Deadline is reporting that Lionsgate has paired director Ben Stiller with actor Oscar Isaac for a new high-concept thriller titled London based on a new story from crime author Jo Nesbo (The Snowman), which will be adapted by Oscar-winning screenwriter Eric Roth (Killers of The Flower Moon, The Insider, Munich, Forrest Gump).
Details on the project are scarce at the moment but the writing talent involved is certainly very interesting to say the least.
Oscar was recently working on Paul Schrader’s The Card Counter before production was paused due to a COVID-19 outbreak on set and he also wrapped Denis Villeneuve’s Dune remake for Warner Bros./Legendary Entertainment last year.
Stiller is best known for directing comedies such as Zoolander and Tropic Thunder. But has tried his hand at more adventurous projects like The Secret Life of Water Mitty and the Showtime mini-series Escape At Dannemora.
Yesterday, producer Jon Landau announced via his Instagram account (has oddly removed all his previous tweets) that the Avatar sequels have now resumed the live-action portion of the filming in Wellington, New Zealand.
Production is taking place at the Stone Street Studios facility.
Jon posted this image from the set.
LANDAU: “Used my iPhone to snap a picture of our first shot back in production on the Avatar sequels.”
This comes after their 14-day mandatory isolation as per government regulations.
The Avatar sequels are seemingly the first major productions to resume after the pandemic first broke out, worth noting that New Zealand has only had two new cases of COVID-19 over the last 24 days. The remote island nation is certainly in much better position to resume filming than the United States or even the United Kingdom.
It’s unknown if the production delays from back in March will directly impact the release date of December 17th, 2021.
Deadline is reporting some news from the Cannes Virtual Marketplace as Will Smith and Training Day director Antoine Fuqua will be uniting for a new runaway salve action thriller titled Emancipation.
An action thriller about the harrowing escape of Peter (Smith), a runaway slave forced to outwit cold-blooded hunters and the unforgiving swamps of Louisiana on a tortuous journey North. There he joined the Union Army.
Willam N. Collage penned the script.
Filming on Emancipation is expected to begin in early 2021.
You might remember that Will Smith had turned down the titular role in Quentin Tarantino’s slave era revenge action flick Django Unchained with the role of Django instead going to fellow Oscar-winner Jamie Foxx. However, it sounds like Emancipation is going to be less tongue-and-cheek than the Tarantino film.
Fuqua recently worked on the sci-fi thriller Infinite starring Mark Wahlberg and Smith has yet to complete production on King Richard.
Deadline has spoken with Universal Pictures about when Jurassic World: Dominion (working title Arcadia) could possibly resume filming. The studio is suggesting that by July 6th or mid-July they’ll having cameras rolling in London, England.
Universal’s Jurassic World: Domininion is set to be the first major studio movie to re-start filming proper in the UK, we can reveal. Cameras are due to roll the second week of July (July 6) at Pinewood Studios, Universal has confirmed.
“The plan is for us to be shooting early-mid July,” a senior Universal production executive confirmed.
The production presumably resuming at Pinewood Studios UK.
Universal also gave in-depth details to the outlet about the precautionary protocols they’re putting into place to adhere to government guidelines.
We’ll see if the studio actually sticks to this plan given that the United Kingdom is still in the middle of the Coronavirus pandemic with 41,600 deaths and counting. There very well could be a second production shutdown if there is an outbreak on set or if the government implements new stay-at-home orders leading to filming to be placed on hiatus.
Jurassic World director Colin Trevorrow returns with a cast that includes Chris Pratt, Bryce Dallas Howard, Sam Neill, Laura Dern, Jeff Goldblum, Daniella Pineda, Justice Smith, DeWanda Wise, Mamoudou Athie, Dichen Lachman, Scott Haze, Isabella Sermon, Jake Johnson, and Omar Sy.
Franchise producer Frank Marshall recently gave the impression that they’re hoping to continue beyond the new trilogy.
Universal had given the film a release date of June 11th, 2021 and that is more than likely going to change to a later date given how far they are behind on photography.
Another week, another batch of interesting stories concerning upcoming Marvel films and shows.
Anthony Mackie Says ‘The Falcon & The Winter Soldier’ Has Very Little To Do Before Wrapping
While speaking with Jimmy Fallon, MCU star Anthony Mackie revealed they only have a little bit more to shoot whenever The Falcon & The Winter Soldier is allowed to resume filming.
MACKIE: “Well, I’m happy to say we are not canceled, we are on hold. So, we’re going back, hopefully, sometime soon to finish it up. We have very little stuff to do.”
This lines-up with recent comments from Steven Soderbergh that his crime flick Kill Switch was expected to begin shooting in two weeks when productions across the globe were placed on pause. Winter Soldier’s Sebastian Stan was set for a lead role in Kill Switch, which would have meant he expected to have completed the Disney+ series by that time.
Marisa Tomei Hopes Aunt May’s Professional Life Is Highlighted In ‘Spider-Man 3’
Marisa Tomei is on the promotion tour for her new film The King of Staten Island and revealed to Screen Rant what she’d like to see happen with Aunt May in the upcoming Spider-Man sequel.
TOMEI: “Well, I’ve had her – [director] Jon Watts and I always talked about her being a community organizer. And hopefully, that track will expand and be part of this one, as well.”
When Spider-Man 3 (aka Serenity Now) begins filming is a large question mark, as it was set to shoot mostly in the United States, and the country in the middle of a pandemic. Sony Pictures had wanted Tom Holland to shoot their Uncharted feature film before moving on to the Spidey sequel, which had set to begin shooting back in March in Germany before global film production was placed on hold due to the Coronavirus.
There is now an expectation that Uncharted will resume first because pre-production was completed and sets are ready to go. While where Marvel Studios is concerning Spider-Man 3 is a bit unknown given that set construction wasn’t likely happening during stay-at-home orders.
Wolverine Villains Connected To ‘The Falcon & The Winter Soldier’ Series?
A neat little tidbit was highlighted last week by Murphy’s Multiverse concerning an image of a gang member’s jacket from the Madripoor set of The Falcon & The Winter Soldier. The site tried to decode what the Easter Egg might be concerning the symbol on the jacket.
If you’re unaware, Madripoor is a location from the X-Men comics and it’s where that a handful of solo Wolverine adventures took place. It’s located in Southeast Asia and is essentially run by criminal organizations allowing syndicates to conduct business without any interference from authorities. This has led many to believe that Marvel Studios might use the location to tease mutants and maybe even Logan.
I then pointed out on Twitter that this symbol on their jacket is most likely an homage to Ogun’s mask (taking cues from the traditional Hannya mask).
Ogun is a Japanese X-Men villain with telepathic powers that has connections to Wolverine (his mentor), Kitty Pryde (brainwashes her), the Yakuza, and the villainous organization the Serpent Society.
Captain America: Serpent Society you might remember was the fake title for Captain America 3 before Kevin Feige revealed they were tackling Civil War and announced Chadwick Boseman as T’Challa/Black Panther.
The group of villains could easily become the new HYDRA for Sam Wilson’s incarnation of Captain America in the series and potentially in a new wave of solo films as well.
Ogun’s connection to a gang in the series could mean a lot of things, the Yakuza operating on the island could help establish connections to future underworld figures like The Hand or even someone like fellow Wolverine villain Omega Red (resurrected by the Yakuza). The character himself showing up could help establish that criminal villains with powers are starting to show up in the universe, either being mutants themselves or through other means. A way to possibly tease mutants are showing up in the MCU before the X-Men are rebooted.
Madripoor might also tease other Wolverine/X-Men villains.
One of the leaders of Serpent Society was Viper, who is Ophelia Sarkissian aka Madame Hydra. The villainess has a direct connection to the island nation of Madirpoor, as Viper was in control of it. Like Ogun, Viper has crossed paths with Wolverine on multiple occasions and at one point even married him. An altered version of the character was used in James Mangold’s The Wolverine, but unlike her comic book counterpart was referred to Dr. Green and was a snake-like mutant that was able to spit venom.
Marvel Studios is known to make characters fit various projects by slightly altering them for their needs. Zemo is a perfect example of that. Viper doesn’t even have to be Ophelia they could easily have Rachel Leighton aka Diamondback or Sinthea Shmidt aka Sin take that leadership role.
Originally, the series was supposed to begin airing this August or fall, but the production shutdown might have delayed those plans as Disney hasn’t officially announced new release dates for original programming other than The Mandalorian Season 2 sticking to it’s October start date.
Linda Cardellini Interested In Marvel Making A Laura Barton Movie
Avengers actress Linda Cardellini recently spoke with Collider about seeing more of her in the MCU and she brought up the possibility of her character Laura Barton getting her own film.
CARDELLINI: “I mean, you know, it was one of those things where I was sort of brought into the universe and it truly is its own universe. It’s its own entity with this fandom that is incredible and to be part of it is, I don’t know, it’s pretty fun. My daughter’s friends love it. It’s one of those kinds of things, you know? So it’s always fun. I mean, would I love to see a Laura Barton movie? Sure! But I don’t think that’s gonna happen. I think people are more interested in the superheroes.”
I don’t think this would ever happen unless they attempted to give Laura another superhero’s mantle. I personally wouldn’t be opposed to Laura becoming the hard-canon version of Mockingbird. Depending on where in the timeline that the Hawkeye series takes place, there is a good chance that Linda will return for that show giving her more to do.
Despite adamant exhibitors and industry folk alike that had been betting big on Christopher Nolan’s Tenet sticking to it’s original July 17th release date, Warner Bros. announced yesterday the science fiction espionage film would be getting a slight delay (two weeks) opening instead on July 31st.
The studio has also moved other tentpole releases to other dates as well.
Wonder Woman 1984 has yet again been delayed (landing its fourth release date) moving from August 14th to October 2nd.
Godzilla vs. Kong which had been given a release date of November 20th has been bumped to next year and will be coming out on May 21st, 2021.
That May spot was originally intended for Matrix 4, which has been delayed as well given a new date of April 1st, 2022. Matrix 4, unlike the other films, hasn’t even completed production and is expected to resume filming in Germany sometime soon.
While most people are just assuming that Tenet will still be able to release next month as planned, the studio has now secured two open spots with August 14th and November 20th after these latest date shifts. Giving the studio two potential buffer dates if they wanted to delay it even further beyond two weeks.
There is also still the slim possibility that Dune’s December 18th spot could get gobbled-up as well. I could see a handful of unfinished films meant to be released in 2021, like Spider-Man 3 and The Batman (has only shot 25% of it’s scenes) delayed into 2022, just like Matrix 4.
I don’t think we’re quite finished with the musical chairs just yet as there are growing concerns that the second wave of COVID could be bubbling in the United States in the near future as multiple states are seeing a rise in new cases.
This on the heels of stubborn theater chains opening this weekend and attempting to open an even larger number of locations next month. Seems like the industry is eager to get things rolling even if it’s neither wise of safe to do so.
After previously landing cast members such as Oscar-winner Halle Berry (John Wick: Chapter 3) and Josh Gad, The Hollywood Reporter has exclusively revealed that Patrick Wilson (Aquaman, Watchmen, The Conjuring) and Christopher Plummer (All The Money In The World) has also taken roles in Roland Emmerich’s upcoming science-fiction disaster film Moonfall.
Moonfall sees its plot go into action when the moon is knocked from its orbit by a mysterious force and is on a collision course with Earth. With just weeks to go before impact, a ragtag team is sent on a seemingly impossible mission to land on the lunar surface and save humanity.
They also add some information on their characters.
Wilson will play a disgraced former NASA astronaut whose last mission, which ended in tragedy, holds a clue about the impending catastrophe. Plummer will play his teenage son.
Moonfall is also reportedly eyeing a fall production start in Montreal.
We’ve learned that they have added production designer Kirk M. Petruccelli (Blade, The Incredible Hulk, Ghost Rider), who previously worked with Roland on his WWII film Midway.
News out of the virtual Cannes market via The Hollywood Reporter has revealed that actress Olivia Munn will star and produce a new action flick titled Replay from The Exchange and Dark Castle Entertainment.
They’re comparing the film to a mix of John Wick, The Raid, and The Terminator.
Replay is the story of Erin Staffer (Munn), whose husband is kidnapped and murdered. Now, armed only with illegal, bleeding-edge tech and a hopeless plan, Erin must do everything in her power to change the past and save him.
Munn is best known for taking smaller supporting roles in films like X-Men: Apocalypse and The Predator but it sounds like this might be her chance to etch-out an action vehicle for her very own.
The action film is currently in pre-production stages with Jimmy Loweree writing and directing.
Variety is reporting that British actress Lily James (Baby Driver) is set to play the titular role in the robbery film Peggy Jo that will be made by action film director Phillip Noyce.
The film is based on the true story of Texas bank robber that posed as a man (Cowboy Bob) during heists.
Peggy Jo (James) is a beautiful person, prone to be romantically lost in books and films; however, she is not the sort of person who lets life and people get the better of her. When her latest beau turns out to be married to his bank co-worker, she takes matters into her own hands, robbing his bank disguised as a man with a big beard and a back-to-front cowboy hat.
Inspired by her love of stories such as Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid, and eager to support her struggling family financially, Peggy Jo starts holding up a string of banks as her now-famous alter-ego “Cowboy Bob.” She becomes more and more daring, hotly pursued by astute FBI agent Bishop. But along the way she loses her heart to damaged soul Charlie. Like Peggy, Charlie also seeks escape and solace in the fantasy world of books and poetry. As Bishop draws nearer and her love-story with Charlie is threatened, Peggy chooses, like her heroes, not to give up, but to go down in a blaze of glory.
Noyce is known for his films Patriot Games, Clear & Present Danger, The Saint, Blind Fury, and Salt.
The script was penned by Robert Knott, who previously wrote the western Appaloosa.
Filming will be taking place in the Southern United States.
We’ve been waiting to hear some update concerning the Alien franchise and while there has been some teases from Ridley Scott that his third prequel Alien: Awakening is still in development phases. A fifth Alien film starring Sigourney Weaver as Ellen Ripley might be still in the cards despite the Neill Blomkamp incarnation of the project being placed on ice.
While speaking with Empire, Weaver revealed that she received a 50-page Alien 5 treatment 18 months ago from franchise producer and screenwriter Walter Hill. Hill has been part of the franchise since the original 1979 film and worked on scripts (including rewrites and treatments) for Alien, Aliens, and Alien 3.
She doesn’t sound as enthusiastic about Ripley’s return it as she was when Blomkamp was attached for Alien 5 as it sounds like Ridley Scott could be calling the shots.
WEAVER: “I don’t know. Ridley has gone in a different direction. Maybe Ripley has done her bit. She deserves a rest.”
I think Alien 5 is still the best way to go. Neill Blomkamp wanted to make a film that directly connected to Aliens with the return of characters such as Newt, Hicks, and Bishop after being killed-off in Alien 3, which was co-written by Walter Hill.
There is a good chance that Hill’s version might have been a continuation from Alien: Resurrection following a clone version of Ripley. Something that had been the original intention of Alien 5 when Ridley Scott and James Cameron teamed-up for their own incarnation before the studio passed to make Alien vs Predator instead.
At one point, James Cameron was able to read Neill’s script and called it “gangbusters” during an Aliens Anniversary panel at San Diego Comic-Con back in 2016.
Ridley Scott has seemingly been the main reason Alien 5 hasn’t come together as he pulled his weight at Fox to have Alien: Covenant made instead of Blomkamp’s film, essentially killing it in the process.
THE RONIN 