Category: Film News

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Alden Ehrenreich Suggests He’s Moved On From Han Solo Role – “It’s Not A Huge Part of My Life Anymore”

Despite all the internet rumors of Alden Ehrenreich reprising the role of Han Solo in film sequels and various Disney+ shows the actor himself seems to be moving on to other projects like his new science fiction series Brave New World.

While promoting the Peacock original series based on the classic Aldous Huxley novel, Alden suggests to UK outlet the Independent that he is moving on his life beyond Star Wars saying “it’s not a huge part of my life anymore”.

EHRENREICH: “It’s not a huge part of my life anymore. But my sense is that there was a really clear disconnect between the way it was really received and then the stories that came out about it. That we had a troubled production or whatever. And it’s not really a story that the movie did totally fine. It didn’t make a billion dollars but it did fine and people liked it – but that’s not interesting. What’s interesting is: ‘This is the biggest movie of all time and it was absolutely a disaster’.”

“I knew, no matter what happened, that I was putting myself in a situation where people would be saying things about me. But honestly, that whole experience felt like this huge, high-seas adventure.”

I’m not sure these comments will quell fan speculation of him returning to the role in the future, even though, he’ll eventually age-out making it impossible for him to return.

Despite recent rumors over the summer of Donald Glover getting his own Lando show I don’t know if they’ll be able to wrangle Alden back.

SOURCE: INDEPENDENT

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David Harbour Replaces Sebastian Stan In Steven Soderbergh’s Thriller ‘No Sudden Move’ – George Clooney Also Exits

Breaking news on Steven Soderbergh’s Kill Switch as the film has been retitled to No Sudden Move and lands new cast members.

The Hollywood Reporter says that David Harbour, Noah Jupe, and Brendan Fraser have joined the film after George Clooney and Sebastian Stan have exited the thriller.

Filming on the HBO Max film has begun today in Detroit with a cast that includes Don Cheadle, Benicio Del Toro, Amy Seimetz (The Comey Rule), Jon Hamm, Ray Liotta, Bill Duke, Frankie Shaw, and Julia Fox.

No Sudden Move is set in 1955 Detroit and centers on a group of small-time criminals who are hired to steal what they think is a simple document. When their plan goes horribly wrong, their search for who hired them – and for what ultimate purpose – weaves them through all echelons of the race-torn, rapidly changing city.

The outlet adding that Harbour is replacing Stan in the film. Sebastian is currently busy finishing up filming for The Falcon & The Winter Soldier.

SOURCE: THE HOLLYWOOD REPORTER

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‘Rogue One’s Donnie Yen To Lead South Boston Action Flick ‘The Father’ – Alec Baldwin and Frank Grillo Will Also Star

News coming of the Toronto International Film Festival via Deadline that martial arts star Donnie Yen (Mulan, Rogue One: A Star Wars Story) will lead a new Boston-set action flick titled The Father from director Tommy Wirkola with production aiming to begin in early 2021.

Joining Yen in the film said to be an homage to action films of the 1980s will be Alec Baldwin (The Departed, Mission: Impossible – Fallout) and Frank Grillo (Captain America: The Winter Soldier).

The Father was written by Cut Throat City screenwriter P.G. Cuschieri.

Described as an ode to the revered action movies of the 1980s, The Father is set against the Irish-American gangland of South Boston and charts the struggle of middle-class Hong Kong immigrant John Chung (Yen) making the best of his family’s new American life while working as a modest fish broker in the city’s infamous docklands. When his wayward teenage boys stumble upon four kilos of heroin, they’re hunted by a local crime ring and a group of corrupt cops. Also starring are Alec Baldwin and Frank Grillo.

Arthur Sarkissian (Rush Hour), Basil Iwanyk and Erica Lee of Thunder Road (John Wick), John Schramm and Yen will produce from a script by P.G. Cuschieri to be directed by Tommy Wirkola (Hansel and Gretel: Witch Hunters).

Yen has been mostly known for his Ip Man franchise but has shown up in various Hollywood films such as Guillermo del Toro’s Blade II, Shanghai Knights, Rogue One: A Star Wars Story, xXx: The Return of Xander Cage, and most recently with Disney’s live-action remake of Mulan.

Norwegian director Tommy Wirkola is known for his genre hybrid films Dead Snow and Hansel & Gretel: Witch Hunters.

SOURCE: DEADLINE

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Katherine Waterston Hopeful Daniels Is Still Alive For Another ‘Alien’ Film From Ridley Scott

While speaking with The Playlist, Alien: Covenant actress Katherine Waterston reaffirmed a desire to reprise the role of Daniels for another Alien prequel film, if her character is still alive.

PLAYLIST: Would you make another Alien movie?

WATERSTON: “In a heartbeat. I loved working with Ridley and I loved playing that part. I hope we can! I would love it! I hope she’s still alive!”

Katherine isn’t speaking out of school questioning if Daniels is still alive as they killed Noomi Rapace’s Elizabeth Shaw off-screen when she was supposed to return in a bigger role originally in earlier incarnations of Alien: Covenant.

However, Ridley Scott spoke with Forbes recently where he suggested that if he makes another Alien film it might deviate from the last two installments and might not even connect to them.

SCOTT: “That’s in process. We went down a route to try and reinvent the wheel with Prometheus and Covenant. Whether or not we go directly back to that is doubtful because Prometheus woke it up very well. But you know, you’re asking fundamental questions like, ‘Has the Alien himself, the facehugger, the chestburster, have they all run out of steam? Do you have to rethink the whole bloody thing and simply use the word to franchise?’ That’s always the fundamental question.”

ALIEN: COVENANT – Bound for a remote planet on the far side of the galaxy, members (Katherine Waterston, Billy Crudup) of the colony ship Covenant discover what they think to be an uncharted paradise. While there, they meet David (Michael Fassbender), the synthetic survivor of the doomed Prometheus expedition. The mysterious world soon turns dark and dangerous when a hostile alien life-form forces the crew into a deadly fight for survival.

SOURCE: THE PLAYLIST

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Dwayne Johnson Confirms Aldis Hodge Will Play Hawkman In ‘Black Adam’

Yesterday, there were multiple trade reports that actor Aldis Hodge (Straight Outta Compton, The Invisible Man, Jack Reacher: Never Go Back) was in talks to play Hawkman in the upcoming DC Comics film Black Adam. Dwayne Johnson has taken to social media to confirm the news and welcome Aldis to the film with the following post on Instagram. 

JOHNSON: “A pleasure to welcome Aldis Hodge to BLACK ADAM. HAWKMAN is a critical leading role for our movie, as he is the fiery leader of the JSA (Justice Society of America) and one of the most beloved and legendary characters in the DC UNIVERSE. I called Aldis personally as I wanted to surprise him that he got the role and it wound up being one of the greatest conversations I’ve ever had. Can’t wait to work with this very talented brother. The perfect HAWKMAN. Let’s get to work.”

Aldis also posted this on Instagram.

The casting confirmation would dispel multiple bogus rumors circulating the internet about who was being cast in the superhero role. 

Noah Centineo has been previously announced for the role of Atom Smasher.

Black Adam is still set to shoot in Atlanta, Georgia, sometime next year. 

SOURCE: DWAYNE JOHNSON 

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‘Tenet’s John David Washington Open To Playing Reed Richards In Marvel’s ‘Fantastic Four’ Reboot – “Where Do I Sign?”

We’ve been excited to see what Marvel does with the Fox properties now that they have the film rights to fully explore both a Fantastic Four and X-Men after the merger between Disney and 21st Century Fox led to the rights heading over to Kevin Feige’s Marvel Studios. 

Marvel seemingly hasn’t decided on the main actors for the Fantastic Four reboot. Despite some recent evidence, they are moving forward with a film via LLC information spotted by Muprhy’s Multiverse that Solve Everything Productions LLC just might be Marvel getting their reboot of Fantastic Four ready. 

The recent news that they’ve cast Jonathan Majors in the role of supervillain Kang The Conqueror or Ant-Man 3 (unconfirmed by Majors or Marvel) could suggest if they indeed make the villain a future relative of Reed Richards, as in the comics, that we could be seeing a black version of the iconic character. 

This has led fans to suggest people such as Tenet’s John David Washington after he got endorsed for the Green Lantern role by director Christopher Nolan. 

While speaking with Nerd Reactor, they asked him about playing Richards and Washington seems really open to the idea. 

NR: I think Marvel is going to do a new Fantastic Four movie, so, let’s pretend I’m Kevin Feige I come up to you ‘What to be part of the Fantastic Four, maybe, Reed Richards the main lead’. Would you do it’?

WASHINGTON: Wow, I’d say ‘Well, thank you for having me, thank you for taking this meeting where do I sign?”

You can watch that exchange below. 

There had been a massive fan campaign online to see real-life married couple John Krasinski and Emily Blunt in the roles of Mr. Fantastic and Sue Storm respectively. However, that doesn’t to seem have come together as fans had hoped it would.

Honestly, I as long as they make a compelling story that has audiences finally caring about the Fantastic Four it really doesn’t matter who they end up picking for the roles as long as the character development is there and they can act. I’m optimistic about Marvel handling these characters as I had zero interest in the last three films from 20th Century Fox.

SOURCE: NERD REACTOR 

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Jonathan Majors Responds To Report He’s Playing Marvel Villain Kang The Conqueror In ‘Ant-Man 3’

It was recently reported by the trades that Lovecraft Country star Jonathan Majors has signed on to play the time-traveling Avengers villain Kang The Conqueror in Ant-Man 3. 

The Tonight Show host Jimmy Fallon has now asked Majors if he had heard this rumor about playing Kang in the MCU and Jonathan responded as follows. 

MAJORS: “It’s just you and me? Man, I heard the same thing, bro. I heard the same thing bro and was like ‘What, what, what?’. We apparently have the same source cause I heard it too.”

You can watch the cheeky exchange below. 

Peyton Reed is officially returning to direct Paul Rudd and Evangeline Lily. 

Filming is expected to take place in the United Kingdom at Pinewood Studios UK and the studio is aiming for a 2022 release date, but that isn’t set in stone. 

SOURCE: THE TONIGHT SHOW

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Sega Developing Live-Action Movie Based On ‘Yakuza’ Video Game Franchise

Another video game feature film adaptation is on the way!

Variety is reporting that after their success with the film Sonic The Hedgehog, video game developer Sega is looking to make a feature film based on their gangster video game franchise titled Yakuza and are now seeking screenwriters. The multiple installments are games that balance soap opera and brawler elements set in the Japanese underworld. 

Erik Barmack, Roberto Grande and Joshua Long will produce. 1212 and Wild Sheep are searching for writers for the script.

The first game follows the story of Kazuma Kiryu being released from a 10-year prison sentence after taking the fall for the murder of his family’s patriarch. After the entire Japanese underworld is pulled into the search for $100 million stolen from the vault of his former clan, Kiryu is forced back into the lawless world of the yakuza.

In Japan, yakuza movies are extremely popular and have their own sub-genre similar to American mafia films. 

The world-famous Japanese tattoo artist named Horitomo designed the elaborate irezumi tattoos (traditional Japanese tattoos) that the Yakuza characters wear in the games and I’ll keep my fingers crossed they will ask him to consult on the film. 

SOURCE: VARIETY

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James Cameron Says ‘Avatar 2’ Has Finished Filming In New Zealand and ‘Avatar 3’ Is 95% Done

During a one-on-one chat with Arnold Schwarzenegger on Arnold’s YouTube channel, director James Cameron has announced how much of his Avatar sequels (four of them) have completed filming at this point. You might remember that production halted just before everyone in the crew was going to return to New Zealand’s Stone Street Studios in Wellington, to do some extensive live-action shooting for Avatar 2 and Avatar 3. 

Here is what Jim had to say about the status of the two upcoming Avatar films during his chat with the Terminator franchise actor. As it sounds like the filming portion for both films is almost completed. 

CAMERON: “Well, COVID hit us like it hit everyone. We lost about four and a half months of production as a result of that we’ve rolled around one more full year for a release in December of 2022. That’s been announced already but that doesn’t mean I have an extra year to finish the film because the day we deliver Avatar 2 we’ll just start working on Avatar 3.”

“So, where we are right now, I’m down in New Zealand shooting the remainder of the live-action we’ve got 10% left to go. We’re 100% complete on Avatar 2 and we’re sort of 95% compete on Avatar 3. 

“We’re very lucky in that we chose [New Zealand] as our production site years ago.”

There is still a heap of post-production work to finish on the two massive movies and Cameron will then expectedly move into making Avatar 4 and Avatar 5 next. 

Avatar 2 has new release date of December 16th, 2022 and Avatar 3 is set for December 20th, 2024. 

SOURCE: ARNOLD SCHWARZENEGGER 

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‘RoboCop’ Co-Creator Ed Neumeier Gives An Update On ‘RoboCop Returns’ – Praises New Director Abe Forsythe

While RoboCop co-creator and screenwriter Ed Neumeier (Starship Troopers) has talked up the potential of a prequel series featuring OCP’s Dick Jones, he also mentioned to SyFy Wire this month about the current status of RoboCop Returns. The direct sequel to the original 1987 film that recently saw Neill Blomkamp (District 9) exit and replaced with Aussie director Abe Forsythe (Little Monsters).

Ed talked about working with Abe and how he’s tackling the sequel.

NEUMEIER: “We had a deal, Neill came on, then Abe Forsythe came on and I think he’s using a lot of the stuff Neill had and some of the original stuff [from the 1998 script]. But Abe is doing his own version, which is what I wanted. I needed a fresh voice and he had a really interesting idea. We’re hoping when the next draft comes in we’ll be in a position to make it.”

“Abe made a really interesting movie in Little Monsters, but he made a really interesting Australian film about the race riots [Down Under] I was really impressed with, it was kind of a pseudo-documentary and had an ’80s style. I didn’t want to say too much, I wanted him to have the ideas and not worry about any other version of it, including ours, and just do his own thing. It was very nice to be able to say that to someone like Abe with confidence. What he came back with was really interesting, it felt relevant and really crackled. I expect to see a script any day now.“

According to Ed the studio hasn’t greenlit the film as they’re still trying to nail-down a script.

NEUMEIER: “No, we’re still trying to get a script right. We went on some wild rambles with Mr. Blomkamp, so Abe has his work cut out for him.”

It’ll be interesting to see if MGM Studios will end up making the film given all the hiccups. I recently watched Little Monsters and can fully support Abe tackling the world of RoboCop.

ROBOCOP – In a violent, near-apocalyptic Detroit, evil corporation Omni Consumer Products wins a contract from the city government to privatize the police force. To test their crime-eradicating cyborgs, the company leads street cop Alex Murphy (Peter Weller) into an armed confrontation with crime lord Boddicker (Kurtwood Smith) so they can use his body to support their untested RoboCop prototype. But when RoboCop learns of the company’s nefarious plans, he turns on his masters.

SOURCE: SYFY WIRE