Category: Film News

Posted on in Film News

Jake Gyllenhaal & Vanessa Kirby To Play A Couple In The Survival Thriller ‘Suddenly’ From ‘Rust & Bone’ Screenwriter

Another interesting project has come up at the Cannes Film Market this week as Jake Gyllenhaal (Nightcrawler) and Vanessa Kirby (Pieces of A Woman) are attached to play a couple in a new Studiocanal thriller from Rust & Bone screenwriter Thomas Bidegain, according to Deadline. The project is based on the novel Soudain Seuls by French author Isabelle Autissier and will focus on a couple that is stranded on an island. Suddenly sounds like it could be a solid character-focused film for the acting duo.

A couple who becomes stranded on an island in the South Atlantic and must fight for survival when their dream journey becomes a nightmare. 

Bidegain was previously behind the French gangster film A Prophet and wrote on the Gyllenhaal’s The Sister Brothers.

Gyllenhaal has been busy lately completing production on Michael Bay’s Ambulance, leading the Antoine Fuqua-directed 911 dispatch thriller The Guilty, and is still attached to co-star with Jessica Chastain in a feature film adaptation of the video game The Division for Netflix with Red Notice director Rawson Marshall Thurber recently replacing David Leitch (Bullet Train, Atomic Blonde, John Wick). It’s unknown if we’ll see Jake Gyllenhaal return to the Marvel Cinematic Universe as Quentin Beck as he died in Spider-Man: Far From Home and his death is being used to frame Peter Parker for murder, it’s possible the death was staged but we’ll have to watch Spider-Man: No Way Home to know for sure.

Kirby has been getting praise for her dramatic work in Pieces of A Woman and The World To Come. She’s been recently shooting the high-octane action sequel Mission: Impossible 7 for writer/director Christopher McQuarrie during the pandemic and is expected to return for Mission: Impossible 8 as well. There is an assumption that Vanessa Kirby could reprise the Hattie Shaw role in a potential sequel to Hobbs & Shaw, when/if Universal Pictures decides to announce those plans officially.

RUST & BONE – Ali (Matthias Schoenaerts), a former boxer and single father, meets Stephanie (Marion Cotillard) when he saves her from a brawl at the nightclub where he works as a bouncer. Their casual acquaintance develops into something much more after Stephanie, who trains killer whales at a marine park, suffers a horrible accident and loses both her legs above the knee. As Stephanie draws on Ali’s physical strength, an unexpected courtship slowly comes to life.

SOURCE: DEADLINE

Posted on in Film News

‘Disappointment Blvd’: Amy Ryan, Nathan Lane & Patti LuPone Join Oscar-Winner Joaquin Phoenix In Ari Aster’s Next Film

Filmmaker Ari Aster is ramping up to shoot his third feature film, Disappointment Blvd, after tackling horror with Hereditary and the Swedish-set Florence Pugh film Midsommar. Production on the A24 flick will take place in Montreal, Quebec, Canada this summer and wrap sometime in October and the film’s star, Joaquin Phoenix, finally has some company.

The Ari Aster film has reportedly added Nathan Lane (The Birdcage, The Producers, Penny Dreadful), fellow Broadway star Patti LuPone, Oscar-nominee Amy Ryan (Gone Baby Gone, Bridge of Spies), and Kylie Rogers to the new film’s cast. The new additions are mentioned in a report from Deadline.

Disappointment Blvd is described as an intimate decades-spanning portrait of one of the most successful entrepreneurs of all time. It’s unclear if the film will share a similar tone Aster’s other two pics or will become a bit of a departure for the director.

The Ronin recently revealed that Aster has added Oscar-nominated production designer Fiona Crombie (Cruella, The Favourite) and is expected to reunite with his Midsommar cinematographer Pawel Pogorzelski (Nobody).

Phoenix is coming off the massive success of the Joker earning him a Best Actor Oscar and making over a billion dollars at the global box office. He’s also attached to co-star with Jodie Comer (The Last Duel) in Ridley Scott’s Napoleon epic Kitbag set to begin shooting sometime next year and recently was announced for director Lynne Ramsey’s next protect, Polaris, starring alongside Rooney Mara (The Girl In The Dragon Tattoo).

A24 is said to be seeking distribution partners at the Cannes Film Market and the latest casting news will likely help with the bidding.

SOURCE: DEADLINE

Posted on in Film News

Kevin Feige Suggests Marvel Could Explore Other Characters’ Past Similar To Their Prequel ‘Black Widow’

With Scarlett Johansson’s Black Widow covering the events between the end of Captain America: Civil War and the start of Avengers: Infinity War. Not to mention, her Russian roots that are at the center of the new film. There has been some curiosity from fans if Marvel Studios would attempt to explore more prequel projects or do deep dives into the past of certain superheroes.

Well, while speaking during Black Widow’s virtual press conference (via The Direct), Marvel Studios’ Kevin Feige was asked just that

“Well, certainly this film and this story is a particular case for Natasha, but the notion of exploring the past, present, and future of the MCU is certainly in the cards for all of our characters. This particular story, this particular cast, is very personal, very specific, to Natasha,” Kevin Feige said during a virtual press conference.

It’s not really a ringing endorsement or even giving us any insight to where they could be going next, but it does sounds like they’re keeping the door open and won’t end that notion with Black Widow’s release on July 9.

There are a couple of examples that come to mind such as the events between Steve Rogers meeting up with Peggy Carter in the late 1940s and when Old Man Steve gives Sam Wilson the shield. It’s a possibility that Marvel could explore a 1950s or 1960s incarnation of S.H.I.E.L.D. with Rogers leading his other well-established comic book superhero team, The Invaders.

It’s also hard to ignore that X-Men’s Wolverine (barely ages if at all) could certainly have his origin told in prequel projects set during World War II or the Cold War with the Soviet Union, finally giving fans a more authentic version of the Weapon X Program and his extensive military service as the studio plans to reboot the franchise alongside Fantastic Four.

I guess we’ll have to wait and see.

BLACK WIDOW – In Black Widow, Natasha Romanoff confronts the darker parts of her ledger when a dangerous conspiracy with ties to her past arises. Pursued by a force that will stop at nothing to bring her down, Natasha must deal with her history as a spy and the broken relationships left in her wake long before she became an Avenger. Directed by Cate Shortland and produced by Kevin Feige, the movie stars Scarlett Johansson reprising her role as Natasha Romanoff. Florence Pugh stars as Yelena Belova, David Harbour as Alexei Shostakov aka Red Guardian, and Rachel Weisz as Melina Vostokoff.

SOURCE: THE DIRECT

Posted on in Film News

Netflix & Steven Spielberg’s Amblin Announce New Partnership To Develop Multiple New Films

Today, it was announced by streaming giant Netflix that they’ll be partnering with Steven Spielberg’s Amblin Partners to develop multiple new films per year for the streaming service, which includes banners such as Amblin Entertainment, Amblin Television, and DreamWorks Pictures.

This likely means that Amblin is going be increasing it’s output of feature films and that upcoming projects such as their vampire flick Last Voyage of The Demeter along with ones still in development stages, could end up being released by Netflix and likely won’t have as much trouble getting financing. On paper it like a win-win for both media companies.

Here’s is the official press release.

Amblin Partners, the global film and television studio led by Steven Spielberg, and Netflix have announced a partnership that will cover multiple new feature films per year.

“At Amblin, storytelling will forever be at the center of everything we do, and from the minute Ted and I started discussing a partnership, it was abundantly clear that we had an amazing opportunity to tell new stories together and reach audiences in new ways. This new avenue for our films, alongside the stories we continue to tell with our longtime family at Universal and our other partners, will be incredibly fulfilling for me personally since we get to embark on it together with Ted, and I can’t wait to get started with him, Scott, and the entire Netflix team,” said Amblin Partners Chairman Steven Spielberg.

Netflix’s Co-CEO Ted Sarandos said, “Steven is a creative visionary and leader and, like so many others around the world, my growing up was shaped by his memorable characters and stories that have been enduring, inspiring and awakening. We cannot wait to get to work with the Amblin team and we are honored and thrilled to be part of this chapter of Steven’s cinematic history.”

The two companies previously worked together on the Academy Award-nominated The Trial of the Chicago 7, and are currently collaborating on Bradley Cooper’s Leonard Bernstein film, Maestro, which is in pre-production.

It’ll be interesting to see what this means for Amblin’s participation with the theatrical experience and this is a sign they could end up walking away completely, outside of deals with Universal Pictures and Disney.

Amblin’s recent projects include the Paramount+ sci-fi action series Halo debuting in 2022, James Mangold’s Indiana Jones 5 at Disney, and Colin Trevorrow’s Jurassic World: Dominion at Universal Pictures.

SOURCE: NETFLIX

Posted on in Film News

Keira Knightley Reuniting With ‘Silent Night’ Director Camille Griffin For Sci-Fi Drama ‘Conception’ At Searchlight

British actress Keira Knightley recently exited the Tom Hiddleston-led Apple TV+ series The Essex Serpent after citing “family “reasons” but has reportedly secured her next feature film project.

According to Deadline, Knightley will be reuniting with her Silent Night director Camille Griffin, the Christmas flick from Matthew Vaughn’s MARV Films that also co-stars Jojo Rabbit breakout Roman Griffin Davis (Camille’s son). The new sci-fi drama is titled Conception and is at Searchlight Pictures with Maven Screen Media producing.

Camille Griffin will also write Conception.

The story is set in the near future, when the British government takes authoritarian rule over parenting. It follows a vigorous License Officer (Knightley), who is a firm believer in the controversial system she upholds until an unexpected event imperils her own parental status in the very administration she enforces.

SOURCE: DEADLINE

Posted on in Film News

‘Dead For A Dollar’: Christoph Waltz To Play Another Bounty Hunter Opposite Willem Dafoe In New Western Thriller From Director Walter Hill

Another interesting project is assembling at the Cannes Film Market, as Deadline reports that writer/director Walter Hill (48 Hours, Red Heat, The Warriors, The Driver) is putting together a western called Dead For A Dollar that will see Oscar-winner Christoph Waltz playing another bounty hunter after playing on in Quentin Tarantino’s Django Unchained. The western will also see Willem Dafoe (John Wick, The Lighthouse) play someone that Waltz’s bounty hunter had sent to prison years ago.

The outlet added an extensive plot synopsis for Dead For A Dollar’s script that was penned by Hill and Matt Harris, which you can read below but might have a handful of spoilers.

Dead For A Dollar is set in New Mexico Territory, Chihuahua, during 1897. The story will follow Max Borlund (Waltz), a famed bounty hunter, hired to find and return Rachel Price, the politically progressive wife of Nathan Price, a successful Santa Fe businessman. Max is told she has been kidnapped by an African American army deserter, Elijah Jones, and is being held for ransom in Mexico. When Max goes south of the border he soon runs across his sworn enemy, expatriate American Joe Cribbens (Dafoe), a professional gambler, sometime outlaw, who Max had tracked down and sent to prison years before. When Borlund finds Rachel Price and Elijah hiding deep in the wilds of the Mexican desert, he discovers that Rachel has willingly fled from an abusive husband, and the runaway soldier is, in fact, her romantic partner. Max is now faced with a dilemma: does he return the wife back across the border to the man who hired him, or does he aid Rachel’s bid for freedom and fight off ruthless hired guns and his long-time criminal rival, Joe Cribbens?

The title an obvious nod to Sergio Leone’s iconic Dollars Trilogy, the trio of films was landmark work in the spaghetti western sub-genre.

Walter Hill as a writer worked on Alien (uncredited), Aliens, Alien 3, The Warriors, Red Heat, 48 Hours, The Driver, and Another 48 Hours.

SOURCE: DEADLINE

Posted on in Film News

Ari Aster’s ‘Disappointment Blvd’ Starring Joaquin Phoenix Adds ‘The Favourite’ & ‘Cruella’ Production Designer Fiona Crombie

Filmmaker Ari Aster is looking to follow-up Midsommar with Disappointment Blvd starring Oscar-winner Joaquin Phoenix (Joker, Her, The Master), which is set to begin production sometime next week in Montreal, Quebec, Canada and wrap in October.

Details are scarce about Aster’s third film outside of Phoenix playing a successful entrepreneur.

An intimate, decades-spanning portrait of one of the most successful entrepreneurs of all time.

The Ronin can confirm that Aster has brought on Oscar nominated production designer Fiona Crombie to Disappointment Blvd’s production team, who worked on the Oscar-winning period comedy The Favourite and Disney’s well-received Cruella (already getting a sequel) that both starred Emma Stone.

There is also an expectation that he’ll, yet again, reunite with his cinematographer Pawel Pogorzelski after working him on Hereditary and Midsommar. The director of photography just happens to hail from Montreal and was behind the camera on the Bob Odenkirk action flick Nobody.

A24 is said to be bringing the film to the Cannes Film Market seeking distribution partners, according to Screen Daily. Having Joaquin Phoenix attached after winning a Best Actor Oscar for the billion-dollar hit Joker, likely means they’ll be fielding multiple offers.

Phoenix is set to star in Ridley Scott’s Napoleon epic Kitbag for Apple with Jodie Comer as his co-star and is newly attached to co-star with Rooney Mara in director Lynne Ramsey’s next project Polaris.

Posted on in Film News

‘John Wick 4’: Wesley Snipes Reportedly Won’t Appear Despite Discussions

John Wick: Chapter 4 is going to begin filming soon at Studio Babelsberg just outside Berlin, Germany, where franchise star Keanu Reeves shot The Matrix 4 last year with director Lana Wachowski.

Well, the casting has been underway for John Wick 4 with some impressive new additions such as Japanese action star Horiyuki Sanada, Hong Kong action star Donnie Yen, Atomic Blonde’s Bill Skarsgard, Stowaway’s Shamier Anderson, and the film’s female lead played by Japanese-British singer Rina Sawayama.

There had been rumblings that Blade star Wesley Snipes was joining the epic fourth installment, however, The Hollywood Reporter’s Borys Kit has now squashed that via Twitter, despite confirming early discussions with Lionsgate.

John Wick: Chapter 3 – Parabellum ended with John surviving the fall from the roof of The Continental hotel after Ian McShane’s Winston shot him, Winston’s motivations weren’t entirely clear as he didn’t seem shocked that Mr. Wick got away and could be giving The High Table a false sense of security. Wick eventually lands at the feet of Laurence Fishburne’s Bowery King, who had his organization taken away from him by The High Table and convinces John to go to war with him against the mysterious group of criminal syndicate puppet masters. 

John Wick 4 will hit the big screen on May 27, 2022 and Lionsgate had confirmed plans to make John Wick: Chapter 5, but will no longer shoot back-to-back with the next installment. Franchise creator and architect, Derek Kolstad, stated that he won’t be involved in the next two films and suggested John Wick 5 could be the final pic.

There is a possibility that director Chad Stahelski will pivot to make his Highlander reboot next (over John Wick 5), which reportedly has Mission: Impossible -Fallout’s Henry Cavill circling an unnamed lead role. The sticking point is that we don’t have an official confirmation from Lionsgate or Stahelski that Highlander is happening anytime soon. Chad making Highlander could certainly give Keanu Reeves a bit of break after the extended shoot for The Matrix 4 took longer than expected due to the pandemic and spending the rest of the year working on John Wick 4.

SOURCE: THE HOLLYWOOD REPORTER

Posted on in Film News

‘Toxic Avenger’: Legendary’s Bonkers Superhero Remake Adds Elijah Wood, Julia Davis, Jonny Coyne & Sarah Niles

The Toxic Avenger was essentially Deadpool before the mutant was ever a notion at Marvel Comics, the hyper-violent comic book hero parody debuted in 1984 and suddenly became a cult hit with multiple sequels, landing a short-lived comic book published by Marvel, the Toxic Crusaders cartoon, and a kids toyline connected to the show.

A feature film remake has been in the works for ages but finally got going when Legendary Entertainment assigned Macon Blair to write and direct the latest incarnation.

This is the story of Melvin, the Tromaville Health Club mop boy, who inadvertently and naively trusts the hedonistic, contemptuous and vain health club members, to the point of accidentally ending up in a vat of toxic waste. The devastating results then have a transmogrification effect, his alter ego is released, and the Toxic Avenger is born, to deadly and comical results. The local mop boy is now the local Superhero, the saviour of corruption, thuggish bullies and indifference. 

Deadline has recently backed-up The Illuminerdi‘s report that Lord of The Rings star Elijah Wood has joined the satirical superhero film and added that British comedian Julia Davis. The Hollywood Reporter also revealing that Jonny Coyne and Sarah Niles are taking parts too.

Wood and Blair have previously worked together on the Netflix dark comedy I Don’t Feel At Home In This World Anymore.

They’ll join an established cast that already has Peter Dinklage as Toxie, Jacob Tremblay, Taylour Paige, and the villain will be played by Kevin Bacon.

Legendary will shoot The Toxic Avenger in Bulgaria but hasn’t officially announced a release date. I’ll be slightly curious to see if the project will get a traditional theatrical release or be sold-off to a streaming service like Netflix as they recently struck a deal for Jordan Vogt-Roberts’ Gundam movie.

SOURCE: DEADLINE & THE HOLLYWOOD REPORTER

Posted on in Film News

FIRST LOOK: Kate Beckinsale Returns To R-Rated Action With ‘Crank’ Knock-Off ‘Jolt’ Releasing July 23 On Amazon

Yesterday, it was announced by Amazon that they had acquired the Millennium Films action movie Jolt, starring British actress Kate Beckinsale best known for playing Selene in the Underworld franchise. The film will be officially heading to Prime Video and releases on July 23.

Below is the official synopsis from Amazon.

Lindy is a beautiful, sardonically-funny woman with a painful secret: Due to a lifelong, rare neurological disorder, she experiences sporadic rage-filled, murderous impulses that can only be stopped when she shocks herself with a special electrode device. Unable to find love and connection in a world that fears her bizarre condition, she finally trusts a man long enough to fall in love, only to find him murdered the next day. Heartbroken and enraged, she embarks on a revenge-filled mission to find his killer, while also being pursued by the police as the crime’s prime suspect.

Jolt sounds like an obvious proxy to Jason Statham’s Crank films, but until we get a trailer we can’t be sure it’ll have a similar wacky tone as those films were satirical and a parody of exploitation films.

Directed by Tanya Wexler with a script penned by Scott Wascha. The impressive supporting cast joining Beckinsale in the R-rated action romp include Bobby Cannavale, Jai Courtney, Laverne Cox, David Bradley, Ori Pfeffer, Susan Sarandon, and Stanley Tucci as Lindy’s therapist.

They also released three images featuring Kate Beckinsale as her character Lindy.

It’s been a while since Kate tackled an action film with Underworld: Blood Wars in 2016 and her last high-profile project was the Amazon Prime Video original series The Widow.

Millennium Films is also behind the new Red Sonja remake from director and co-writer Joey Soloway that stars Hannah John-Kamen (Ant-Man & The Wasp, Resident Evil: Welcome To Raccoon City) as the sword-wielding warrior with former Wonder Woman contender Jaimie Alexander (plays Lady Sif in Marvel’s Thor franchise) recently teasing a possible role. I’m sort of curious if Red Sonja will end up on Amazon.

Jolt hits Amazon on July 23.

SOURCE: AMAZON