Category: Film News

Posted on in Film News

Seth Rogen Confirms Sony Didn’t Make ‘Pineapple Express 2’ Because They Wanted Too Much Money

While speaking with Howard Stern on his SiriusXM show to promote his upcoming HBO Max film An American Pickle, comedic actor Seth Rogen confirmed leaked Sony Pictures emails that the reason a sequel to Pineapple Express ultimately wasn’t made was over a dispute over the film’s budget. 

ROGEN: “We tried to make one and thanks to the Sony hack you can actually find the email when Sony decided to kill the movie and not make it. It was something we were very open to several years ago, but Sony was not that interested in it.”

I think we probably wanted too much money. 

Pineapple Express was a bit of a financial hit for Sony as the film ended up earning $101.6 million on a budget of $27 million alongside profits from the home video market with at least $47.9 million.

However, leaked emails from the Sony hack revealed that they were looking to get $50 million for the sequel, almost double the original’s budget. Sony wanted more of a budget in the realm of $40-45 million, the expectation the higher budget would go to salaries since Rogen admits to Stern people weren’t really paid much on the original film despite the film being a success for Sony Pictures. 

The Sony hack was directly connected to Seth Rogen’s North Korean assassination comedy The Interview, which the North Korean government didn’t take too kindly and led to international death threats on the actor.

It’ll be interesting to see if the sequel could find new life in the world of streaming, that’s if Seth and Evan Goldberg wanted to return to it in the future. 

PINEAPPLE EXPRESS – Stoner Dale Denton’s (Seth Rogen) enjoyment of a rare strain of marijuana may prove fatal when he drops his roach in a panic after witnessing a murder. Upon learning that the fancy weed can be traced back to them, Dale and his dealer (James Franco) go on the lam, with a dangerous drug lord (Gary Cole) and crooked cop (Rosie Perez) hot on their heels.

SOURCE: THE HOWARD STERN SHOW

Posted on in Film News

Joey King To Co-Star With Brad Pitt In Sony’s Action Flick ‘Bullet Train’

Deadline reports that young actress Joey King is currently in negotiations to play the role of Prince in Sony’s action film Bullet Train from director David Leitch (Deadpool 2, Atomic Blonde). Oscar-winner Brad Pitt is set to play an assassin named Ladybug. 

The film is based on the novel Maria Beetle from Japanese author Kotaro Isaka, it will focus on a group of assassins on a bullet train. 

King’s credits include The Dark Knight Rises, The Conjuring, White House Down, The Act, and most recently with Netflix’s The Kissing Booth 2. 

Filming is expected to begin this fall in Los Angeles, California. 

However, that will likely be dependant on how the city/state is doing with the pandemic and if there is a second wave that shuts down productions. 

SOURCE: DEADLINE

Posted on in Film News

Jared Leto Wants To Return To The World of ‘Blade Runner 2049’ With An Origin Story For Villain Niander Wallace

Last week, actor Jared Leto took to Twitter suggesting that he’d like to return to the role of Niander Wallace, the overreaching villain of Blade Runner 2049. He seems to want to tackle an origin story about Wallace.

LETO: “Maybe we can do a Niander Wallace origin story one day. Would be interesting to see where this mad man came from. He must have had some history. I have some ideas…”

Wallace’s fate is unknown at the end of the film has he zipped off-world in a ship to one of the many human colonies. The villain is behind the latest version of the disposable workforce with his version of the Replicants. 

Blade Runner 2049 director Denis Villeneuve has teased in the past he’d like to return to the world of Blade Runner as well, but suggested he wouldn’t be interested in making another sequel. 

A Blade Runner live-action series might not be out of the realm of possibilities as Villeneuve is producing and expected to direct the pilot for the Dune spinoff series for HBO Max titled Dune: The Sisterhood and there is already an animated series set in the universe of Blade Runner coming soon with Blade Runner: Black Lotus. 

SOURCE: JARED LETO

Posted on in Film News

Courtney Cox Officially Returns For ‘Scream 5’ Reprising Gale Weathers Role

It’s official! 

Radio Silence has confirmed to Deadline that actress Courtney Cox, as assumed, will reprise her franchise role of reporter Gale Weathers in the fifth installment of Scream. The new film is expected to incorporate a new set of characters alongside original ones like David Arquette’s Dewey, Cox’s Gale, and presumably Neve Campbell’s Sidney Prescott. 

Ready or Not directors Matt Bettinelli-Olpin and Tyler Gillett will be making the film based on a screenplay by James Vanderbilt (Murder Mystery, Amazing Spider-Man) and Guy Busick (Ready or Not, Castle Rock).

While trades keep calling the horror project a “reboot”, Scream 5 now has the main three franchise actors expected to return in their original roles. Hardly a traditional full-on reboot if they’re going to treat this as a sequel set within an existing cinematic universe.

The original film had a string of gory murders that would ultimately be connected to the murder of Sidney Prescott’s mother, who had been killed the previous year. Sequels would see various new characters play copycat which turned the satirical horror franchise into a guessing game of “who will be revealed as Ghostface” in this installment. It’ll be interesting if creatives on Scream 5 genuinely have a fresh take to run with or will instead try to beat-a-dead-horse as other studios have with their established horror revivals. 

SOURCE: DEADLINE

Posted on in Film News

Guillermo del Toro Still Wants To Make ‘At The Mountains of Madness’ and A ‘Frankenstein’ Trilogy

While speaking with Collider to help promote the upcoming horror film Antlers, producer Guillermo del Toro revealed that he is still extremely keen on making feature films based on the H.P. Lovecraft story At The Mountains of Madness and Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein. 

Teasing he’d like to make a trilogy about the latter.

DEL TORO: “I’ve always imagined it as a two to three-part story, because in order to encompass the book you have to change points of view and it’s a complex exercise.”

Both projects had been in various development stages in the past before Guillmero was ultimately pulled away from those films to focus on other stuff. Seemingly, when he was developing At The Mountains of Madness it got the furthest along as Tom Cruise and his Hellboy actor Ron Perlman had been attached for roles until the budgetary issues with Universal Pictures put the horror project on ice for the foreseeable future. 

The director was hellbent that Mountains needed to be R-rated and was likely another issue between himself at the studio. 

Universal had been tinkering with trying to resurrect their Universal Monsters with a Bride of Frankenstein reboot starring Oscar-winners Angelina Jolie and Javier Bardem. The studio had been reportedly courting new directors which included Sam Raimi before he took over duties from Scott Derrickson on Marvel’s Doctor Strange In The Multiverse of Madness. 

Here is del Toro speaking about Bride of Frankenstein back in 2012 at the Academy screening series A Monstrous Centennial: Universal’s Legacy of Horror at the Samuel Goldwyn Theater. 

Guillermo is expected to resume filming on his period thriller Nightmare Alley this fall in Toronto and had been previously attached to direct a remake of the sci-fi film Fantastic Voyage for a pre-Disney owned 20th Century Studios. 

SOURCE: COLLIDER

Posted on in Film News

Natalie Portman Says ‘Thor: Love & Thunder’ Aims To Begin Shooting Early 2021 In Australia

Natalie Portman appeared in a video on Tennis superstar Serena Williams’ Instagram account where she revealed the potential new production start date for the upcoming Thor installment. 

PORTMAN: “We’re shooting at the beginning of next year in Australia.”

As announced at San Diego Comic-Con in 2019, Natalie is set to return as Jane Foster but will be taking on the alter ego of Lady Thor in Thor: Love & Thunder allowing her to potentially take on the mantle in future films. 

It’ll be interesting to see if Lady Thor has a connection to The Multiverse via the Loki series or if there is another route they’ll be going to explain how Jane was able to receive the power of Thor. In the comics, Thor has a human alter ego named Dr. Donald Blake (who transforms into Thor taking cues from Shazam!) which has never really been touched upon and could be easily handed over for Jane/Lady Thor in the Marvel Cinematic Universe. 

Other characters expected to return alongside Chris Hemsworth’s Thor and Tessa Thompson’s Valkyrie include Taika Waititi’s Korg (I previously reported last summer of an increased role for his character in the sequel) and Korg’s pal Miek. 

Oscar-winner Christian Bale (The Dark Knight, American Psycho, Ford v Ferarri) is said to be playing the film’s villain and is the first of the new additions to the franchise. 

We should be hearing more casting news before the end of the year. 

Filming on Love & Thunder had originally been slated to begin shooting next month at Fox Studios Australia in Sydney, New South Wales, Australia. That wasn’t able to happen because Shang-Chi had to pause production after the COVID-19 outbreak in Australia led to director Destin Daniel Cretton cautiously quarantine himself during production and the film paused for multiple months until it was safe to resume. 

Production dates, in general, should be taken with a grain of salt for upcoming new projects even when it is coming from actors because they’re extremely fluid in the age of COVID-19. However, there is a really good chance this one sticks because Shang-Chi & The Legend of The Ten Rings (hasn’t officially resumed filming) could be completed by then and Australia is certainly in better shape than other countries where Marvel films are expected to shoot. 

Fingers crossed there aren’t any further delays on Shang-Chi that could lead to more headaches for the Thor sequel. 

Marvel Studios and Disney recently updated Thor: Love & Thunder‘s release date to February 11th, 2022, but this could easily change in the coming months if the Black Widow release has to be bumped to February 12th, 2021 from November 6th. 

SOURCE: SERENA WILLIAMS 

Posted on in Film News

Paramount Selling Rights To Michael B. Jordan Action Flick ‘Without Remorse’ To Amazon – Crossover With ‘Jack Ryan’ Coming?

Yesterday, it was reported by Variety that Paramount Pictures is now in final negotiations with Amazon Studios to sell them the global rights to the Skydance Media action movie Without Remorse.

Based on the novel from Tom Clancy, it has a script penned by Taylor Sheridan (Sicario, Wind River). Stefano Sollima, who directed the feature adaptation previously worked with Amazon for the Prime Video series ZeroZeroZero.

Paramount had originally planned on releasing the Michael B. Jordan film on September 18th before moving it’s release to February 26th, 2021, after COVID-19 concerns but has instead decided to sell to Amazon instead and will drop on Amazon Prime.

Jordan plays Clark, a former U.S. Navy SEAL that is recruited into the C.I.A. as an operator. The character was previously played by Willem Dafoe in Clear & Present Danger and Liev Schreiber in The Sum of All Fears.

There is a good chance that Michael B. Jordan’s John Clark could eventually crossover with Amazon’s Jack Ryan series which is set in the same universe created by Tom Clancy. Jack and John have interacted on multiple times in the Jack Ryan novels, having Without Remorse at Amazon allows them some extra wiggle-room to have them cross paths in the future.

When Without Remorse will be released is currently unknown but since it was going to be ready for September there is a shot that it could be released on Amazon Prime before the end of the year.

SOURCE: VARIETY

Posted on in Film News

Ryan Reynolds and Director Shawn Levy To Reunite For Time-Travelling Movie At Skydance

Free Guy director Shawn Levy and star Ryan Reynolds will be reuniting for a time-travel feature film project once titled Our Name Is Adam that is coming from Skydance Media.

It’s based on a spec-script penned by T.S. Nowlin that later saw screenwriter Jonathan Tropper attached to rework it.

Reynolds will star as a man who must travel back in time to get help from his 13-year-old self. Together, they encounter their late father, who is now the same age as Reynolds.

Ryan has quickly turned into one of Skydance’s most visible actors after working on Michael Bay’s 6 Underground and is expected to resume filming on Red Notice very soon in Atlanta. Both projects being distributed by Netflix and there is a good shot this new one will end up at Netflix as well.

The Canadian actor is also attached for Netflix’s Dragon’s Lair, a fantasy adventure film based on the famous arcade game. Considering Ryan’s busy schedule it’s unclear when this could begin filming.

Other upcoming projects from Skydance Media include The Tomorrow War, G.I. Joe Origins: Snake Eyes, Without Remorse, and Top Gun: Maverick.

SOURCE: THE HOLLYWOOD REPORTER

Posted on in Film News

Tom Cruise/Doug Liman Movie Filming In Space May Land At Universal – Could Cost $200M+ To Make

Variety is reporting that Universal Pictures is currently in negotiations to distribute the untitled science fiction action film from director Doug Liman (American Made, Edge of Tomorrow) and starring Tom Cruise, the eye-grabbing gimmick of the film is that it will be shot in space something that really hasn’t been done with a studio blockbuster.

They mention that the budget could be over $200 million which is expected given that the costs involved with shooting in space, something that really hasn’t been undertaken when it comes to a narrative studio feature film. Cruise himself could end up earning something in the range of $30-60 million.

Details about the movie are scarce but it’s a given that it will be in the science fiction genre and we likely won’t get an official synopsis until an official deal is done.

Tom and Doug had also been trying to made a sequel to Edge of Tomorrow, but it doesn’t seem that will be happening anytime soon despite Liman’s optimistic statements made last year. Cruise is expected to resume filming on Christopher McQuarrie’s Mission: Impossible 7 and Mission: Impossible 8 for Paramount Pictures soon in the United Kingdom.

When they plan on shooting the untitled project is currently a mystery.

SOURCE: VARIETY

Posted on in Film News

Russo Bros. To Direct Ryan Gosling and Chris Evans In Netflix’s $200M+ Budgeted Spy Flick ‘The Gray Man’ – Eyeing January Start In L.A.

Deadline reports that the Russo Brothers have chosen their next directorial effort after tackling the bank robbery film Cherry starring Tom Holland.

The Avengers: Endgame directors will tackle The Gray Man for Netflix, a spy film with a budget reportedly over $200 million making it the most expensive film at the streaming service to date. Adding that heavy-hitters Ryan Gosling and Chris Evans have been set to take the lead roles.

AGBO will also produce the action flick.

The action thriller is a deadly duel between killers as Court Gentry (Gosling) is hunted across the globe by Lloyd Hansen (Evans), a former cohort of Gentry’s at the CIA.

The script based on the Mark Greaney novel was penned by Joe Russo with some rewrites from Captain America franchise writers Christopher Markus and Stephen McFeely.

To those who lurk in the shadows, he’s known as the Gray Man. He is a legend in the covert realm, moving silently from job to job, accomplishing the impossible and then fading away. And he always hits his target. Always. But there are forces more lethal than Gentry in the world. Forces like money. And power. And there are men who hold these as the only currency worth fighting for. And in their eyes, Gentry has just outlived his usefulness.

But Court Gentry is going to prove that, for him, there’s no gray area between killing for a living and killing to stay alive…

They’re hoping to begin filming next January in Los Angeles, California and various international locations yet to be determined. However, COVID-19 could cause issues for the project and we’ll be interested to see if they stick to shooting the film in the United States.

The project seems to be Netflix trying it’s best to wiggle-out of the wave of original films that look extremely generic despite their hefty budgets. Hiring the directors of the most successful film at the box office might payoff.

Also, there are nine novels in The Gray Man series which would allow Netflix/AGBO to turn the project into a franchise.

Ryan Gosling is attached for Universal’s Wolfman reboot from writer/director Leigh Whannell.

SOURCE: DEADLINE