Category: Film News

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‘Shang-Chi’: Dallas Liu Reportedly Joins The Cast

Marvel Studios recently moved the release date of Destin Daniel Cretton’s Shang-Chi & The Legend of The Ten Rings from July 9, 2021 to September 3, 2021 as they delayed Black Widow to that July spot.

There is now word of yet another casting addition to the Asian-led superhero flick. Actor Dallas Liu (Pen15) has reportedly joined the cast of Shang-Chi according to Deadline, however, the outlet doesn’t mention the character he’ll be playing.

Production wrapped last year with the filming primarily taking place at Fox Australia Studios in Sydney, New South Wales, Australia. They paused filming in early 2020 due to the pandemic but resumed last summer and was able to complete principal photography along with some brief exterior shots in San Francisco.

The film’s cast includes Simu Liu as Shang-Chi, Awkwafina as Katy, Tony Leung as Wenwu aka The Mandarin, Michelle Yeoh, Ronny Chieng as Jon Jon, Meng’er Zhang as Xialing, Fala Chen as Jiang Li, and Florian Munteanu as Razor Fist.

Shang-Chi aka Master of Kung-Fu, as his title would suggest is an expert in martial arts and eventually in the comics was given the super-human ability to make copies of himself, not unlike mutant character Multiple Man. It’s unclear if we’ll be seeing Shang-Chi’s more recent power-set or if that will come later.

While unconfirmed, there is a strong possibility the film will attempt to introduce/tease the Atlas Foundation (base of operations is underneath San Francisco), which could lead to the superhero team Agents of Atlas joining the MCU. A recent incarnation has Shang-Chi as a member and Randall Park’s FBI Agent Jimmy Woo has always had a leadership role on the roster.

We’ll continue to hope that we’ll get a Shang-Chi trailer in the very near future.

SOURCE: DEADLINE

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‘ThunderCats’ Movie Coming From ‘Godzilla vs Kong’ Director Adam Wingard & Warner Bros.

Coming off a massive international debut of Godzilla vs Kong earning an impressive $123 million, director Adam Wingard is attached to direct another huge IP project.

Warner Bros. has spent ages trying to figure out how to turn the ThunderCats franchise into a movie and Deadline reports that Wingard will be developing a feature film with his writing partner Simon Barrett. They’ll rewrite a previous script from David Coggeshall and Adam is attached to direct the hybrid project a combination of CGI and animation.

The project had been developed by Rideback’s Dan Lin and Vertigo’s Roy Lee (they were producers on the Wingard-directed Death Note), with an early script by David Coggeshall. Wingard will rewrite a script with Simon Barrett, and will turn all this into a hybrid of CGI and animation.

Adam Wingard also spoke with Deadline about ThunderCats being his dream project and how he approached Warner Bros. about making it after they loved Godzilla vs Kong. It’s looking like a good move after the Monsterverse movie might end up being one of the highest grossing films of 2021 and the pandemic era.

WINGARD: “I’m in a place where Godzilla vs. Kong has gone well with Warner Bros. They love the movie, as we were wrapping it. I heard there was a ThunderCats script out there and it happened to be set up with some of my producers on Death Note. I asked them, I want to rewrite this script with my friend Simon Barrett. This is a huge passion thing for me. Nobody on this planet knows or has thought as much about ThunderCats as I have. They gave me the reins. I saw this as an opportunity to do a new type of fantasy sci-fi spectacle film that people have never seen before. It’s got a rich mythology; the characters are fantastic. The colors. I want to do a ThunderCats film that takes you back to that ‘80s aesthetic. I don’t want to reinvent the way they look; I want them to look like ThunderCats. I don’t want to do it live action, either. I don’t want it to look like Cats, I don’t want those kinds of issues — no disrespect to that director, whom I don’t mean to throw under the bus any more than everyone else has. I want to do a movie you’ve never seen before. A hybrid CGI film that has a hyper real look and somehow bridges the gap between cartoon and CGI. That’s the starting point, and Simon Barrett and I are getting into the script now.”

The filmmaker is about to launch the domestic release of Godzilla vs Kong this week and is attached to make a sequel to Face/Off.

SOURCE: DEADLINE

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Daisy Ridley “Open To Anything” Concerning A Future Role In The MCU

While many fans have been championing Star Wars actress Daisy Ridley for the role of Marvel Comics heroine Jessica Drew aka Spider-Woman, it sounds like she is open to pretty much anything related to the Marvel Cinematic Universe.

During an interview with Comic Book Movie, Ridley suggests she might be open to things other than Spider-Woman and even brings up the Disney+ series WandaVision. Potentially hinting to an openness to tackle something in television as well as on the big screen.

RIDLEY: “Well, it’s funny because someone asked me off the cuff about the Spider-Woman rumors recently, and I went, ‘Oh, that sounds great.’ Apparently, I’ve now declared myself a front-runner to be Spider-Woman which isn’t true!. It’s funny because I don’t really choose things… I [didn’t] set out to do another ‘big film.’ I just read the script, loved it, and loved the idea of it.”

“Basically, should something come along and be great, of course, I’d be open to anything. I just finished WandaVision. What they did with it is so amazing and different and interesting. To be particularly in that world, which is ever-shifting and reimagining itself would be very exciting.”

Just because fans would like to see her play Spider-Woman it doesn’t mean it will actually happen and it’s worth mentioning there are many female characters connected to the MCU that she could end up playing besides Jessica Drew.

Olivia Wilde is reportedly directing a Spider-Woman film for Sony Pictures but it hasn’t been announced if Marvel Studios would be officially participating in the project.

It’s worth mentioning that the X-Men franchise is on the horizon. I could see Daisy playing a grown-up version X-23 or Morlock leader Callisto as it would allow her to play slightly more gruff characters than she has recently. I don’t know if she’s capable of a Southern accent for a character like X-Men’s Rogue, but that would lead to some interactions with Brie Larson’s Captain Marvel as she drains her powers to gain the ability of flight and super-strength.

We have to assume that roles such as S.W.O.R.D.’s Abigail Brand, Namora, Crystal, and Power Princess might be coming in the future too.

Playing either Rogue and Brand would allow Ridley to share scenes with Brie Larson, combining the two into a single project would totally irk a segment of the childish online community that share equal hate for Rey and Captain Marvel.

SOURCE: COMIC BOOK MOVIE

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Russell Crowe Reportedly Joins Marvel’s ‘Thor: Love & Thunder’

After social media posts revealed that Russell Crowe, Chris Hemsworth, and director Taika Waititi hung out at a South Sydney Rabbitohs game in Sydney over the weekend. It looks like he’s secured himself a part in their upcoming MCU installment as Deadline is reporting that Crowe has landed an undisclosed role in Thor: Love & Thunder. However, it’s still unclear how much screen time Russell will actually get and even what the character is.

Production on the Thor sequel kicked-off back in January and has been mostly taking place at Fox Studios Australia located in Sydney, New South Wales Australia. The same facility used to film Riley Scott’s Alien: Covenant and Marvel’s Shang-Chi & The Legend of The Ten Rings.

The Oscar-winner is no stranger to action flicks as he played Jor-El in Zack Snyder’s Man of Steel and earned an Oscar for his role in Ridley Scott’s epic Gladiator. He also nabbed Oscar nominations for A Beautiful Mind and Michael Mann’s The Insider.

Crowe isn’t the only DC Comics alum in the cast as former Batman, Christian Bale, is playing the film’s main villain called Gorr The God Butcher. A pale skinned alien creature that likely will require motion-capture similar to Thanos and The Children of Thanos.

Taika is also said to have a role in James Gunn’s The Suicide Squad. His role is most likely voicing the cosmic villain Starro after it was revealed in the latest trailer that Sly Stallone would be voicing King Shark in the DC sequel. This would make Waititi DC Comics alum as well just like Crowe and Bale.

The Aussie actor joins a rather large cast that also includes Hemsworth as Thor, Natalie Portman as Jane Foster aka Lady Thor, Tessa Thompson as King Valkyrie of New Asgard, Chris Pratt as Star-Lord, Karen Gillan as Nebula, Dave Bautista as Drax The Destroyer, Pom Klementieff as Mantis, Sean Gunn as Kraglin, Jaimie Alexander as Sif, Taika Waititi as Korg, Matt Damon, Luke Hemsworth, and Melissa McCarthy.

Disney has given Thor: Love & Thunder a release date of May 6, 2022.

SOURCE: DEADLINE

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‘Black Adam’ Going Head-To-Head Against ‘Indiana Jones 5’ In July 2022

Yesterday, it was announced that Dwayne Johnson’s DC Comics film Black Adam finally got a new release date and will be coming out on July 29,2022. Johnson made the announcement via Instagram with the new date being revealed at Times Square in New York City.

This means Black Adam will be going up against Lucasfilm’s Indiana Jones 5 starring Harrison Ford and directed by James Mangold (Logan, The Wolverine, Ford v. Ferrari), that’s unless Disney moves the fifth installment to later in 2022 or to a new summer spot in 2023.

Dwayne Johnson leads the superhero flick in the role of Black Adam. Other cast members assembled by New Line Cinema consists of Aldis Hodge as Carter Hall aka Hawkman, Noah Centineo as Al Rothstein aka Atom Smasher, Quintessa Swindell as Maxine Hunkell aka Cyclone, Sarah Shahi as Adrianna Tomaz aka Isis, Pierce Brosnan as Kent Nelson aka Dr. Fate, and Marwan Kenzari expected to play the film’s villain.

Production on Black Adam is set to begin next month in Atlanta, Georgia.

SOURCE: DWAYNE JOHNSON

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UPDATE: ‘Godzilla vs Kong’ Earns Estimated $70M In China & $122M Internationally

Despite multiple countries still reeling from the COVID-19 pandemic, with a handful staring down the barrel of a fourth wave because of the increased variants (alongside folks ignoring medical recommendations), the international box office seems to be returning in some markets.

Legendary’s Godzilla vs Kong made a big splash when it’s first trailer dropped and the marketing campaign has seemingly resonated with audiences that had been previously lukewarm about previous installments like Kong: Skull Island and Godzilla: King of The Monsters.

Will this equate into a huge box office hit?

Well, internationally that seems to be the case and is becoming the biggest debut since the pandemic started. Deadline is reporting that after the film had a spectacular Friday opening of $21.1 million in China it seems to be lumbering towards an estimated haul of $70.4 million in the Middle Kingdom. This means the kaiju showdown is expected to cross $100+ million opening weekend internationally and has surpassed the Chinese opening of Godzilla: King of The Monsters. It’s worth mentioning that foreign movies don’t tend to stick around very long in the Chinese market compared to their local releases and the studio hopes to make hay as long as they can.

UPDATE: The Hollywood Reporter adds that the intentional estimate is now $121.8 million.

Godzilla vs Kong won’t be debuting domestically until March 31.

However, WarnerMedia is offering the film free for a month on HBO Max which will certainly have an impact on domestic box office earnings. While there has been positive estimates, we’ll have to wait and see if folks will be piling into indoor theaters as a fourth wave of COVID-19 looms or will opt for the free alternative available on HBO Max with a subscription.

Bob Odenkirk’s action flick Nobody took the top spot this weekend domestically with $6.7 million which is good for a movie budgeted at $16 million. This isn’t exactly the sign of box office strength you want to see with Godzilla vs Kong’s release on the horizon later in the week.

With a budget of $165 million, Godzilla vs Kong will need to continue to be successful overseas to turn a profit when movies like Wonder Woman 1984 were reportedly said to take $100 million loss. The hybrid release model from WarnerMedia has yet to be seen as box office benefit to the Warner Bros. division, but we’ll see if this changes with films such as Godzilla vs Kong.

SOURCE: DEADLINE

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Wyatt Russell Auditioned For The Steve Rogers Role Over A Decade Ago Before Landing John Walker In ‘The Falcon & The Winter Soldier’

In the early days of Marvel Studios, it wasn’t uncommon that a role like Steve Rogers aka Captain America went out to a huge amount of people to audition for it.

Folks such as John Krasinski (fan favorite to play Reed Richards), who at the time hadn’t made a film such as Michael Bay’s 13 Hours or taken over the Jack Ryan role for the Amazon series, but was known as simply Jim from The Office. Others that auditioned included Sebastian Stan, who would take on the Bucky Barnes aka Winter Soldier role. Stan wasn’t the only person give a second role in the MCU after attempting to play Captain America.

Well, Wyatt Russell admitted the other day to Good Morning America that he was also one of those many young actors who auditioned for the Rogers part over a decade ago. However, Russell ended up getting another super-soldier role in the MCU as he was selected to play John Walker aka U.S. Agent in their Disney+ series The Falcon & The Winter Soldier, being referred to in the show as the “new Captain America.”

Russell admitting it was his first Hollywood audition and that he clearly knew he wasn’t in the running to play Rogers. It was more about attempting the audition itself to see if acting was a good fit after his hockey career ended due to an injury. But when he was asked by Marvel to read for John Walker, he didn’t know what is was until he landed it.

We’ll have to wait and see see if Russell will play the role beyond the series but the chances are good.

The Falcon & The Winter Soldier has four episodes left and will be released on Disney+ every Friday until it wraps-up.

SOURCE: GOOD MORNING AMERICA

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Ben Affleck’s Unmade ‘Batman’ Movie Would Have Featured Batgirl According To Deathstroke Actor Joe Manganiello

The unmade Batman film starring, co-written, and directed by Ben Affleck sounded sort of interesting. There had been previous talk that Arkham Asylum would have been a featured location with Joe Manganiello’s Slade Wilson aka Deathstroke being set up as the film’s big bad.

Manganiello dished a few more details to Comic Book’s podcast Phase Zero (spotted by The Playlist), where he name dropped Barbara Gordon aka Batgirl needing to get involved as Batman couldn’t handle Deathstroke on his own. Adding that Wilson would be more of a horror character citing Steven Spielberg’s shark movie Jaws.

MANGANIELLO: “There was like a big huge showdown, I think between Batgirl…Batgirl jumps in to try and help Bruce because Deathstroke is so fast. He can anticipate Bruce’s movements. That leads to this big climactic battle through the streets of Gotham in the end. It’s like a real-life psychological thriller with Deathstroke. He was like a horror movie, like a shark, kind of like Jaws.”

We’ll likely never see this ever fully realized but it’s certainly interesting tidbits of information none-the-less. Affleck is said to be appearing one more time as Batman in The Flash movie and might be his last time in the role.

Matt Reeves is busy with his own Batman trilogy starring Robert Pattinson and it was revealed by DC Films that it takes place within the cinematic universe’s version of Earth 2. This allowing the studio to populate new/rebooted versions of DC Comics heroes in that world starting with The Batman.

SOURCE: PHASE ZERO/COMIC BOOK

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‘Ghost of Tsushima’: Sony Hires ‘John Wick’ Franchise Director Chad Stahelski To Make A Feature Film

Sony Pictures and PlayStation Productions are moving forward with a feature film based on their samurai action-focused video game Ghost of Tsushima and there is word from Deadline that they’ve selected John Wick franchise director Chad Stahelski to make it.

The game is developed by Sucker Punch Productions and published by Sony Interactive Entertainment and centers around samurai warrior Jin Sakai, the last surviving member of his clan, who must set aside the traditions that have shaped him as a warrior to wage an unconventional war for the freedom of Tsushima.

In 1274, a Mongolian invasion fleet led by Khotun Khan lands on the Japanese island of Tsushima. Realizing that he cannot defeat the Mongols by himself or with traditional samurai fighting tactics, Jin begins scouring the island to recruit allies and learn fighting techniques to aid in his quest to rescue Lord Shimura.

A screenwriter or idea when production would begin wasn’t mention in the report.

There is an expectation that we’ll see an Asian only cast given the setting and era.

However, given the violence involved with the samurai genre, it’s unknown if they’ll be aiming to make this an R-rated project. There is a good chance that with Chad directing that Sony might allow this to become a mature film project.

Chad is set to begin production on John Wick: Chapter 4 this June and has been developing multiple action projects including a Highlander reboot for Lionsgate.

Sony is hoping to mine a bulk of their video game IPs with an Uncharted film starring Spider-Man actor Tom Holland and Mark Wahlberg on the way. Along with an HBO series adaptation of The Last of Us starring Pedro Pascal (Game of Thrones, The Mandalorian) as Joel.

We’ll keep our fingers crossed their new God of War games taking place in Norse mythology get a string of R-rated movies too.

SOURCE: DEADLINE

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‘No Time To Die’ Director Cary Joji Fukunaga Tackling Cyberpunk With ‘Tokyo Ghost’ Movie For Legendary

Director Cary Joji Fukunaga has joined the world of massive studio blockbusters with the upcoming James Bond release No Time To Die, the final film of the Daniel Craig era and the studio now looks to find a new actor. The filmmakers seemingly itching to tackle more genre IP as he’s set to direct a feature film adaptation of an Image Comics property.

Yesterday, The Hollywood Reporter revealed that Legendary Entertainment has tapped Fukunaga to tackle a film based on their cyberpunk comic Tokyo Ghost.

Tokyo Ghost is set in 2089 when humanity has become fully addicted to technology as an escape from reality. The story follows peacekeepers Debbie Decay and Led Dent, who are working in the Isles of Los Angeles and are given a job that will take them to the last tech-free country on Earth: the garden nation of Tokyo.

The comic’s writer Rick Remender (Deadly Class, Fear Agent) will be writing the script.

Western cyberpunk films such as The Matrix, RoboCop, Blade Runner/Blade Runner 2049, Upgrade, and Total Recall have had varying levels of success. However, there has been a bit of hiccup with Hollywood attempts to adapt Japanese entries such as the Scarlett Johansson box office flop Ghost In The Shell and Warner Bros. has spent almost twenty years trying to make a movie based on the manga Akira.

Tokyo Ghost being from an western comic book might have an easier time being translated to the big screen. Audiences are also newly aware of the genre thanks to the recent video game Cyberpunk 2077. It’ll be interesting to see how they tackle this adaptation visually as the artwork from the comic would be certainly jarring to general film audiences.

Cary is also set to direct episodes of the Apple TV+ series Masters of The Air, the WWII project is produced by Steven Spielberg and Tom Hanks. Considered to be a follow-up to their previous shows Band of Brothers and The Pacific as HBO passed and Apple grabbed it.

No Time To Die will be released in October.

SOURCE: THE HOLLYWOOD REPORTER