Director Martin McDonagh (Seven Psychopaths, In Bruges, Three Billboards) is moving forward with a new movie called The Banshees of Inisherin that has a cast that consists of Colin Farrell (Miami Vice, The Lobster, The Batman), Brendan Gleeson, Barry Keoghan (The Batman, Eternals, The Green Knight, Dunkirk), and the voice of the MCU’s Friday, Kerry Condon (Better Call Saul, Three Billboards, Ray Donovan).
The filmmaker is best known for dark comedies.
Here is the vague synopsis for the new movie that will shoot in Ireland starting this month.
Pic charts the story of a pair of lifelong friends on a remote Irish island who find themselves at an awkward time in their relationship when one of them no longer wants to be friends.
The Ronin has been able to confirm that cinematographer Ben Davis has joined the project with films credits that include Layer Cake, Kick-Ass, Avengers: Age of Ultron, Doctor Strange, Guardians of The Galaxy, Captain Marvel, Cry Macho, The King’s Man, and Chloe Zhao’s Eternals.
Davis has previously worked with McDonagh on pics such as Seven Psychopaths and the Oscar-winning film Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri.
Another Robert Kirkman (Invincible, The Walking Dead) property is being developed as a live-action project, as his sci-fi comic book Oblivion Song had it’s film rights secured by New Republic Pictures, after previous involvement from Universal Pictures.
The Hollywood Reporter brings us the news and adds that Jake Gyllenhaal (Nightcrawler, Prisoners) will both star and produce the movie based on the comic published by Image Comics.
The comic — which Kirkman created with artist Lorenzo De Felici in 2018 — takes place a decade after 300,000 citizens of Philadelphia were suddenly lost in a cataclysmic event named Oblivion. The government made every attempt to recover them, but after many years they gave up. But protagonist Nathan Cole hasn’t, making daily trips to find those lost.
Gyllenhaal’s most recent films include Marvel’s Spider-Man: Far From Home, Bong Joon-ho’s Okja, Velvet Buzzsaw with upcoming releases such as Michael Bay’s Ambulance and Antoine Fuqua’s thriller The Guilty. Other projects on the horizon include the survival drama Suddenly alongside Vanessa Kirby (Mission: Impossible – Fallout, Hobbs & Shaw, The Crown), the Navy SEAL action flick Combat Control, and the video game film The Division that will co-star Jessica Chastain (Zero Dark Thirty) at Netflix.
Kirkman’s The Walking Dead franchise and Invincible are also poised to also get feature films. He was recently involved with Chris McKay’s Universal Monsters pic Renfield starring Nicholas Hoult helping craft it’s story.
Anya Taylor-Joy (Last Night In Soho) finished an epic Viking film, The Northman, for director Robert Eggers (The Lighthouse) after previously working with him on The Witch. There are some interesting updates on what projects she’ll be making in the next couple of years.
The Los Angeles Time has outlined her filming schedule revealing that The Menu is next with George Miller’s Mad Max: Fury Road prequel Furiosa shooting in 2022 (set to shoot at Fox Studios Australia in Sydney), and highlight that Robert Eggers’ remake of the classic silent vampire movie Nosferatu (Anya Taylor-Joy attached since 2017) will finally move forward.
Right now, Taylor-Joy, 25, seems to be everyone’s kind of girl. Her schedule is booked solid for the next 2½ years, starting soon with “The Menu,” a dark comedy set in the world of exotic culinary culture directed by Mark Mylod (“Succession”) and then moving next year to “Furiosa,” George Miller’s prequel to “Mad Max: Fury Road.” After that, she’ll reunite with “Queen’s Gambit” writer-director Scott Frank for the thriller “Laughter in the Dark” and Eggers again in a reworking of the vampire classic “Nosferatu,” the latest collaboration in a partnership that began with her first “real film,” the unnerving 2016 horror movie “The Witch.”
This would be the third time working with Eggers and bring her back to the horror genre.
NOSFERATU – In this highly influential silent horror film, the mysterious Count Orlok (Max Schreck) summons Thomas Hutter (Gustav von Wangenheim) to his remote Transylvanian castle in the mountains. The eerie Orlok seeks to buy a house near Hutter and his wife, Ellen (Greta Schroeder). After Orlok reveals his vampire nature, Hutter struggles to escape the castle, knowing that Ellen is in grave danger. Meanwhile Orlok’s servant, Knock (Alexander Granach), prepares for his master to arrive at his new home.
The Northman is set for release on April 8, 2022 and Furiosa is coming out June 22, 2023.
Last week, actor Dave Bautista made a pitch on Twitter about making a buddy cop movie, similar to Lethal Weapon, with pal Jason Momoa and directed by David Leitch (Atomic Blonde, Bullet Train, Deadpool 2, Hobbs & Shaw). Bautista and Momoa have been working together recently on projects like Dune and the Apple TV+ series See.
“Just going to throw this out into the atmosphere and see what happens. Here we go…me and Momoa in a ‘Lethal Weapon’-type buddy cop movie directed by David Leitch. Ok! There it is. Now we wait.”
Momoa has now given a bit of an update while speaking with James Cordon on The Late Late Show, suggesting that he’s down for it and mentioned that Bautista wants to make it Hawaii.
“He literally texted me four days ago, going, ‘We need to do a buddy cop film. We love each other. We are on See and Dune together.’ And I said, ‘Absolutely.’ And he said, ‘Let’s do it in Hawaii.’ And I said, ‘Let’s do it. I have an idea.’ So it’s off to the races now. We’re doing it.”
“It sells itself, bro. Dave loves wearing Speedos. I love wearing board shorts. And both of us with our shirts off. He’ll be grumpy and I’ll be charming. Boom. It sells itself, bro. I have the hair. He doesn’t have hair. We cover all the demographics.”
When this could happen seems to be the question, as Leitch is about to shoot his Will Smith thriller Fast & Loose. Bautista is about to begin shooting James Gunn’s Guardians of The Galaxy Vol.3 in November and Momoa is currently involved with James Wan’s Aquaman & The Lost Kingdom. There is an expectation that Bautista will return for Dune: Part Two, Denis Villeneuve recently teasing a fall 2022 production start.
Anyways, it’s a rad idea and with the write script/director could be a fun time.
Just going to throw this out into the atmosphere and see what happens. Here we go… Me and Momoa in a Lethal Weapon type buddy cop movie directed by David Leitch. Ok! There it is. Now we wait.😬
After what feels like an eternity of fan speculation of when the Spider-Man: No Way Home trailer would drop it’s finally made it’s way online, thanks to Sony Pictures.
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.
The cast consists of Tom Holland, Benedict Cumberbatch as Doctor Strange, Jamie Foxx as Electro, Alfred Molina as Doctor Octopus, Jon Favreau, Hannibal Buress, Jacob Batalon, J.K. Simmons as J. Jonah Jameson, Marisa Tomei, Angourie Rice, Martin Starr, Tony Revolori, Paula Newsome, and J.B Smoove.
We’ve now have concrete confirmations that Benedict Wong and possibly Willem Dafoe’s Norman Osborn/Green Goblin will appear as well. We see a pumpkin bomb show up, someone trying to attack Peter in the shadows, Electro using his powers, and Alfred Molina’s glorious Doctor Octopus.
The Multiverse was first teased in WandaVision, but fully realized in the Loki series with the TVA and Kang’s variant. It’s currently being explored with the What If…? animated show, however, there is something tonally off with that project compared to previous live-action stuff on Disney+. Hopefully, things will get better as more episodes air.
It seems like there will be a slight break for director Jon Watts, as he’ll be focusing on Fantastic Four next, as Marvel Studios will reboot the superhero team for the MCU. However, since making the announcement in December, they haven’t given any indication when they’ll begin production on Fantastic Four.
This isn’t terribly surprising as we haven’t had an announcement concerning Spider-Man 4 and Holland has revealed he completed his contract with No Way Home (he’s indicated he wants to resign but likely re-negotiate more for money). A small hiatus might be just the break everyone involved in the trilogy of films needs at this point.
Spider-Man: No Way Home is expected to debut on December 17, barring any further release delays.
While director Neill Blomkamp was able to convince both actress Sigourney Weaver and Aliens director James Cameron (called the film’s outline/idea “gangbusters”) about his pitch for Alien 5, but it sounds like Ridley Scott was ultimately the harder sell and may have ultimately led to the project’s death.
During a recent interview with The Playlist, Blomkamp suggested that Ridley Scott was possibly behind his exit from the sci-fi sequel.
“At the end of the day even though Ridley Scott is producing it, he brought that to the world, so if he changes his mind or if there is a director on it he doesn’t want, whatever it may be, it’s his. I understand that, it makes logical sense to me.”
Blomkamp further alluded to The Guardian that Alien 5 producer Ridley Scott (current gatekeeper of the Alien franchise) potentially watched Chappie and that may have behind Scott changing his mind about letting Blomkamp direct Alien 5 (a project Ridley Scott tried to make 20 years ago).
“It’s possible that Ridley watched Chappie and he was like, this guy can’t do Alien so let’s just go ahead and move on.”
When asked if he’d return to the franchise anytime in the future he declined that as a possibility and quickly debunked online rumblings that Alien 5 was back on track with his involvement.
“Not after, no no no, there’s no coming back from that. I’m not gonna work on a film for two years and have the rug pulled out from underneath me and then go hang out and have beers. It’s exactly why I don’t want to do IP based on other people’s stuff ever again.”
“I’m sure they will make many films with that piece of IP, it just doesn’t include me.”
It’s worth noting that as soon as Alien 5 got nixed by Scott/20th Century Fox, they quickly moved forward with Scott’s Alien: Covenant. There is a good chance that Scott saw Alien 5 as a competing film to Covenant and decided to curb-stomp it (considering his high status at the studio). There were some similarities between the two films with multiple androids as revealed in concept artwork (one good and one bad), and we wouldn’t be terribly shocked if Covenant lifted other elements from Alien 5.
Chappie was both a critical and box office disaster for Blomkamp. The sci-fi movie had multiple oddball choices including giving large roles to non-actors Die Antwoord (rapper pals of Blomkamp), who played awful characters that were on par with Hugh Jackman’s villain but were supposed to be “likable.” It certainly had less to say than the social commentary infused into the story as Blomkamp’s prior two movies District 9 and Elysium, feeling like more of “this would be cool if we did this” exercise.
With District 10 in development and other Elysium films on table, I don’t think we can say that the director has any interest in Chappie follow-ups anytime soon.
CHAPPIE – In the near future, a mechanized police force patrols the streets and deals with lawbreakers — but now, the people are fighting back. When one police droid is stolen and given new programming, he acquires the ability to feel and think for himself. While the robot, dubbed “Chappie (Sharlto Copley),” puzzles out human behavior, the authorities begin to see him as a danger to mankind and order; they will stop at nothing to ensure that Chappie is the last of his kind.
Neill Blomkamp is back to making movies after a hiatus after multiple projects not coming together (Alien 5, RoboCop Returns, Greenland), focusing on his Oats Studios shorts, and attempting to put together a new original project, Inferno.
The filmmaker is currently developing District 10, a sequel to his debut film District 9. That isn’t the only sci-fi project he wants to return to explore. While promoting his new movie Demonic, he spoke with The Playlist on their podcast and briefly voiced his desire to return to the world of Elysium.
“I would love to do more films in the world of Elysium. I love the setup of that world. The world that it puts forward is very interesting to me.”
ELYSIUM – In the year 2154, humanity is sharply divided between two classes of people: The ultrarich live aboard a luxurious space station called Elysium, and the rest live a hardscrabble existence in Earth’s ruins. His life hanging in the balance, a man named Max (Matt Damon) agrees to undertake a dangerous mission that could bring equality to the population, but Secretary Delacourt (Jodie Foster) vows to preserve the pampered lifestyle of Elysium’s citizens, no matter what the cost.
We already have idea what he’d like to tackle in follow-up.
In 2016, Neill Blomkamp mentioned to Empire the idea of revisiting the Agent Kruger character in a low-budget spinoff, a violent mercenary (played by District 9’s Sharlto Copley) that is hired to do the dirty work for Elysium. He eventually turned into main antagonist of the original film once Jodie Foster’s character was killed-off.
“I did ask [Media Rights Capital?] who paid for Elysium, I was like ‘what if you did a lower budget of this where Kruger is the lead character and is absolutely non-arc, don’t expect the character to to arc, he just doesn’t, he just does a bunch of shit that’s awesome’ and he was like ‘that does sound like that could be cool.'”
It’ll be interesting to see if he’ll tackle a Kruger-focused prequel or a direct sequel.
While director Denis Villeneuve is already in the scripting phase of Dune: Part Two and mentioning a potential fall 2022 production start, assumed to take place in Budapest again. He’s started talking up his desire for a third Dune movie to round-out a trilogy, as he mentioned to Radio Canada (spotted by The Playlist) he could see Frank Hebert’s Dune Messiah (the second installment) making an “extraordinary film.”
“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.”
Below is a rundown of the second book.
“Dune Messiah continues the story of Paul Atreides, better known–and feared–as the man christened Muad’Dib. As Emperor of the Known Universe, he possesses more power than a single man was ever meant to wield. Worshipped as a religious icon by the fanatical Fremens, Paul faces the enmity of the political houses he displaced when he assumed the throne–and a conspiracy conducted within his own sphere of influence. And even as House Atreides begins to crumble around him from the machinations of his enemies, the true threat to Paul comes to his lover, Chani, and the unborn heir to his family’s dynasty…”
The director also confirmed that Feyd-Rautha Harkonnen won’t be showing up in Dune during his lengthy interview with Total Film. Feyd is the nephew of Baron Harkonnen (Stellan Skarsgard) and pretty much takes the role of Paul’s rival in the space opera.
“The book is so rich. There are so many fantastic details about the different cultures. In order to preserve and have the time to bring that to the screen, we had to make important choices. It was a powerful image, that jockstrap.”
Dune is still set to be released on October 22 in theaters and HBO Max.
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.
‘Shang-Chi & The Legend of The Ten Rings” will usher in a brand new MCU superhero, Simu Liu’s Shang-Chi, and makes him their very first leading Asian hero. However, it’s not the only thing to be championing about the upcoming film as Marvel wanted to tackle a new incarnation of legacy villain The Mandarin with Tony Leung’s Wenwu, the father of Shang-Chi.
The Mandarin was originally a primary villain of Tony Stark’s Iron Man and founding member of the Masters of Evil, a supervillain team that combated The Avengers in sixth issue alongside Zemo, Nathan Garrett/Black Knight (Dane’s Whitman’s uncle), and Chen Lu/Radioactive Man.
Tony Leung recently spoke with Elle Singapore (via Slash Film) and revealed the creative process alongside how he was able to reinvention of The Mandarin for modern audiences.
“When [Marvel] offered me the role, what they wanted was for me to create a brand new Mandarin, so I got to develop my character along with the filming. I’ve never approached Wenwu from a villain’s standpoint. Rather, I tried to explore the reasons that led him to become who he is. He’s a man with a history, who craves to be loved. He is also human, and he has a family. As I read [the script], I began to consider the many reasons why he’d turn out the way he is — a sociopath, a narcissist, a bigot.”
“When director Destin Daniel Cretton first described the role to me, he said there are many layers to the antagonist role, and hoped that I could come on board. I accepted it because of the director. It just felt right. Plus, this is something I’ve never done before, to play an Asian supervillain. A chance to do something for Asia. I thought, why not?”
Shang-Chi and The Mandarin do have a racist history as multiple Asian stereotypes were infused into their comic book counterparts, but, thankfully, Marvel Studios and Marvel Comics have taken different approaches over the years.
Marvel’s Kevin Feige spoke towards those racist origins by disavowing Fu Manchu, Shang-Chi’s original comic book father. As Feige points out to Chinese outlet Sina Weibo (via Variety) it’s a character Marvel has had zero connection with for ages.
“Fu Manchu is not a Marvel character. Fu Manchu is not a character we own or would ever want to own. And that was changed in the comics many, many years ago. And we never had any intention of doing that in this movie. Fu Manchu is not in this movie in any way, shape, or form…. He was such an offensive figure and was never anything we had any interest in doing. We want heroes that look like all our fans around the world and heroes that our fans can look up to and feel that wish fulfillment to be a part of. And it’s about inviting people into our world, not keeping people out of it or keeping people separate from it. So, definitively, Fu Manchu is not in this movie, is not Shang-Chi’s father, has not been for decades. And again, is not even a Marvel character.”
Feige also said the following about Tony Leung’s Wenwu, who is one of the key elements of the film that is getting a lot of buzz.
“This is a very unique character that you can almost, almost not even call a villain. This is a story of love between a father and a son, but misunderstanding and conflict, and that’s what we’re anxious for people to see in the movie.”
‘Shang-Chi’ will hit theaters exclusively on September 3.
Co-director John Francis Daley has officially announced on Twitter that filming on Paramount Pictures’ new Dungeons & Dragon movies has wrapped, after spending time shooting in Belfast, France, and Iceland.
Dungeons & Dragons is based on the beloved table top game that eventually incorporated various universes including elements from the Fafhrd & The Gray Mouser series of novels created by American fantasy author Fritz Leiber. It remains to be seen what Paramount’s angle will be with the new movie, if they’ll be setting it simply in a fantasy world or will be slightly inspired by the recent Jumanji film from Sony Pictures.
The beloved table-top fantasy game that recently got a resurgence with a new generation thanks to Netflix’s Stranger Things and it growing popularity again in the gaming community.
It originally had Chris McKay (The Tomorrow War, The Lego Batman Movie) attached to direct before Paramount pivoted to Game Night filmmakers John Francis Daley and Jonathan Goldstein. The duo, who previously wrote Spider-Man: Homecoming will tackle the script as well.
The Dungeons & Dragons cast members are Chris Pine (Star Trek, Wonder Woman, Hell of High Water), Michelle Rodriguez (Avatar, F9, Alita: Battle Angel), Rege-Jean Page (Bridgerton, The Gray Man), Justice Smith (Detective Pikachu, Jurassic Park: Fallen Kingdom), Sophia Lillis (It), Chloe Coleman (Avatar 2, Gunpowder Milkshake), Daisy Head (Shadow & Bone), Hugh Grant (The Gentlemen, Five Eyes) is reportedly playing a villain.
Their production team consists of cinematographer Barry Peterson (Game Night), production designer Raymond Chan (The Falcon & The Winter Soldier), and stunt coordinator Brad Martin (Underworld, The Falcon & The Winter Soldier).
Paramount will unleash Dungeons & Dragons on March 3, 2023.
THE RONIN 