Yesterday, a rumor was making the rounds that casting for the role of Adam Warlock was already happening for Guardians of The Galaxy 3 with a “Zac Efron-type” and James Gunn took to Twitter to debunk that claim rather quickly. The filmmaker is currently shooting his HBO Max series Peacemaker in Vancouver and clarifies there isn’t any casting underway, which makes sense since he’s on WarnerMedia’s dime at the moment.
This actually isn’t the first time James Gunn has addressed this Zac Efron/Adam Warlock rumor on social media as he debunked this exact thing on Instagram back in 2019. Suggesting that Adam Warlock wasn’t even going to be in the film as this rumor seemed to originally come from artist Boss Logic, about three years ago.
He did have a more fun update, as Gunn confirmed that filming on the sequel would be taking place later this year in London. While the filmmaker shot The Suicide Squad and Guardians of The Galaxy Vol.2 in Atlanta, the original Guardians film was shot in the United Kingdom. Ant-Man 3 and Captain Marvel 2 are also expected to shoot in the United Kingdom in 2021.
Comic book writer Gail Simone (Red Sonja, Deadpool, Birds of Prey, Wonder Woman, Domino) has taken to Twitter to reveal that Conan The Barbarian actor Jason Momoa (Aquaman, Game of Thrones) once wanted her to write a treatment for a potential crossover film featuring Jason’s Conan and Rose McGowan’s Red Sonja. The project never actually written but seemed kind of interesting since there were plans for a new Red Sonja film before the Conan reboot was released.
The film rights to both Conan and Red Sonja had been acquired by the same production company Millennium Films (formerly known as Nu Image) around this time, in theory, a crossover could have happened.
At the time, Rose was attached to the Red Sonja reboot with Robert Rodriguez set produce, the project had been promoted at San Diego Comic-Con 2008 with mock-up posters/teaser images. She had recently worked with Robert on the his Grindhouse installment Planet Terror playing the film’s leading heroine Cherry Darling. It played in theaters as a double-feature with Quentin Tarantino’s Death Proof, which also featured Rose in the small supporting role of Pam. McGowan ended up with a role in 2011’s Conan The Barbarian playing a witch villain named Marique in heavy special effects makeup.
SIMONE: “Jason Momoa wanted me to write a Conan/Red Sonja treatment for a movie crossover featuring him as Conan and Rose McGowan as Sonja. Nothing came of it, but it would have been a blast to do. He pitched me the whole idea while we were in a van through a city in New Zealand (can’t remember which). He’s just a very enthusiastic, lovely guy and I liked him immediately.”
He pitched me the whole idea while we were riding in a van through a city in New Zealand (can't remember which). He's just a very enthusiastic, lovely guy and I liked him immediately.
Conan The Barbarian didn’t connect with audiences, so there was never sequel made and Jason Momoa eventually landed his supporting part as Khal Drogo in HBO’s hit fantasy series Game of Thrones. That success on television led to him landing the Aquaman role in Warner Bros’ DC Comics franchise. More recently, Netflix has acquired the rights to Robert E. Howard’s Conan allowing them to make films, television shows, and animated projects.
Robert Rodriguez’s incarnation of Red Sonja never actually came together as the filmmaker instead pivoted to producing 20th Century Fox’s Predators and other subsequent things like taking over directing duties on James Cameron’s Alita: Battle Angel. A newer version of Red Sonja had Millennium Films hire disgraced X-Men franchise director Bryan Singer before he was ultimately replaced with Transparent’s Jill Soloway in the summer of 2019. However, it’s been a couple of years since Jill’s announcement and unclear if it will ever get made.
We recently saw set photos from Taika Waititi’s Thor: Love & Thunder that confirmed the return of the Loki play along with Matt Damon, Luke Hemsworth, and Melissa McCarthy being part of the scene. Also, we saw multiple members of the Guardians of The Galaxy shooting scenes as well but looks like those will be more brief any originally thought.
Some new photos from the Daily Mail reveal Natalie Portman’s Jane Foster aka Lady Thor with what looks like some Earthbound Asgard Warriors, potentially from New Asgard. They also include the first look at Tessa Thompson’s Valkyrie, who is wearing a pinstripe suit in the photos. It certainly looks like the scenes are taking place in New Asgard and hint towards Jane’s transformation into Lady Thor.
The Asgardian guards/soldiers in the set photos have an interesting Earthbound military look to them but you can notice some are still using spears and shields.
I guess we’ll have to wait to see Christian Bale as Gorr The God Butcher as the character might end-up being motion-capture. We’ll likely know for sure if he’s spotted in a motion-capture suit.
It remains to be seen if we’re dealing with The Multiverse in Thor: Love & Thunder, given that it’s supposed to be a big part of Phase 4 and the Loki series will seemingly be the first project covering it in any real depth via Time Variance Agency.
A new tidbit from The Illuminerdi suggests that Marvel Studios is going to be calling their X-Men reboot The Mutants. Something that had long been suspected because of the high-volume of female characters in the franchise and some calls that the studio somewhat ditch the “X-Men” name for the new big screen incarnation.
The Illuminerdi has learned of a Marvel Studios-led project produced by Marvel CCO Kevin Feige entitled,The Mutants. It’s currently being developed as a feature film and is intended to be a reboot of the X-Men franchise.
There has been speculation since the merger that Disney the studio could go with a gender neutral name for the franchise and seems fitting since most audiences know exactly what a mutant is along with the term’s association with the X-Men.
While the site is known for posting correct information it’s just a rumor for the moment as Disney hasn’t officially announced anything concerning their X-Men reboot. Names of writers or a director involved with the project weren’t mentioned, so its unclear what stage of development The Mutants actually is at this time.
Fantastic Four is expected to be the studio’s first big reboot of the former Fox franchises as they announced Spider-Man: No Way Home director Jon Watts would be tackling that next for them. Given the announcement back in December, we have to assume that Fantastic Four would be the first to go into production unless Ryan Reynolds’ Deadpool 3 (doesn’t have a director officially) jumps the line.
Deadline has just revealed that John Wick creator/screenwriter Derek Kolstad is teaming-up with Amazon Studios to develop a live-action feature film based on the Japanese manga Hellsing from Kouta Hirano. An interesting take on the Dracula mythology seeing him joining The Hellsing Organization, a group that seemingly echos B.P.R.D. from the Hellboy comic books.
Written and illustrated by Kouta Hirano and published by Shōnen Gahōsha, Hellsing reimagines Dracula as Alucard, a special agent bound to The Hellsing Organization, under the leadership of Integra Hellsing, great-granddaughter of Abraham Van Hellsing, to aid them in their mission to protect England and the world from vampires, ghouls, and other supernatural threats. The manga also focuses on Hellsing’s newest recruit, a female ex-police officer named Seras Victoria.
Kolstad has been closely involved with the John Wick franchise along with writing the upcoming Bob Odenkirk action flick Nobody and was working on Marvel’s Disney+ series The Falcon & The Winter Soldier. He is also developing a Dungeons & Dragons live-action series for Hasbro/eOne as Paramount is moving forward with their own feature film remake.
Derek is excellent at world building which should be a huge asset for the Hellsing film.
Deadline has revealed that Universal Pictures is looking to delay the release of F9: The Fast Saga from May 28th to June 25th. It’s an interesting spot in the summer given that Sony Pictures is already using that summer date for Tom Hardy’s Marvel flick Venom: Let There Be Carnage directed by Andy Serkis.
We have to assume that Sony Pictures will move their Venom sequel out of the way and they now have an excuse to do so. Could they push to the fall or will they hand it the December 17th spot? That holiday release has been secured for Spider-Man: No Way Home but easily could be switched over for Venom: Let There Be Carnage. They’ve already delayed Jared Leto’s Morbius into January 2022 and we could see other 2021 projects bumped to 2022 eventually. Giving the Spider-Man sequel some extra post-production time wouldn’t be the worst thing imaginable.
Vin Diesel’s Dom Toretto is leading a quiet life off the grid with Letty and his son, little Brian, but they know that danger always lurks just over their peaceful horizon. This time, that threat will force Dom to confront the sins of his past if he’s going to save those he loves most. His crew joins together to stop a world-shattering plot led by the most skilled assassin and high-performance driver they’ve ever encountered: a man who also happens to be Dom’s forsaken brother, Jakob (John Cena, next year’s The Suicide Squad). F9 sees the return of Justin Lin as director, who helmed the third, fourth, fifth and sixth chapters of the series when it transformed into a global blockbuster. The action hurtles around the globe—from London to Tokyo, from Central America to Edinburgh, and from a secret bunker in Azerbaijan to the teeming streets of Tblisi. Along the way, old friends will be resurrected, old foes will return, history will be rewritten, and the true meaning of family will be tested like never before. The film stars returning cast members Michelle Rodriguez, Tyrese Gibson, Chris “Ludacris” Bridges, Jordana Brewster, Nathalie Emmanuel and Sung Kang, with Oscar® winner Helen Mirren and Oscar® winner Charlize Theron. F9 also features Grammy-winning superstar Cardi B as new franchise character Leysa, a woman with a connection to Dom’s past, and a cameo by Reggaeton sensation Ozuna.
Tom Clancy’s Without Remorse, or simply Without Remorse, is an upcoming American action thriller film directed by Stefano Sollima and written by Taylor Sheridan and Will Staples. It is based on the 1993 novel of the same name by Tom Clancy and a spin-off of the Jack Ryan film series. The film tells the origin story of John Kelly (aka John Clark), a U.S. Navy SEAL, who uncovers an international conspiracy while seeking justice for the murder of his pregnant wife by Russian soldiers. When Kelly joins forces with fellow SEAL Karen Greer and shadowy CIA agent Robert Ritter, the mission unwittingly exposes a covert plot that threatens to engulf the U.S. and Russia in an all-out war.
Expanding the Jack Ryan universe created by author Tom Clancy seems to be a priority to Paramount and Without Remorse will allow them to give John Clark a string of his own films. When Michael B. Jordan was originally cast in the John Clark role he was attached for their Rainbow Six movie as well.
There is also a possibility we might eventually see Jordan’s Clark and John Krasinski’s Jack Ryan eventually cross paths.
Without Remorse will debut April 30th on Amazon’s Prime Video.
The Russo Brothers have added three more actors to their wildly expensive Netflix spy movie, titled The Gray Man. Deadline first reported that Rege-Jean Page, Billy Bob Thornton, and Alfre Woodard has joined the growing cast. Page recently joined the cast of Paramount’s Dungeons & Dragons remake and has become a favorite to become the next James Bond as he’s getting international exposure due to his series Bridgerton.
The Gray Man is said to be Netflix’s most expensive original feature film with a budget over $200 million with a cast that already consists of Ryan Gosling, Chris Evans Ana De Armas, Wagner Moura, Jessica Henwick, Dhanush, and Julia Butters.
It’s script is based on the 2009 novel from author Mark Greaney which was adapted by the sibling directors with a polish from their MCU partners Christopher Markus and Stephen McFeely.
To those who lurk in the shadows, he’s known as the Gray Man. He is a legend in the covert realm, moving silently from job to job, accomplishing the impossible and then fading away. And he always hits his target. Always. But there are forces more lethal than Gentry in the world. Forces like money. And power. And there are men who hold these as the only currency worth fighting for. And in their eyes, Gentry has just outlived his usefulness. But Court Gentry is going to prove that, for him, there’s no gray area between killing for a living and killing to stay alive…
Filming was expected to take place in Los Angeles.
Deadline reports that Paramount Pictures has added veteran actor Hugh Grant as the villain of Dungeons & Dragons and IT actress Sophia Lillis in another role in the high-profile fantasy film about to begin shooting soon in Belfast. Grant has been working closely with director Guy Ritchie on his films The Gentlemen and Five Eyes, the latter currently deep into production.
The pair join Chris Pine, Michelle Rodriguez, Rege-Jean Page, and Justice Smith.
It’s a little odd that they’ve hired this many American actors for a fantasy film, hopefully, they’re going to be using their regular accents and not attempting bad British ones. Peter Jackson’s Lord of The Rings movies had a bunch of Americans but they were able muffle their accents for the most part. There is nothing more distracting than an American forcing a bad British accent for the entire runtime of a feature film. Luckily, we’ve sampled Chris Pine’s Scottish accent in The Outlaw King, which was sort of impressive given he’s not really known for it.
Jonathan Goldstein and John Francis Daley will be directing and writing. We currently don’t have any real solid plot details but there is a good shot the duo is creating an original take while using existing mythology as source material.
Dungeons & Dragons is being set for release on May 27th, 2022 and already is being expanded with John Wick’s Derek Kolstad being tasked to develop a live-action television series set withing the fantasy world.
Deadline reports that Jodie Comer has been selected by director Ridley Scott for the role of Josephine in his upcoming Napoleon feature film Kitbag, starring Oscar-winner Joaquin Phoenix. Comer recently worked with Scott on his period drama The Last Duel, that sees Jodie co-starring with Matt Damon and Adam Driver.
However, the actress is only in early talks for the key role in the new film.
Filming is expected to begin in early 2022.
The film is an original and personal look at Napoleon’s origins and his swift, ruthless climb to emperor, viewed through the prism of his addictive and often volatile relationship with his wife and one true love, Josephine. The intention of the film is to capture Napoleon’s famous battles, relentless ambition and astounding strategic mind as an extraordinary military leader and war visionary.
Ridley and Phoenix previously worked together on Gladiator.
THE RONIN 