Category: Film News

Posted on in Film News

’47 Ronin’ Sequel Set In The World of Cyberpunk Will Be Written By Aimee Garcia & AJ Mendez

Last August, it was reported by Deadline that Universal 1440 and Netflix would be teaming-up for a sequel to the fantasy adventure film 47 Ronin starring Keanu Reeves, Horiyuki Sanada, Tadanobu Asano, Rinko Kikuchi and Ko Shibasaki. The 2013 movie was a fictional Hollywood take on the real-life historical event that took place in Japan during the 18th century.

47 RONIN – In feudal Japan, Lord Asano rules his province with fairness. However, jealous Lord Kira (Tadanobu Asano) fears that the shogun favors Asano over him and hatches a plot that ends with Asano’s ritual suicide. After Asano’s death, his samurai, led by Oishi (Hiroyuki Sanada), are forced to live as outcasts. Oishi wanders for several years but realizes that he must turn to Kai (Keanu Reeves), a mixed-blood warrior he once rejected, to help him and his ronin comrades take revenge on Lord Kira.

The sequel directed by Ron Yaun is said to take place 300 years in the future with a cyberpunk angle. Things such as Blade Runner, Blade Runner 2049, The Matrix Trilogy, Ghost In The Shell, Akira, Upgrade, RoboCop, Total Recall, Dredd, The Terminator, Ready Player One, and Alita: Battle Angel are feature film examples of the cyberpunk genre alongside the recent video game Cyberpunk 2077 (also features Keanu Reeves).

Deadline is back with more information on the creative team as they’ve hired actress Aimee Garcia (M.O.D.O.K., Lucifer) and former WWE wrestler AJ Mendez to write the sequel. The pair are behind the Glow comic book based on the Netflix series that focused on women’s wrestling. They’ve also tackled Dungeons & Dragons for IDW and Wonder Woman for DC Comics.

Production was supposed to take place this year but is looks like they’re still in the development stage with the announcement of these two screenwriters joining the 47 Ronin sequel. It’s unknown if they’ll attempt to wrangle Keanu Reeves for a cameo as he’s about to begin shooting John Wick: Chapter 4 this summer.

SOURCE: DEADLINE

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Dave Bautista Reveals He Had Meeting About Playing DC Comics Villain Bane

Could we end up seeing Guardians of The Galaxy actor Dave Bautista join the cast of a DC Comics film in the future? According to Dave, he’s been actively trying to get his foot in the door recently.

While speaking during Justice Con (via Screen Rant), the wrestler turned actor revealed he had met with Warner Bros./DC about playing Batman villain Bane, but the studio apparently was shocked about his request as they weren’t even actively casting the role. It remains to be seen if he’ll ultimately play the character but you can’t get the impression he was passionate about trying to land it.

BAUTISTA: “Oh, it would be Bane all day long. I’ve made no secret about this. I want to play Bane so bad I went to Warner Bros., had an appointment with them, had an appointment with DC, walked in the door and said, ‘I want to play Bane.’ I’m not kidding. They were a little like ‘Woah, we’re not even casting Bane.’ I was like ‘I don’t care, I’m playing him.'”

Bane is traditionally a Batman villain and we don’t really know the next time we’ll see him on the big screen as Matt Reeves is currently overseeing the new Batman trilogy starring Robert Pattinson as Bruce Wayne and it’s unclear if he plans to introduce Bane anytime soon. Something like the Suicide Squad franchise might be a project where Bane could have popped-up without the need to have him interacting with Batman.

The most notable version of Bane was Tom Hardy’s incarnation featured as the League of Shadows leader in The Dark Knight Rises directed by Christopher Nolan.

Dave Bautista’s next big project will be Zack Snyder’s Army of The Dead which will be released on May 14, 2021, and is still expected to return for James Gunn’s Guardians of The Galaxy 3.

ARMY OF THE DEAD – After a zombie outbreak in Las Vegas, a group of mercenaries takes the ultimate gamble by venturing into the quarantine zone for the greatest heist ever.

SOURCE: JUSTICE CON

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Trio of Directors Announced For ‘Spider-Man: Into The Spider-Verse’ Sequel – Team Includes ‘Soul’ Co-Director Kemp Powers

While we’re still waiting on official confirmation that we’ll be getting a live-action Spider-Verse movie with Spider-Man: No Way Home, Sony Pictures is moving forward with a sequel to the Miles Morales franchise that was launched with the Oscar-winning animated film Spider-Man: Into The Spider-Verse.

Sony Pictures Animation now has three directors working on the next installment as Variety reports that they’ve secured two more directors to help out Joaquim Dos Santos (Legend of Korra) with Kemp Powers (Soul, One Night In Miami) and the original film’s production designer Justin K. Thompson joining the team. Kemp is currently nominated for Best Animated Feature thanks to his excellent work on Pixar’s Soul.

It’s script is being penned by Shang-Chi’s Dave Callaham, Phil Lord, and Chris Miller.

The last film ended with Miguel O’Hara aka Spider-Man 2099 (voiced by Oscar Isaac) suggesting that we’ll see a technological device used to move between the Spider-Verse in the sequel and we’ll see Miguel have an important role. Producers have also teased that characters such as Takuya Yamashiro aka Japanese Spider-Man will be considered for the lineup alongside other potential candidates like Cindy Moon aka Silk.

Sony has given Spider-Man: Into The Spider-Verse 2 a release date of October 7, 2022.

SPIDER-MAN: INTO THE SPIDER-VERSE – Bitten by a radioactive spider in the subway, Brooklyn teenager Miles Morales suddenly develops mysterious powers that transform him into the one and only Spider-Man. When he meets Peter Parker, he soon realizes that there are many others who share his special, high-flying talents. Miles must now use his newfound skills to battle the evil Kingpin, a hulking madman who can open portals to other universes and pull different versions of Spider-Man into our world.

SOURCE: VARIETY

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‘Shang-Chi’: Marvel Releases First-Look Trailer, Poster & Images For Martial Arts Superhero Flick

Joining Simu Liu in the Marvel cast includes Tony Leung as Wenwu, Awkwafina as Shang-Chi’s friend Katy, and Michelle Yeoh as Jiang Nan, as well as Fala Chen, Meng’er Zhang, Florian Munteanu, and Ronny Chieng. Shang-Chi and The Legend of The Ten Rings is directed by Destin Daniel Cretton and produced by Kevin Feige and Jonathan Schwartz, with Louis D’Esposito, Victoria Alonso, and Charles Newirth serving as executive producers. David Callaham & Destin Daniel Cretton & Andrew Lanham wrote the screenplay for the film, and experience it in theaters on September 3, 2021.

Celebrating the birthday of Shang-Chi actor Simu Liu, Marvel Studios has released a wave of promotional material for their upcoming martial arts flick Shang-Chi & The Legend of The Ten Rings. This includes a first-look teaser trailer revealing that Shang-Chi’s father Wenwu gave his son 10 years to live his own life in San Francisco before taking his place at his side.

Wenwu is expected to be the MCU’s version of The Mandarin, a character that had been seen in Iron Man 3 but was revealed to be a fake. The Iron Man villain has long been seen as a stereotype, however, it looks like director Destin Daniel Cretton will be giving him a more complex adaptation as he stands-in for Shang-Chi’s comic book papa Fu Machu.

A trio of images were also posted by Entertainment Weekly which you can see below.

SOURCE: MARVEL & ENTERTAINMENT WEEKLY

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‘Mad Max: Fury Road’ Spinoff ‘Furiosa’ Officially Shooting In New South Wales Next Year Becoming A Huge Boost To Local Economy

Today, in Sydney, New South Wales, Australia at Fox Studios Australia it was officially announced that Mad Max: Fury Road prequel/spinoff, titled Furiosa, will be shot next year in New South Wales. It’s said to bring $350 million (Australian dollars) to the area which is going to be a huge boost the local economy.

Director George Miller and actor Chris Hemsworth were in attendance alongside New South Wales premier Gladys Berejiklian, who posted images on her Twitter account.

 Warner Bros. has given the film a release date of June 23, 2023.

Furiosa will be a prequel focusing on Charlize Theron’s Furisoa from Mad Max: Fury Road, but will see The Queen’s Gambit actress Anya Taylor-Joy in that role instead. Miller citing de-aging technology not being up to snuff to his standards leading to hiring a new younger actress instead of using VFX to bring back Theron. Joining Anya in the post-apocalyptic film will be Chris Hemsworth and Yahya Abdul-Mateen II.

They also add that George Miller has finally wrapped production on Three Thousand Years of Longing.

Hemsworth is currently shooting Marvel’s Thor: Love & Thunder (The Big Salad) with director Taika Waititi at Fox Studios Australia.

SOURCE: DEADLINE

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Ben Wheatley Down To Tackle A New ‘Doom’ Movie If Given The Chance

British director Ben Wheatley has been mulling-over the idea of making a video game film as he was originally hired to direct a Tomb Raider sequel starring Swedish actress Alicia Vikander. He eventually exited to focus on The Meg 2 and Misha Green (Lovecraft Country) was hired to replace him on Tomb Raider 2.

While speaking with The Playlist Podcast to promote In The Earth, Ben revealed a desire to still potentially tackle a video game project citing a third Doom movie or a film based on the shooter Counter-Strike.

WHEATLEY: “I still want to make a Doom film though. I know it’s been done, but come on! Or Counter-Strike, that would be the one I’d like to make.”

After recently re-watching Wheatley’s gun-play action flick Free Fire, you can understand why something like Doom could be appealing to the filmmaker. Doom is basically all the elements of a fun action-horror project with Mars, Hell, demons, and a never-ending amount of gunfire. However, there have been two attempts to make a feature film based on the property with Doom movie released in 2015 starring Dwayne Johnson, Karl Urban, and Rosamund Pike. The other being the 2019 film Doom: Annihilation.

DOOM – The game is set on Mars, with a UAC facility being invaded by the forces of Hell. The Doom Slayer awakens chained to a sarcophagus in a UAC facility. After stabilizing the Foundry before a meltdown occurs, Doomguy learns that Pierce plans to use the UAC’s Argent Energy Tower to tear a permanent portal into Hell.

SOURCE: THE PLAYLIST

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‘Game of Thrones’ Alumni Pilou Asbæk In Talks To Join James Wan’s ‘Aquaman 2’

As director James Wan is preparing to shoot the sequel to the billion-dollar hit Aquaman starring Jason Momoa under the working title Necrus, there is a casting update.

A report from Deadline from yesterday states that Danish actor Pilou Asbæk is currently in talks to take a role. Pilou is likely best known for his villainous role in the latter seasons of HBO’s Game of Thrones and playing an evil Nazi in Bad Robot’s Overload. He also co-starred alongside Scarlett Johansson in DreamWorks’ live-action Ghost In The Shell movie playing Batou.

While his part in the DC Comics project wasn’t mentioned. The working title is likely a reference to the underwater city of Necrus aka The Black City that is ruled by King Mongo, it’s possible that could be Pilou’s role in Aquaman 2.

Black Adam is currently filming in Atlanta with upcoming productions The Flash and Shazam! Fury of The Gods in the United Kingdom.

Aquaman 2 is still set to be released by Warner Bros. on December 16, 2022.

AQUAMAN – Once home to the most advanced civilization on Earth, the city of Atlantis is now an underwater kingdom ruled by the power-hungry King Orm. With a vast army at his disposal, Orm plans to conquer the remaining oceanic people — and then the surface world. Standing in his way is Aquaman, Orm’s half-human, half-Atlantean brother and true heir to the throne. With help from royal counselor Vulko, Aquaman must retrieve the legendary Trident of Atlan and embrace his destiny as protector of the deep.

SOURCE: DEADLINE

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Kevin Feige Says ‘Doctor Strange 2’ In Final Week of Shooting

Kevin Feige has revealed during an interview with The Undefeated (via The Direct) that Doctor Strange In The Multiverse of Madness is in the final stretch as it’s the last week of filming. Adding that Elizabeth Olsen jumped directly from finishing up WandaVision directly to Doctor Strange 2 in London.

FEIGE: “I’m here in London on the set of Doctor Strange 2 for our final week, and Lizzie is here having worked non-stop from wrapping WandaVision to stepping right into Doctor Strange 2.”

While details are being kept under lock-and-key, WandaVision ended with Wanda becoming the Scarlet Witch and getting her mitts on the Darkhold. A spell book that contains dark magic and likely will unleash the multiverse trying to get her family back.

We’ll also see the introduction of America Chavez aka Miss America, played by newcomer Xochitl Gomez.

Scott Derrickson exited the project over creative differences with Marvel hiring Spider-Man’s Sam Raimi as his replacement. Benedict Cumberbatch recently spoke to Collider revealing what it was like working with Raimi.

CUMBERBATCH: “Sam, amazing. He’s so collaborative. God, he comes with the baggage of an icon. He’s an incredible force, especially in this genre. But he’s so humble, he’s so nice, he’s so appreciative, you really wanna serve him. And boy, when he’s happy, you know you’ve done something right. He’s so good at getting you there and getting it there. It’s been a very, very collaborative process, this one. Our origin stories, I guess, and obviously the beasts that were the Avengers films to be a part of were a thrill, but you’re kind of just along for the ride. You do the best with what you’ve already got given to do. The second time around, there’s a bit more of, ‘So, what do you want to do, and how do we go about solving this?’ So it feels very creative. Scarily so, sometimes.”

Doctor Strange In The Multiverse of Madness will be released on Mach 25th, 2022.

SOURCE: THE UNDEFEATED

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Original ‘Predator’ Screenwriters Suing Disney To Get Rights Back

The rights to Predator might be on the chopping block.

A report from The Hollywood Reporter reveals that Disney’s hold on the franchise copyright expires this Saturday, allowing the original screenwriters Jim and John Thomas to attempt to activate the copyright termination provision allowing the brothers to recapture the rights from Disney via their original script, titled Hunters. Something similar has been happening with the Friday The 13th franchise, they’ll also be represented by Marc Toberoff.

20th Century Studios (now owned by Disney) had been planning on shooting Predator 5 aka Skulls this summer in Calgary with director Dan Trachtenberg, it’s unknown what this could mean for this upcoming project and if the Thomas Brothers will be entitled to a piece of the box office.

There are six feature films with the iconic alien hunter such as Predator, Predator 2, Predators, The Predator, Alien vs. Predator, and Alien vs. Predator: Requiem.

The Predator franchise has been extremely lucrative for 20th Century as it’s spawned decades worth of comic books, novels, video games, multiple toys lines, t-shirts, and other merchandise since the release in 1987. I don’t see Disney giving up the franchise without a fight or attempting to buy them out.

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: THE HOLLYWOOD REPORTER

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Mads Mikkelsen Joins The Cast of James Mangold’s ‘Indiana Jones 5’

Lucasfilm and director James Mangold has added Danish actor Mads Mikkelsen to the cast of Indiana Jones 5, according to Deadline. Mikkelsen joins Harrison Ford and Phoebe Waller-Bridge, who had been announced officially by the studio.

Making the trio of leads of Indiana Jones 5 all Star Wars alumni.

The nature of his role isn’t revealed in the report. Mads has played villains in films such as Casino Roayle and Doctor Strange but has taken supporting heroic roles in things like Clash of The Titans and Rogue One: A Star Wars Story. I wouldn’t be terribly shocked if Mikkelsen is playing a rival character to Indy that is also seeking the film’s object of interest aka McGuffin.

Henry Jones Jr. aka Indiana Jones is a professor that hunts down antiquities all over the world leading to various adventures. Given Ford’s age there is expectation his action scenes will be limited and I would imagine his role in the movie could be similar to Sean Connery in Indiana Jones & The Last Crusade.

James Mangold is also writing the film after previous attempts by Jonathan Kasdan (Solo: A Star Wars Story, Willow) and David Koepp, he’s teased on Twitter that it could end up with a 1960s setting. The filmmaker’s credits include Ford v. Ferrari, Cop Land, The Wolverine, Logan, and Walk The Line. Mangold stepped in after Steven Spielberg exited the project as it’s director and George Lucas is seemingly not involved creatively.

Indiana Jones & The Kingdom of The Crystal Skull saw Soviets replacing Nazis as the franchise baddies because the timeline has moved past WWII. Indy’s war service with the allies sadly happened off-screen between The Last Crusade and Crystal Skull. Given the Cold War setting, it would make sense to potentially see the Soviets make a return.

Lucasfilm confirmed back in December the fifth installment will be the final film starring Harrison Ford and studio head Kathy Kennedy previously stated it will be a continuation, not a reboot.

Filming is set to begin this summer with a release date of July 29, 2022.

SOURCE: DEADLINE