Category: Film News

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EXCLUSIVE: ‘Ant-Man 3’ Filmed At The White Pocket Trail In Arizona

Ant-Man & The Wasp: Quantumania, aka, Ant-Man 3 is currently shooting in the London area with a cast that 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 Jonathan Majors playing the villain big bad, Kang The Conqueror.

We can now share another filming location for the Marvel Studios pic.

The Ronin has exclusively learned that the sequel spent time filming in Arizona at the White Pocket Trail, however, unlikely involved any cast members as it look place months before filming had officially started at Pinewood Studios UK in July.

What exactly the footage is going to be used for is unclear, but you could easily imagine it being used for the Quantum Realm or even an alien planet. The area is gorgeous and might have been shot for plates, perhaps, for Pinewood’s version of The Volume.

Director Peyton Reed confirmed they would be using The Volume on the next Ant-Man installment and he previously worked with the fantastic technology from Industrial Light & Magic during the shoot on Season 2 of The Mandalorian for Lucasfilm.

Back in April, we first reported that a portion of filming would be returning to San Francisco, which was later confirmed by local postings.

The superhero film’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).

There have been signs the next installment will be much bigger in scope than the previous two movies and having Kang’s true introduction will likely be part of that. It’ll be interesting to see if the Quantum Realm and the Multiverse will intersect.

Nia DaCosta’s Captain Marvel sequel, The Marvels, is currently shooting at Longcross Studios (recently used for Doctor Strange In The Multiverse of Madness) in Surrey, England and the Secret Invasion series also began shooting in the area with an expectation to spend time in Scotland.

Ant-Man & The Wasp: Quantumania will debut in theaters on February 17, 2023.

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‘Eternals’: Kit Harington Suggests Dane Whitman Won’t Have Powers & Isn’t Aware Of Black Knight’s Future In The MCU

Chloe Zhao’s Eternals will be introducing the god-like heroes, The Deviants, and explaining The Celestials in bigger way than previous MCU projects. She’ll also give us an odd character as well, Dane Whitman played by Game of Thrones star Kit Harington.

Dane Whitman in the comics is known as the Avengers member Black Knight, however, in the trailer he seems like a normal human without any powers to speak of.

Well, that seems to be the case according to Harington in a new interview with Total Film suggesting that he’s a “normal” human and doesn’t giving the impression he’ll have powers, rather that his relationship with Gemma Chan’s Sersi will be the focus (there have been reports of a love triangle plot).

“The human character of the story. He’s not an Eternal. He’s a character who works with the Natural History Museum in London. But he’s not an Eternal – that’s the main takeaway!”

“I’ve got no idea whether my character goes on or not. I had read up on who he could be, or might be. So there’s the possibility for a longer trajectory. And hopefully, I think this is the tip of the iceberg for my character. I hope. But I just don’t know, you know? I’m as in the dark as anyone else. And I try not to live too far ahead in the future with anything. Even when I was in Game of Thrones, even on the sixth season, I presumed the seventh season wasn’t going to happen!”

Harington could certainly be playing coy, but officially there haven’t been any announcements concerning a Black Knight series or film project being in the works. That doesn’t mean that couldn’t change in the near future.

Maybe they’ll attempt to tease Black Knight at the end of Eternals with The Ebony Blade?

A magical blade forged by Merlin and Sir Percy from the Starstone meteorite. The Ebony Blade was enchanted to cut through any object, to prevent the death of its wielder, and to deflect any magic, but it also carried a curse that would slowly corrupt any user and cause a lust for violence, bloodshed, and death.

Black Knight could allow Marvel to venture more into the world of Arthurian/Sword & Sorcery genres, a big departure for the studio as a majority of MCU projects skew in the realm of action sci-fi. Shang-Chi had one of the first examples of true fantasy with the Ta-Lo sequences.

ETERNALS – The immortal heroes, the Eternals, came here 7,000 years ago, since the dawn of man, to “protect humans from the Deviants.” Sersi reveals that she hasn’t seen some of the other Eternal teammates for centuries. With the monstrous creatures, the Deviants, long thought lost to history, mysteriously return, Ikaris decides that it’s time for them to “find the others” and defend humanity once again. As the epic story unfolds, Sersi and Ikaris reunite with Kingo (played by Kumail Nanjiani), Sprite (played by Lia McHugh), Gilgamesh (played by Don Lee), Thena (played by Angelina Jolie), Makkari (played by Lauren Ridloff), Phastos (played by Brian Tyree Henry), and Druig (played by Barry Keoghan).

SOURCE: TOTAL FILM

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Christopher Nolan’s WWII Film About J. Robert Oppenheimer Lands At Universal & Begins Filming In 2022

Director Christopher Nolan has been shopping around a new World War II film project to multiple studios about J. Robert Oppenheimer’s development of the atomic bomb in the Manhattan Project. His work ultimately led to the surrender of the Japanese after two atomic bombs were unleashed upon the Japanese cities of Hiroshima and Nagasaki by the U.S. military, killing countless civilians in an instant and even more than that slowly/painfully over time.

Deadline has an update that Universal Pictures has landed the new project with production expected to begin shooting in the first quarter of 2022. This would end Nolan’s run with longtime studio partner Warner Bros. Pictures and remains to be seen if Universal will get first dibs on future films.

The report adds that Warner Bros. wasn’t in the mix for the WWII film, but Universal, Sony, and MGM were.

Nolan’s muse Cillian Murphy (Inception, Batman Begins, Dunkirk) had been previously mentioned for the role of Oppenheimer, but it doesn’t sound like it’s a lock.

I’m extremely curious if Christopher Nolan will attempt to document the Pacific War and the Japanese side of the story along with the civilians that were essentially erased from the planet as part of power move by the United States to end the bloody South Pacific campaign with an extreme show of force. One of the darkest moments in human history.

It’s really not that shocking that Christopher Nolan would attempt to explore this part of history, all you have to do is look at Nolan’s films The Dark Knight Rises and Tenet to understand the filmmaker’s obsession with nuclear armament.

You might remember that Christopher Nolan wasn’t terribly happy how Tenet was released during the pandemic in 2020 (conflicting trade reports blame both Warner Bros. and Nolan for that hiccup with various “sources” finger pointing to each other’s camp). However, when WarnerMedia announced their plans for a hybrid release for all 2021 releases to promote HBO Max, that seemed to be the final straw for the filmmaker and signs that his longtime relationship with Warner Bros. has come to an end.

Universal Pictures recently released F9: The Fast Saga (Nolan is admittedly a fan of Tokyo Drift), are distribution partners on No Time To Die (Daniel Craig’s final outing as James Bond), and behind the upcoming horror flick Halloween Kills.

A release date for the untitled film is likely heading towards 2023.

SOURCE: DEADLINE

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Andrew Garfield Says ‘Spider-Man: No Way Home’ Set Image Circulating Online Is Photoshop: “I’m Trying To Manage Expectations”

Coming off even more denials about appearing as Peter Parker in Spider-Man: No Way Home, Andrew Garfield is now claiming that the images making the rounds of him on some sort of set is actually “photoshop.”

Garfield appeared on The Tonight Show, when host Jimmy Fallon confronted him about the image of him and he admitted he’s seen it but it’s not real.

“I heard about it and I did see it, and it’s a photoshop. [Audience groans] I’m trying to manage expectations.”

Adding to previous denials of his involvement in the superhero pic.

He’s not the only actor pouring cold water on an appearance in the Spider-Man sequel, Charlie Cox recently said that pandemic travel restrictions and shooting his AMC+ series Kin made it impossible for him to film scenes in Atlanta.

“There was a fan on the Kin crew. I came to work one day, and the rumor had come out that I was filming in Atlanta, and he asked me like it was a sensible question, and I was like, ‘I’ve been here every day with you, on set’ but I think he was so hopeful that he still was like, ‘Is it true?’; I had to say to him, ‘How would it be true?”

“Even if I had a few days off, we’re in the middle of a pandemic. I’m not allowed to fly anywhere. What are you talking about?’ Did he think Captain America came to get me?”

I guess we’ll have to see if these denials are genuine or not this winter.

Spider-Man: No Way Home is still marked down for a December 17 release date.

SPIDER-MAN: NO WAY HOME – For the first time in the cinematic history of Spider-Man, our friendly neighborhood hero is unmasked and no longer able to separate his normal life from the high-stakes of being a Super Hero. When he asks for help from Doctor Strange the stakes become even more dangerous, forcing him to discover what it truly means to be Spider-Man.

SOURCE: THE TONIGHT SHOW

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Rian Johnson Says ‘Knives Out 2’ Has Officially Wrapped Production

Rian Johnson has taken to Twitter to announce that his Knives Out sequel, referred to as Knives Out 2, has wrapped principal photography.

“We just wrapped production on the next Benoit Blanc mystery and also I finally watched Annette and holy shit it’s amazing. Sending so much love and gratitude to our INCREDIBLE crew and cast and Leos Carax!”

The impressive cast of Knives Out 2 already consists of Daniel Craig (No Time To Die), Dave Bautista (Blade Runner 2049, Spectre, Guardians of The Galaxy, Army of The Dead), Edward Norton (Fight Club, The Incredible Hulk, Rounders, Moonrise Kingdom), Janelle Monae (Moonlight, Hidden Figures), Kathryn Hahn (WandaVision), Jessica Henwick (The Matrix Resurrections, Iron Fist, Game of Thrones), Kate Hudson (Almost Famous), Ethan Hawke (Moon Knight, The Magnificent Seven), Madelyn Cline, and Leslie Odom Jr. (Murder On The Orient Express, One Night In Miami).

Craig returns as the comedic Southern detective Benoit Blanc as it seems like a group of Americans are the target of a new murder mystery in Greece, I wouldn’t be terribly shocked if it involves another bunch of rich/entitled characters if the set photos are anything to go by.

When the Knives Out sequels were first announced they made headlines because when Netflix closed a massive deal with Johnson and Craig worth a massive $400 million to secure the next two installments.

It’s unclear when they’ll start shooting Knives Out 3 or if Johnson has even begun writing the film’s script.

We likely won’t know for a while when Netflix will release the film as they don’t really dish on release dates too early or just after a project completes filming.

KNIVES OUT – The circumstances surrounding the death of crime novelist Harlan Thrombey are mysterious, but there’s one thing that renowned Detective Benoit Blanc knows for sure — everyone in the wildly dysfunctional Thrombey family is a suspect. Now, Blanc must sift through a web of lies and red herrings to uncover the truth.

SOURCE: RIAN JOHNSON

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‘Predator 5’ Officially Wraps Filming With Amber Midthunder, Dakota Beavers & Dane Diliegro Confirmed For Roles

It’s officially a wrap on Predator 5! Cinematographer Jeff Cutter reveals on Instagram that the film has finished production after spending the summer filming in Calgary, Alberta.

He also confirmed three actors for the film two of which The Ronin previously mentioned were involved with the new Predator film. They Include Amber Midthunder (Legion), Dakota Beavers, and Dane Diliergo.

UPDATE: Kyle Strauts, who we first revealed in May would be back in the predator role after appearing in Shane Black’s The Predator has also confirmed his role in the pic.

The new pic directed by 10 Cloverfield Lane’s Dan Trachtenberg will follow a group of Indigenous humans, the assumption has been this will be the first film in the Predator franchise taking place before the events of the original and will be a period film.

Filming kicked off back on June 10.

Predator 5’s production team consists of the aforementioned cinematographer Jeff Cutter (10 Cloverfield Lane), production designer Kara Lindstrom (Den of Thieves), and stunt coordinator Steven McMichael (Damnation).

Predator 5 isn’t the only project from the Alien/Predator franchise in the works has Ridley Scott has been teasing a third Alien prequel era film is on the table at 20th Century Studios and Scott is producing an Earthbound Alien series from Noah Hawley (Legion, Fargo) at FX.

It’ll be curious to see if Trachtenberg’s film will be a one-off or connect to future installments or a series.

Disney hasn’t announced a release date but trades had been speculation it would land a spot in the Summer of 2022.

However, Predator 5 is a co-production between 20th Century Studios and Hulu, which means it could skip a traditional theatrical release to become a Hulu exclusive.

PREDATOR – Dutch (Arnold Schwarzenegger), a soldier of fortune, is hired by the U.S. government to secretly rescue a group of politicians trapped in Guatemala. But when Dutch and his team, which includes weapons expert Blain (Jesse Ventura) and CIA agent George (Carl Weathers), land in Central America, something is gravely wrong. After finding a string of dead bodies, the crew discovers they are being hunted by a brutal creature with superhuman strength and the ability to disappear into its surroundings.

SOURCE: JEFF CUTTER

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‘Shang-Chi’ Heading Towards $36M In Second Weekend

Shang-Chi & The Legends of The Ten Rings is doing pretty decent all things considered, as the new numbers for this weekend have arrived. Deadline says the current weekend estimates for the film’s second weekend at the domestic box office is $35.7 million, which is a 53% drop from their $75.3 million opening and impressive $94.6 million four-day over the Labor Day long weekend.

The new Avenger has made quite the global impact earning $258 million and counting. Disney might have to settle with lower than normal international earnings as it’s looking less likely that Shang-Chi will secure a release date in China due to the increasingly disgruntled government censors that are now looking for excuses to reject western films.

There is already chatter that Eternals might also be passed over for Chinese date too.

Disney recently mentioned that Chloe Zhao’s Eternals will be keeping a theatrical window, not unlike Shang-Chi, meaning that they’ll be avoiding a hybrid release with Premier Access. They also announced four mystery MCU films for 2024, could one of them be for Shang-Chi 2?

It’s not so great for James Wan and New Line Cinema though, as the horror pic Malignant earned a poultry $5.5 million. Not the best news when the high-profile genre project likely is essentially a flop when production, marketing/distribution costs are factored in, it will be impossible for the film to turn a profit from the domestic box office alone.

Interestingly enough, a majority of Wan’s films that he directors or produces tend to do well at the box office, but Malignant, for whatever reason, didn’t seem to interest mature audiences this time around.

SOURCE: DEADLINE

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‘Mission: Impossible 7’ Has Finally Wrapped After A Long & Exhausting Shoot

Christopher McQuarrie has taken to Instagram to announce that they’ve finally finished production on Mission: Impossible 7 starring Tom Cruise as Ethan Hunt. This after almost a year and a half of filming with various pauses/hiccups due to the COVID-19 pandemic.

Mission: Impossible 7 is part one of a two part story with Mission: Impossible 8 expected to shoot a some point, but likely won’t get going anytime soon as it was reported that it will no-longer shoot back-to-back. Given the lengthy production on this film, we shouldn’t be surprised.

https://www.instagram.com/p/CTrSQEas8-U/

The rest of the sequel’s cast includes Esai Morales, Rebecca Ferguson (Dune), Hayley Atwell (Captain America: The First Avenger), Simon Pegg, Ving Rhames, Vanessa Kirby (Hobbs & Shaw), Pom Klementieff (Guardians of The Galaxy Vol.2), Shea Whigham (Boardwalk Empire), Henry Czerny (Mission: Impossible, Clear & Present Danger), Cary Elwes (Saw, Stranger Things), Indira Varma (Game of Thrones, Obi-Wan Kenobi), Rob Delaney (Deadpool 2), Charles Parnell (The Last Ship), and British character actor Mark Gatiss (Sherlock).

Filming took place in London, Rome, Abu Dhabi, and Norway.

Paramount Pictures recently bumped the film’s release date to September 30, 2022 after putting Top Gun: Maverick in it’s previous spot of May 27, 2022.

SOURCE: CHRISTOPHER MCQUARRIE

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‘Mad Max: Fury Road’ Prequel ‘Furiosa’ Delayed To May 2024 Due To Production Delays

Yesterday, Warner Bros. announced via Variety that Furiosa would be getting a release delay from June 23, 2023 to Memorial Day weekend in May 2024. This is directly because of the production hiccups linked to COVID-19 in Australia, where the film was originally scheduled to shoot over the summer.

Instead, the film’s main leads Anya Taylor-Joy (The Northman, Last Night In Soho, The Menu), Chris Hemsworth (Thor: Love & Thunder, Extraction 2), and Yahya Abdul-Mateen II (Candyman, The Matrix Resurrections, Aquman & The Lost Kingdom) are going to shoot other projects until cameras roll on Furisoa in 2022.

The extensive post-production and editing process on the film is expected to take much longer than with most big studio action films, as it did with Mad Max: Fury Road, since it shot in 2012 but didn’t release until 2015.

Production on Furiosa was going to take place at Fox Studios Australia in Sydney, New South Wales. The same stage facility recently used to shoot Marvel flicks Shang-Chi & The Legend of The Ten Rings and Thor: Love & Thunder.

Director George Miller isn’t new to delays on his Mad Max films, there was a ten year delay on Fury Road before they started shooting that one leading to the recasting of Mel Gibson with Tom Hardy. Hopefully, they’ll be able to begin filming next year without any further hiccups.

Furiosa will be the first film in the Mad Max franchise to focus on another lead character as it will explore the female warrior’s journey from The Green Place to The Citadel.

Miller is still expected to return Tom Hardy’s Max at some point with a continuation to Fury Road.

MAD MAX: FURY ROAD – Haunted by his turbulent past, Mad Max believes the best way to survive is to wander alone. Nevertheless, he becomes swept up with a group fleeing across the Wasteland in a War Rig driven by an elite Imperator, Furiosa. They are escaping a Citadel tyrannized by the Immortan Joe, from whom something irreplaceable has been taken. Enraged, the Warlord marshals all his gangs and pursues the rebels ruthlessly in the high-octane Road War that follows.

SOURCE: VARIETY

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Four Mystery Marvel Studios Movies Set For Release In 2024

Yesterday, Disney announced four new release dates for untitled Marvel Studios feature films in 2024. Those spots being etched-out for February, May, July, and November.

There are now seven release dates on the schedule for unnamed projects that will likely be named at the next big Marvel Studios presentation something that is likely around the corner.

However, we have an idea what at least four of those options might be with Jon Watts’ Fantastic Four reboot, Bassam Tariq’s Blade reboot, Ryan Reynolds’ Deadpool 3, and Anthony Mackie’s Captain America 4 at various stages of development.

Below is a rundown of the current Marvel Studios schedule for films between 2021 to 2024.

  • ETERNALS – November 5, 2021
  • SPIDER-MAN: NO WAY HOME – December 17, 2021
  • DOCTOR STRANGE IN THE MULTIVERSE OF MADNESS – March 25, 2021
  • THOR: LOVE & THUNDER – May 6, 2022
  • BLACK PANTHER: WAKANDA FOREVER – July 8, 2022
  • THE MARVELS – November 11, 2022
  • ANT-MAN & THE WASP: QUANTUMANIA – February 17, 2023
  • GUARDIANS OF THE GALAXY VOL. 3 – May 5, 2023
  • TBA – July 28, 2023
  • TBA – October 6, 2023
  • TBA – November 10, 2023
  • TBA – February 16, 2024
  • TBA – May 3, 2024
  • TBA – July 26, 2024
  • TBA – November 8, 2024
  • FANTASTIC FOUR (DIRECTOR JON WATTS) – TBA
  • BLADE (DIRECTOR BASSAM TARIQ) – TBA
  • DEADPOOL 3 – TBA
  • CAPTAIN AMERICA 4 – TBA
  • X-MEN – TBA

We could easily theorize that some other options might include their X-Men reboot, Shang-Chi 2, Eternals 2, Black Widow 2 (focusing on Yelena Belova), Avengers 5, Secret Wars, Spider-Man 4 (if Sony and Disney can expand their deal), Black Panther 3, Ant-Man 4, Doctor Strange 3, Thor 5, and Young Avengers.

Some other projects I’d love to see be considered for the film side such as Squadron Supreme, Captain Carter, Black Knight, The Invaders, Nova, Adam Warlock, Alpha Flight, Agents of Atlas, Namor (if they’re able to make it), Ka-Zar, Killraven, and Red Wolf.

As mentioned above, we’re likely on the cusp of a new Marvel Studios presentation that will likely give us an idea of what else is coming to both Disney+ (Disney+ Day in November) and the big screen in the future.

SOURCE: DISNEY