Category: Film News

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Léa Seydoux To Play Bene Gesserit Character Lady Margot Fenring In ‘Dune: Part Two’

I think it’s safe to say audeinces are excited to see what director Denis Villeneuve has come up with for his second Dune installment with Dune: Part Two and the casting so far has been extremely impressive. It keeps getting better with each new addition.

Another high-profle actor has been selected to join the sci-fi fantasy epic as Deadline reports that French actress Léa Seydoux (Crimes of The Future) has been cast in the role of Lady Margot Fenring of House Fenring.

Like Lady Jessica, she is a Bene Gesserit and married Count Hasimir Fenring, which likely means the Count is potentially in the film too. While aligned with the Emperor Shaddam IV of House Corrino, she has been helpful to the Jessica and could be a secret ally to the Atreides in the film as they gather an army of Fremem to defeat their enemies of Irrakis using the meissah prophecy for his own personal benefit.

Other additions to the sequel’s cast include actress Florence Pugh (Black Widow, Midsommar) as Princess Irulan, the daughter of Christopher Walken‘s Emperor Shaddam IV. A role that would have importance in sequels. Also, taking a villain role is Austin Butler (Once Upon A Time In Hollywood, Elvis) is playing Paul’s evil Harkonnen rival, Feyd-Rautha, the dangerous pretty-boy nephew of Baron Harkonnen (played by Stellan Skarsgard).

Returning for second half of the story are Timothée Chalamet, Rebecca Ferguson, Josh Brolin, Stellan Skarsgård, Dave Bautista, Zendaya, Charlotte Rampling, and Javier Bardem.

Dune: Part Two is set to be released on October 20, 2023, and is expected to begin shooting this summer. Villeneuve has indicated that a third film could be on the table as he hopes to adapt the second Frank Herbet novel, Dune Messiah, to round-out a trilogy.

DUNE – A mythic and emotionally charged hero’s journey, Dune tells the story of Paul Atreides, a brilliant and gifted young man born into a great destiny beyond his understanding, who must travel to the most dangerous planet in the universe to ensure the future of his family and his people. As malevolent forces explode into conflict over the planet’s exclusive supply of the most precious resource in existence—a commodity capable of unlocking humanity’s greatest potential—only those who can conquer their fear will survive.

SOURCE: DEADLINE

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‘Doctor Strange 2’ Merch Confirms Lovecraftian Villain Shuma-Gorath Will Appear?

Well, leave it to Marvel Studios to be beaten again by the merchandise side of Disney.

A product listing for a tie-in puzzle (see below) on the Australian website Booktopia (spotted by Slash Film) has revealed that the Multiverse villain Shuma-Gorath will be showing up in some capacity in Sam Raimi’s Doctor Strange In The Multiverse of Madness, a Lovecraftian type creature with tentacles (teased in What If…?) and a single giant eyeball.

Shuma-Gorath was first seen as an adversary for Doctor Strange in Marvel Premiere #10 back in 1973.

It’s been a no-brainer from the jump that Shuma-Gortah would show up given the Multiverse angle. I even predicted his appearance on Twitter back during San Diego Comic-Con in 2019, when the film was first announced and the title was revealed by the former director Scott Derrickson (later replaced with Sam Raimi).

However, it’s still unclear how much Shuma-Gorath will be in the film and if he’s even going to be the main villain or just one of many that will appear. The other piece of artwork on the puzzle box would seemingly suggest that Wanda’s Scarlet Witch will be one of the heroes.

The cast of Doctor Strange In The Multiverse of Madness far consists of Benedict Cumberbatch as Doctor Stephen Strange, Elizabeth Olsen as Wanda Maximoff aka Scarlet Witch, Benedict Wong as Wong, Chiwetel Ejiofor as Baron Mordo, Rachel McAdams as Dr. Christine Palmer, and newcomer Xochitl Gomez as America Chavez.

We first reported Sam Raimi’s production team would include cinematographer John Mathieson (Logan, X-Men: First Class) and production designer Charles Wood (Black Widow, Avengers: Endgame). Spider-Man composer Danny Elfman confirmed back in February to Inverse he’d be reuniting with Raimi.

The team of stunt coordinators consists of seasoned vets such as Jo McLaren (Overlord, Annihilation) and Brycen Counts (Spider-Man: Homecoming, Spider-Man: Far From Home, Ant-Man & The Wasp) with Liang Yang (Morbius, Wonder Woman 1984) taking the role of fight coordinator.

Filming took place at Longcross Studios in Surrey, England, and is the current stage facility being used for Nia DaCosta’s Captain Marvel sequel, The Marvels.

The release for Doctor Strange In The Multiverse of Madness had been recently pushed from March 25, 2022, to May 6, 2022. Hopefully, it won’t be further delayed.

SOURCE: BOOKTOPIA

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Ana De Armas Tapped To Lead ‘John Wick’ Spinoff Film ‘Ballerina’

The John Wick franchise is expanding beyond the Keanu Reeves installments as Lionsgate is already pushing forward with a prequel series The Continential at Starz. They’re also developing a female-led film set in the same world of assassins and previously have hired action director Len Wiseman, known for projects like Underworld, Live Free or Die Hard, and had been attached to helm a sixth Die Hard for 20th Century Studios before the studio was acquired by Disney.

Ballerina seemingly follows a female assassin from John Wick’s Belarusian syndicate that trains orphaned boys and girls to become killers. Her character will track down the people who killed her parents. This world that assassins inhabit is controlled by The High Table, a group of syndicate leaders from across the globe that rule the underworld with an iron fist. The mythology established in the last three movies suggests a very short but lavished life for these hired killers.

It looks like Lionsgate and Len Wiseman have finally found their lead.

Deadline reports that Cuban actress Ana De Armas (Blade Runner 2049, Knives Out) is now in talks with Lionsgate for the main role after recently stealing scenes in No Time To Die and wrapped on the massive spy flick The Gray Man for the Russo Brothers. It’s certainly a huge get for the production and will likely take the sting away from them recently hiring the very awful Mel Gibson for the television series.

Interestingly enough, some of Ana’s first roles were in the thriller Knock Knock and Exposed opposite Keanu Reeves, who might appear in the pic in a brief cameo. We might even get a nod to Ballerina in John Wick 4, which will debut in theaters next May.

There had been rumblings of the studio looking at younger actresses but that doesn’t seem to be the case.

SOURCE: DEADLINE

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Jeff Nichols Bails On ‘A Quiet Place’ Spinoff Movie To Focus On Another Sci-Fi Project At Paramount

Director Jeff Nicholas (Mud, Midnight Special) has been trying to help studios get IP film projects off-the-ground with his longtime gestating remake of the James Caan-led sci-fi buddy cop action flick Alien Nation for 20th Century Studios before Disney bought them, he since has been trying to convince them to pick up a television incarnation (the original film spawned a TV show) after they passed on the movie.

He then moved on to Paramount Pictures and was assigned to write/direct a third film in the A Quiet Place franchise, the project being described more of a spinoff than a direct sequel to the last one. However, according to Deadline, he’s exiting that one too.

The report says he’ll instead focus on his other sci-fi project at Paramount that was first announced over the summer without any clear plot details or a synopsis. Exiting the spinoff on good terms and the studio is now seeking a replacement.

Hopefully, Nicholas is able to actually make a movie soon because it’s starting to get weird seeing him struggle to get projects made when he’s so talented.

SOURCE: DEADLINE

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Denis Villeneuve Still Keen To Adapt ‘Dune Messiah’ To Make A ‘Dune’ Trilogy: “I Always Envisioned Three Movies”

This week saw Legendary announce officially that Dune: Part Two is moving forward with Warner Bros. planning to release it on October 20, 2023, all but confirming its shoot will indeed start by fall of 2022 (hinted to by Denis Villeneuve).

However, it doesn’t sound like they’ll stop at only two movies and a series, Dune: The Sisterhood. During the promotional tour for the film, director Denis Villeneuve has talked up the idea of tackling the second Frank Herbert, Dune Messiah, for a third film.

Speaking with Entertainment Weekly, he doubled-down on the idea of making a trilogy and suggests he’s “always envisioned” making three movies.

“I always envisioned three movies. It’s not that I want to do a franchise, but this is Dune, and Dune is a huge story. In order to honor it, I think you would need at least three movies. That would be the dream. To follow Paul Atreides and his full arc would be nice.”

“Herbert wrote six books, and the more he was writing, the more it was getting psychedelic. So I don’t know how some of them could be adapted. One thing at a time. If I ever have the chance to do Dune: Part Two and Dune Messiah, I’m blessed.”

If Villneueve gets to make his trilogy, the impression he gives he won’t be the one to adapt the other four books such as Children of Dune, God Emperor of Dune, Heretics of Dune, and Chapterhouse: Dune. Given the time-jumps, it would mean they’d have to recast roles and we don’t know if Legendary will even attempt to adapt the other books.

Then again, cycling out different directors to continue a Dune franchise wouldn’t be unheard of. Legendary could also decide to stop at a trilogy and pivot to television/HBO Max for the other books. Global box office returns would likely have a big impact on all of this.

As far as we know, Jon Spaihts is only tackling the Dune: Part Two script and they haven’t said they are actively working on a Dune Messiah movie, just the intention to do so in the future.

SOURCE: ENTERTAINMENT WEEKLY

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Zack Snyder’s ‘Army Of The Dead’ Sequel Is Titled ‘Planet Of The Dead’

Director Zack Snyder after exiting the DCEU has made a brand new creative home at Netflix with his films Army of The Dead and Army of Thieves (produced by Snyder), the next big project at Netflix is Rebel Moon. It’s a sci-fi action film based on his old Star Wars pitch that would have been inspired by Akira Kurosawa’s Seven Samurai.

Netflix is keen on continuing the zombie franchise as well, as Snyder is attached to helm a sequel to Army of The Dead. He’s now confirmed to Inverse in an interview that it will be titled Planet of The Dead and alludes to Dieter potentially surviving the events of the last film.

“But the real adventure would be to see what happened to him when that safe door closed. Did he get killed by Zeus or not? What happened? We don’t see him die on camera, and there’s still some time left. I won’t tell you what happens in Army of the Dead 2 — aka Planet of the Dead — but let’s just say that there’s a chance Dieter survives. And there’s a chance that brush with death would have caused him to want to find a jailed Gwendoline.”

It’s interesting that the title refers to a “planet” as there is an alien aspect with Area 51 and the origins of the zombies expected to be non-Earthbound. Could the film go off-world or will the zombies simply overrun the entire plant? I guess we’ll have to wait and see.

The filmmaker also gave a brief update on Rebel Moon.

“We’re just plugging away. It’s so huge and so crazy but really exciting, and I’m super excited as we get closer to sharing some art and casting because it’s all starting to come together.”

SOURCE: INVERSE

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‘Ant-Man 3’: Bill Murray Confirms Working With Peyton Reed On The Marvel Sequel

A third Ant-Man is currently shooting at Pinewood Studios UK with Peyton Reed directing. The cast includes Paul Rudd as Scott Lang, Evangeline Lilly as Hope, Kathryn Newton as the newest incarnation of Cassie Lang, Michael Douglas as Dr. Hank Pym, Michelle Pfeiffer as Janet, and newcomer Jonathan Majors playing the villain big bad, Kang The Conqueror.

At one point, Bill Murray’s name appeared on the industry website Mandy listing (spotted by The Cosmic Circus) thanks to a crew member and sparked interest if he would be actually showing up in the MCU movie. He’s seemingly now confirmed his addition to the MCU in a new interview.

The comedic actor spoke with German outlet Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung (via Variety) to promote the Wes Anderson filmThe French Dispatch, alluding to “recently working on a Marvel movie” and mentioned the director’s excellent pic Bring It On, all but confirming the project was Ant-Man & The Wasp: Quantumania.

Peyton Reed is no stranger to hiring comedians for parts and teased in 2018 to hiring Rick Moranis to play Scott Lang’s father Bob Lang, could Murray be playing Scott’s dad instead since Moranis has long retired from acting?

It sounds like the part is small since Bill Murray had been recently working on Wes Anderson’s new secretive film Asteroid City that had been shooting on location in Spain over the summer with a fantastic collection of actors such as Scarlett Johansson, Jason Schwartzman, Bryan Cranston, Jeffrey Wright, Hope Davis, Liev Schreiber, Rupert Friend, Margot Robbie, Tilda Swinton, Adrien Brody, Tony Revolori, and Tom Hanks.

A reminder that Ant-Man 3’s impressive crew is expected to consist of production designer Will Htay (No Time To Die, Rogue One, Solo, Andor), cinematographer Bill Pope (The Matrix Trilogy, Shang-Chi Sam Raimi’s Spider-Man Trilogy, Alita: Battle Angel), second unit director Dan DeLeeuw (Eternals, Avengers: Endgame), and costume designer Sammy Sheldon Differ (Eternals, Jurassic World: Dominion, Ant-Man, X-Men: First Class, Hellboy II: The Golden Army).

It will debut in theaters on July 28, 2023, after Disney adjusted their Phase 4 schedule.

SOURCE: FAZ

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‘Dune: Part Two’: Legendary Officially Announces Sequel To Release October 2023

After Dune’s impressive $41 million domestic opening weekend, Legendary has officially announced that Dune: Part Two is moving forward with a release in October 2023 from Warner Bros. as the sci-fi epic has already earned $223.2 million globally.

Denis Villeneuve had previously said a fall production start next year was “realistic.”

We already know that Dune: Part Two has been in development for the better part of two years with Villeneuve co-writing the script with Jon Spaihts, the latter exiting the HBO Max series Dune: The Sisterhood to focus on the sequel. A clear sign the project was a priority for Legendary.

While they could stop at two movies, Villeneuve has considered the idea of pushing towards a trilogy by using Dune Messiah as the basis of the third movie.

“There is Dune’s second book, The Messiah of Dune, which could make an extraordinary film. I always saw that there could be a trilogy; after that, we’ll see. It’s years of work; I can’t think of going further than that.”

The second installment would allow for more casting additions with roles such as Feyd-Rautha Harkonnen, Paul’s young sister Alia Atreides, Princess Irulan, Shaddam IV The Padishah Emperor, and others. Since those characters are being saved and allowed for Dune to give newbies a crash course on the franchise’s deep mythology.

I wouldn’t be terribly shocked if we see a bit of a time jump between the two movies.

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‘Batgirl’: Brendan Fraser Reportedly Playing A Batman Villain In DC Comics Flick

Adil El Arbi and Bilall Fallah (Bad Boys For Life) are continuing their run of tackling female superheroes after directing episodes of Marvel’s series Ms. Marvel and will helm the upcoming Batgirl film that will be exclusively released on HBO Max.

Batgirl is a protege of Bruce Wayne’s Batman, similar to Robin/Nightwing.

Deadline is reporting on the first confirmed villain casting for the DC project, as Brendan Fraser (Killers of The Flower Moon, The Whale, No Sudden Move) is potentially playing Batman villain Firefly. The actor currently playing Robotman in the DC Comics series Doom Patrol, so he’s not new to the comic book universe.

Fraser joins Leslie Grace (In The Heights), who plays the titular Batgirl and J.K. Simmons reprises the Justice League role of Barbara Gordon’s father, Jim Gordon. This element would suggest that Batgirl takes place directly within the DCEU, given Simmons’ return. However, if they end up using Michael Keaton’s Batman as her mentor (teased by THR Keaton is involved), that could suggest that the cinematic universe is turning more into a hodgepodge of connective tissue.

Jacob Scipio (Bad Boys For Life) also has a mystery part in the superhero flick.

The Hollywood Reporter believes the role is Gotham criminal syndicate boss Carmine Falcone. The Batman rogue has been previously seen in Batman Begins and will be played by John Turturro in The Batman, neither are incarnations from the DCEU.

The Batgirl will be released sometime in 2022 on HBO Max.

SOURCE: DEADLINE

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‘The Trench’ Was A Secret Black Manta Movie According To James Wan

Ever since DC Films launched their own cinematic universe with DCEU, we’ve seen so many film projects announced/developed in-house only to be never made or thrown into limbo. Some of those films include Ben Affleck’s solo Batman film, Zack Snyder’s second Justice League movie, Lobo, Sgt. Rock, Joker & Harley Quinn, Man of Steel 2, Nightwing, Steven Spielberg’s Blackhawk, Ava DuVernay’s New Gods, and an Aquaman spinoff, The Trench, and even more.

The Trench is an interesting spinoff as the horror-inspired project was seen as New Line Cinema retrofitting an existing submarine thriller film The Volos from writers Noah Gardner and Aidan Fitzgerald into a DC Comics project. Only for it to get dumped by the studio alongside New Gods back in April.

There is word from Aquaman’s James Wan on Instagram (spotted by io9) that The Trench was actually a secret Black Manta movie, something that was never mentioned publicly by the studio or Wan, the film’s producer. A shocking revelation from the producer and filmmaker.

“I’ll let you in on a secret, the canceled Trench spin-off movie was really going to be a secret Black Manta movie.”

This would have meant Yahya Abdul-Mateen II (Candyman, Watchmen) would have led the project, and seems weird it never got the green light, in retrospect given how popular the actor has become at Warner Bros. taking key roles in The Matrix Resurrections and the Mad Max: Fury Road prequel Furiosa along with his return for Aquaman & The Lost Kingdom.

Considering projects like Suicide Squad, The Suicide Squad, Birds of Prey, and Joker focused on DC Comics villains it feels odd they didn’t move forward with this Black Manta movie given Aquaman was a billion-dollar hit. It comes off as yet another example of the studio fumbling the DC franchise as the projects announced that don’t reach the finished line continue to pile up.

Will the studio circle back? That remains to be seen.

Speaking of the Aquaman sequel, it will be released on December 16, 2022, and has Black Manta expected to have a bigger role.

SOURCE: JAMES WAN