogue One’ Director Gareth Edwards

Actor John David Washington has been gathering a lot of steam after his lead role in Spike Lee’s fantastic BlacKkKlansman showed-off his acting chops and charming personality., giving Hollywood some insight to his ability to play a leading man. Washington became the main protagonist in Christopher Nolan’s action flick Tenet last summer and joined the next David O’Russell moving alongside folks such as Christian Bale and Margot Robbie among others.

His next big project will be teaming up with Godzilla and Rogue One: A Star Wars Story director Gareth Edwards on his sci-fi flick True Love at New Regency, according to a report coming from Deadline. Details on the project are scarce at the moment but it’s setting is said to be “near future.”

True Love will be both written and directed by Gareth Edwards.

This would be the first big project for Edwards since the production/editing hiccups on Rogue One led Lucasfilm to bring on Tony Gilroy to reshoot a bunch of things in the first A Star Wars Story installment, including the third act as revealed by photos and earlier trailer footage. Seeing the filmmaker moving away from existing IP is likely going to allow him to be a bit more creative. Then again, he helped launch Legendary’s MonsterVerse cinematic universe back in 2014 with his impressive Godzilla movie starring Bryan Cranston and Aaron Taylor-Johnson.

It’s unclear when they’ll begin shooting True Love.

SOURCE: DEADLINE

Posted on in Film News

Blake Lively & Diablo Cody Team For ‘Lady Killer’ Movie For Netflix

We’re starting to see Netflix develop more and more comic book projects, they claim that their recent film adaptation The Old Guard starring Charlize Theron was extremely popular and they’re already working on sequel. There are even more comic projects coming.

The streaming giant is reportedly developing a feature film based on the Dark Horse Comics property Lady Killer as part of their development deal, according to Deadline. Their report reveals that Oscar-winning screenwriter Diablo Cody (Juno, Jennifer’s Body) is set to adapt the comic with Blake Lively attached to play Josie Schuller.

The plan is for Lively to play Josie Schuller. By all appearances, she is the perfect 1950’s housewife. But when she’s not catering to the needs of her family, she leads a secret life as a highly-trained killer for hire. She really likes the second job, and her husband has no idea.

Lady Killer is a comic book series written by Joëlle Jones and Jamie S. Rich, illustrated by Joëlle Jones, and colored by Laura Allred. It has been published by Dark Horse Comics since January 2015 and was nominated at the Eisner Awards as Best Limited Series in 2016.

This wouldn’t be Lively’s first brush with comic book movies as she worked with future husband Ryan Reynolds on the disastrous Green Lantern movie. Diablo Cody working again on genre projects is fantastic and I’m hopeful this leans more int he realm of Jennifer’s Body, which is an extremely underrated horror flick.

Netflix previously worked with Dark Hose Entertainment to adapt comics such as The Umbrella Company and Polar, the latter starring Mads Mikkelsen.

SOURCE: DEADLINE