Category: Film News

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Michael B. Jordan Admits He “Bombed” His ‘Star Wars: The Force Awakens’ Audition & Still Open To Reprise ‘Black Panther’ Villain Erik Killmonger

Michael B. Jordan is certainly is a different place in his career after two installments of Creed with a third on the way as he’ll make his feature film directorial debut on Creed III. He also got Marvel redemption after playing Johnny Storm in Fox’s Fantastic Four reboot only to play the complex villain Erik Killmonger in Ryan Coogler’s Black Panther.

Jordan is attempting to launch another franchise with Tom Clancy’s Without Remorse, set directly within the Jack Ryan universe and is attached to reprise his role in a Rainbow Six movie based on the Clancy novel. The new action film is currently playing on Amazon Prime Video and the actor is making the press rounds to promote it.

While speaking on the Variety podcast Just For Variety with Mark Malkin (via The Playlist), the actor revealed not everything has gone his way during his Hollywood journey as he recalls completely messing up an audition for a role in Star Wars: The Force Awakens with J.J. Abrams himself in the room.

JORDAN: “It was probably the Star Wars’ audition that I had with JJ [Abrams], I think. It just wasn’t my best. It was probably my worst to date. I just couldn’t wrap my brain around some of the sides. When you’re reading for these high-level projects, there’s never really any specificity in the sides. Everything is super gray and a secret. Reading it through, I just couldn’t connect it. Definitely bombed that one, for sure.”

I think he’s recovered from that experience and might potentially have a sigh of relief after the publicly frustrating experience cast members of the recent Star Wars trilogy were exposed to on and off the set. Notably, the racism that John Boyega and Kelly Marie Tran faced from so-called “fans” alongside what looked to be both their roles being trimmed at certain points in the trilogy by the studio.

Speaking of Black Panther, Entertainment Tonight also interviewed Jordan and brought up the possibility of him reprising the role of Erik Killmonger (died in last film) at some point. We know that Black Panther: Wakanda Forever is set to shoot this July in Atlanta and could likely conflict with the pre-production/filming of Creed III as Jordan will direct and star making it difficult for him to have a significant role in the Marvel sequel.

JORDAN: “There’s always a love I have for those characters and Erik is definitely one of those that means a lot to me. So only if it’s the right thing and it’s impactful and if I could add something to it. If it means something then, yeah, I wanna be a part of that journey, you know?”

SOURCE: JUST FOR VARIETY & ENTERTAINMENT TONIGHT

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Antoine Fuqua’s Sci-Fi Thriller ‘Infinite’ Starring Mark Wahlberg & Chiwetel Ejiofor Heading To Paramount+ Next Month

Originally set for release in theaters on September 24, Paramount Pictures has decided to move their big sci-fi film Infinite to their streaming service Paramount+ for sometime in June. The project directed by Training Day’s Antoine Fuqua stars Mark Wahlberg, Chitwetel Ejiofor, Dylan O’Brien, Toby Jones, Rupert Friend, Jason Mantzoukas, Sophie Cookson, and Wallis Day.

It’s a feature adaptation of the D. Eric Maikranz novel The Reincarnationist Papers.

For Evan McCauley (Mark Wahlberg), skills he has never learned and memories of places he has never visited haunt his daily life. Self-medicated and on the brink of a mental breakdown, a secret group that call themselves ‘Infinites’ come to his rescue, revealing to him that his memories are real – but they are from multiple past lives. The Infinites bring Evan into their extraordinary world, where a gifted few are given the ability to be reborn with their memories and knowledge accumulated over centuries. With critical secrets buried in his past, Evan must work with the Infinites to unlock the answers in his memories in a race against time to save humanity from one of their own (Chiwetel Ejiofor) who seeks to destroy it.

Chiwetel Ejiofor was recently seen in the popular Netflix comic book film The Old Guard alongside Oscar-winner Charlize Theron and is expected to have wrapped filming on Sam Raimi’s Doctor Strange In The Multiverse of Madness for Marvel Studios. The latter project potentially seeing him finally becoming the big-bad version of his MCU character Baron Karl Mordo.

This could be a potential sign of other studios looking to dump their summer and fall releases on streaming services to avoid low audience turn-out to focus on adding new/original content to places like Paramount+, a streamer that is going to need an influx of new films and series if it’s going to become competitive.

I’ll be interested to see if Paramount+ ends up getting their hands on other big Paramount movies later in the year. Showtime’s high-profile series adaptation of the Halo video game franchise recently moved to the streaming service not too long ago.

SOURCE: DEADLINE

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‘Tenet’ Star John David Washington Joins Sci-Fi Pic ‘True Love’ From ‘Rogue One’ Director Gareth Edwards

Actor John David Washington has been gathering a lot of steam after his lead role in Spike Lee’s fantastic BlacKkKlansman showed-off his acting chops and charming personality., giving Hollywood some insight to his ability to play a leading man. Washington became the main protagonist in Christopher Nolan’s action flick Tenet last summer and joined the next David O’Russell moving alongside folks such as Christian Bale and Margot Robbie among others.

His next big project will be teaming up with Godzilla and Rogue One: A Star Wars Story director Gareth Edwards on his sci-fi flick True Love at New Regency, according to a report coming from Deadline. Details on the project are scarce at the moment but it’s setting is said to be “near future.”

True Love will be both written and directed by Gareth Edwards.

This would be the first big project for Edwards since the production/editing hiccups on Rogue One led Lucasfilm to bring on Tony Gilroy to reshoot a bunch of things in the first A Star Wars Story installment, including the third act as revealed by photos and earlier trailer footage. Seeing the filmmaker moving away from existing IP is likely going to allow him to be a bit more creative. Then again, he helped launch Legendary’s MonsterVerse cinematic universe back in 2014 with his impressive Godzilla movie starring Bryan Cranston and Aaron Taylor-Johnson.

It’s unclear when they’ll begin shooting True Love.

SOURCE: DEADLINE

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Blake Lively & Diablo Cody Team For ‘Lady Killer’ Movie For Netflix

We’re starting to see Netflix develop more and more comic book projects, they claim that their recent film adaptation The Old Guard starring Charlize Theron was extremely popular and they’re already working on sequel. There are even more comic projects coming.

The streaming giant is reportedly developing a feature film based on the Dark Horse Comics property Lady Killer as part of their development deal, according to Deadline. Their report reveals that Oscar-winning screenwriter Diablo Cody (Juno, Jennifer’s Body) is set to adapt the comic with Blake Lively attached to play Josie Schuller.

The plan is for Lively to play Josie Schuller. By all appearances, she is the perfect 1950’s housewife. But when she’s not catering to the needs of her family, she leads a secret life as a highly-trained killer for hire. She really likes the second job, and her husband has no idea.

Lady Killer is a comic book series written by Joëlle Jones and Jamie S. Rich, illustrated by Joëlle Jones, and colored by Laura Allred. It has been published by Dark Horse Comics since January 2015 and was nominated at the Eisner Awards as Best Limited Series in 2016.

This wouldn’t be Lively’s first brush with comic book movies as she worked with future husband Ryan Reynolds on the disastrous Green Lantern movie. Diablo Cody working again on genre projects is fantastic and I’m hopeful this leans more int he realm of Jennifer’s Body, which is an extremely underrated horror flick.

Netflix previously worked with Dark Hose Entertainment to adapt comics such as The Umbrella Company and Polar, the latter starring Mads Mikkelsen.

SOURCE: DEADLINE

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‘Red Sonja’: Millennium Taps ‘Ant-Man & The Wasp’s Hannah John-Kamen For Their Sword & Sorcery Action Flick

Millennium Films has finally found their new Red Sonja as The Hollywood Reporter reveals that British actress Hannah John-Kamen will be playing the fantasy heroine birthed from the pages of Marvel Comics and inspired by characters from Conan creator Robert E. Howard.

Hannah has been long involved with genre projects with credits that include Ant-Man & The Wasp, Star Wars: The Force Awakens, Black Mirror, Misfits, Tomb Raider, Ready Player One, Game of Thrones, and Brave New World. She recently nabbed the Jill Valentine role in the Resident Evil reboot.

Sonya was created by Roy Thomas and Barry Windsor-Smith for Marvel Comics’ Conan the Barbarian comic in the early 1970s and was an amalgam of several characters from Conan creator Robert E. Howard. The character, fiery and strong enough to go toe-to-toe with Conan while refusing his advances, proved popular enough to get her own book, continuing to this day even as the Howard and Conan licenses have moved through several companies. Millennium is saying their movie is based on the comic published by Dynamite Entertainment

The film will be directed by Transparent’s Joey Soloway, after the studio removed X-Men’s Bryan Singer in the wake of multiple sexual assault allegations. Soloway also co-wrote the remake’s script with Tasha Huo.

Danish actress Brigitte Nielsen played the role originally alongside Arnold Schwarzenegger in the 1985 film. A reboot had been previously in the works from producer Robert Rodriguez with Planet Terror’s Rose McGowan set to play the role before things fell apart.

SOURCE: THE HOLLYWOOD REPORTER

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Marvel’s ‘Blade’ Reboot & WB’s Next ‘Superman’ Movie Courting The Same Directors

Disney and Warner Bros. are reportedly courting the same black filmmakers for their upcoming superhero projects as mentioned by The Hollywood Reporter. As both Blade and the next Superman film produced by J.J. Abrams are expected to be shot by experienced black directors. An exciting era of inclusion given the budgets expected for the two comic book movies.

Apparently, screenwriter Ta-Nehisi Coates’ black Superman project is expected to have a non-contemporary setting, which sounds similar to the studio’s original plans for Supergirl (1980s). However, it’s unclear when in the 1900s they’ll be aiming for. Instead, Supergirl will appear in The Flash movie (filming in the United Kingdom) played by actress Sasha Calle ushering her directly into the DCEU but the Superman movie doesn’t seem to be joining that corner of the cinematic universe.

The Superman film appears to be moving onto its own track and won’t be part of the universe, as of now. Sources tell THR that Coates is crafting a Kal-El in the vein of the original Superman comics and will have the protagonist hail from Krypton and come to Earth. While the story is currently being crafted and many details could change, one option under consideration is for the film to be a 20th century period piece.

THR is claiming that there is a group candidates that have been looked for both movies.

The names mentioned in the report are Steven Caple Jr. (Creed II), J.D. Dillard (Sleight, Sweetheart), Regina King (One Night In Miami, and Shaka King (Judas & The Black Messiah). It’s certainly an excellent group of contenders but it’s unclear if these names are simply suggestions by the outlet or actually in the running.

The former list can include Creed II’s Steven Caple Jr., J.D. Dillard, Regina King — who got raves for her drama One Night in Miami — and Shaka King, who is popular at Warners thanks to best picture Oscar nominee Judas and the Black Messiah. Some potential directors have met with both studios for both films, even as one agent said the process was “phenomenally early.” 

You might remember that Steven is currently busy with Paramount’s latest Transformers movie about to shoot over in Montreal and Dillard had been previously tasked to co-write a Star Wars project for Lucasfilm.

They also mentioned that Blade’s shoot was bumped from September 2021 to July 2022, giving folks over a full year to complete any outstanding projects before jumping to the MCU. Coates is said not to be delivering his script until mid-December suggesting both projects won’t be shooting until 2022.

SOURCE: THE HOLLYWOOD REPORTER

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Fellow ‘Star Wars’ Alum Ben Mendelsohn To Play Daisy Ridley’s Father In Thriller ‘The Marsh King’s Daughter’

Yesterday, we were able to confirm production dates for Neil Burger’s upcoming thriller The Marsh King’s Daughter starring Star Wars franchise star Daisy Ridley, that will be filming June to August in Toronto, Ontario, Canada.

There is some fresh casting news coming from Deadline as Aussie actor Ben Mendelsohn will be playing the notorious Marsh King in the film.

Helena (Ridley), a woman living a seemingly ordinary life, but hiding a dark secret: her father (Mendelsohn) is the infamous “Marsh King,” the man who kept her and her mother captive in the wilderness for years. After a lifetime of trying to escape her past, Helena is forced to face her demons when her father unexpectedly escapes from prison.

Like Ridley, Ben is a Star Wars alum playing the main antagonist in Rogue One: A Star Wars Story. He is also attached to reprise the role of Talos in Marvel Studios’ Secret Invasion series for Disney+ and his involvement with The Marsh King’s Daughter would support talk that the MCU event won’t be shooting in the United Kingdom until later in the year.

SOURCE: DEADLINE

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Marvel’s ‘Blade’ Reboot Reportedly Shooting Next July – Assumed To Release Sometime In 2023

It’s interesting to learn that two-time Oscar-winning actor Mahershala Ali (Moonlight, Green Book, Luke Cage) approached Marvel Studios about playing Erick Brooks aka Blade, when they weren’t actively casting or developing a reboot at that point in time. But, the studio seemed game to land Mahershala and announced him for the reboot on the stage at San Diego Comic-Con back in 2019, when large-scale events weren’t panic inducing.

Flash forward to 2021 and we have screenwriter Stacy Osei-Kuffour working on a script with a director expected to be named in the near future.

The Hollywood Reporter has revealed that Marvel Studios originally planned on shooting Blade in September but have pushed those plans back to July 2022. They’re also said to be seeking a director for Blade that sees them going head-to-head with DC Films/Warner Bros. who are looking for director to make their black Superman film produced by J.J. Abrams.

Marvel isn’t rushing with Blade, whose start date was pushed from this September to July 2022, so that the studio can spend time working on the Stacy Osei-Kuffour-penned script.

This likely means that Blade won’t be coming out until 2023. There have been signs that they were hoping to shoot Blade in Atlanta, but that has yet to be confirmed. Given the film’s July start, we’re leaning towards the film taking a summer or fall spot.

While Marvel Studios has confirmed that their plan is keep Deadpool 3 an R-rated film, they’ve been less upfront if they’ll keep Blade for mature audiences or not.

Blade was originally one of the more obscure characters of The Tomb of Dracula comics that suddenly got popular when New Line Cinema and director Stephen Norrington brought the character to the big screen back in 1998, two years before X-Men and helped convince studios that Marvel films could be profitable. The character landed a trilogy of movies starring Wesley Snipes, a short-lived live-action television series, and a Japanese anime series.

Released a year before The Matrix, the original Blade had a lot of the similar looks and aesthetics including use of wire-work martial arts known to be extremely common in Hong Kong action films.

BLADE – A half-mortal, half-immortal is out to avenge his mother’s death and rid the world of vampires. The modern-day technologically advanced vampires he is going after are in search of his special blood type needed to summon an evil god who plays a key role in their plan to execute the human race.

SOURCE: THE HOLLYWOOD REPORTER

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RUMOR: Marvel Studios Creating Even More Production Companies For Unannounced Projects

Marvel Studios dominated the news on Monday after giving new release dates for Guardians of The Galaxy Vol.3 and Ant-Man & The Wasp: Quantumania alongside the first footage from Oscar-winning director Chloe Zhao’s Eternals. But even more productions are on the horizon beyond 2023.

It’s starting to look like there is another wave of Marvel Studios production companies being established at Disney that we recently came across. While I can’t 100% confirm this list is all Marvel-related at the moment (hence a rumor), I’m leaning heavily towards the majority being for upcoming MCU projects and for some that haven’t been officially announced by Kevin Feige. 

  • BAD EGG PRODUCTIONS LLC 
  • ON YOUR MARK PRODUCTIONS LLC
  • BATTLE ANYONE PRODUCTIONS LLC 
  • ACID POP PRODUCTIONS LLC
  • NATURAL HISTORY PRODUCTIONS LLC 

We know things like Fantastic Four, Deadpool 3, and X-Men are coming in the not too distant future. The last one Natural History sticks out to me as possibly one for X-Men, but that’s simply my own personal speculation. It’s possible that Marvel is aiming to make another lineup announcement over the summer or in the fall.

Other Marvel LLCs previously discovered and commented on by the sleuths over at Murphy’s Multiverse include the following companies below. 

  • BLUEBERRY WAFFLES PRODUCTIONS LLC
  • STANDOFFISH PRODUCTIONS LLC
  • CHANGEUP PRODUCTIONS LLC
  • LOG JAM PRODUCTIONS LLC
  • FREQUENT PRODUCTIONS LLC
  • GRASS-FED PRODUCTIONS LLC
  • SOLVE EVERYTHING PRODUCTIONS LLC
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Andrew Garfield Denies ‘Spider-Man: No Way Home’ Rumor In Two Different Interviews – “I Haven’t Received A Phone Call”

Coming off the heels of Tom Holland’s adamant denial earlier in the year that Andrew Garfield and Tobey Maguire wouldn’t be returning to the roles of Spidey in Spider-Man: No Way Home, Amazing Spider-Man and Amazing Spider-Man 2 actor Andrew Garfield has stepped-in himself to deny claims that he’ll be appearing in the Marvel Studios film during an interview for the Happy Sad Confused podcast.

GARFIELD: “I don’t have anything to ruin, bro! I have to quickly just cut you off. There’s nothing to ruin! I’m just like ‘Guys, guys, guys… I wish I could just speak to everyone and just like ‘I recommend that you chill.”

If that wasn’t enough, Andrew spoke with Entertainment Tonight doubling-down on his denial.

GARFIELD: “I feel like I’m in a game of Werewolf and I’m just saying, ‘I’m not the werewolf, I am not the werewolf. I promise you guys, I’m not the werewolf!’. Listen, what people are talking about is a really cool idea. And again, I haven’t received a phone call, but, you know…”

“It’s not something I’ve really thought about because I closed the book on it for myself and I haven’t had to think about it. So it’s not something that I’ve really considered. So, yeah, that’s my honest answer.”

It’s worth mentioning that while this rumor of multiple Peters has been circulated far-and-wide online, none of the trade outlets have supported this information and neither were spotted on set as production is about to come to a close. I guess we’ll just wait for the hat-trick of denials once Tobey has something to promote and is asked about his involvement too.

I’m sure this is confusing to fans with Jamie Foxx playing Electro again or Alfred Molina confirming his return as Doctor Octopus, but I guess we’ll have to take Holland and Garfield at their word for the time being.

Spider-Man: No Way Home is set for release on December 17, 2021.

SOURCE: HAPPY SAD CONFUSED PODCAST & ENTERTAINMENT TONIGHT