Category: Film News

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Lord & Miller Producing Mystery Movie Inspired By Universal Monsters Legacy With Channing Tatum Set To Star

Yesterday, Deadline reported that Channing Tatum is planning on reuniting with his 21 Jump Street directors Phil Lord and Chris Miller, who are producing an untitled film for Universal Pictures that will be satirical thriller set in the Universal Monsters universe.

Tatum attached to take the lead role.

Sources tell Deadline that Universal Pictures, Lord Miller and Free Association are developing an untitled monster project, described as a modern-day, tongue-in-cheek thriller inspired by Universal’s classic monster legacy with Tatum set to star.

There are zero plot details but the idea/outline came from Channing’s producing partner Reid Carolin and a script penned by Wes Tooke.

On paper, the mystery project might not be too dissimilar to the mystery Universal Monsters project that Paul Feig is developing separately.

Tatum has been keeping a low profile lately after a starring role in Steven Soderbergh’s Logan Lucky, taking a supporting role in Kingsman: The Golden Circle, and upcoming cameo in Ryan Reynolds’ Free Guy. At one point, he was producing and co-writing a solo Gambit film for 20th Century Fox before the merger with Disney essentially killed it.

The Invisible Man director Leigh Whannell is following up with another Universal Monsters project with a Wolfman film starring Ryan Gosling.

SOURCE: DEADLINE

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Will Letitia Wright Have A Bigger Role In ‘Black Panther 2’?

Another little tidbit in The Hollywood Reporter’s casting news concerning Ryan Coogler’s Black Panther 2 with Narcos: Mexico actor Tenoch Huerta in talks to play one of the film’s villains. They mention that the returning cast will include Letitia Wright, Lupita Nyong’o, Wintston Duke, and Angela Bassett with the former possibly getting a much larger role.

Letitia Wright, Lupita Nyong’o, Winston Duke and Angela Bassett are expected to return for the new feature, with some saying Wright’s character may take on a more prominent role. Marvel, which had no comment on this story, has not revealed its plans on how it plans to proceed without Boseman, although it has indicated that it will not use CGI to include the late star in the film.

Oddly enough, Danai Gurira is not part of this returning group but I assume she will be in the future.

Chadwick passed over the summer after a battle of colon cancer and everyone involved has been focused on mourning which makes me a little skeptical they’ll at this pointing locking-down production dates after they just lost their lead actor. Marvel Studios executive vice president Victoria Alonso debunked an online rumor that they were considering on using a digital-double of Chadwick Boseman for the film.

While the outlet is pushing this news that filming is set to begin in July the studio hasn’t confirmed if they’ll be promoting Wright’s Shuri to Black Panther status or simply recasting the T’Challa role which seems like the simpler move on their part as weird as it might be. Handing the reigns to Shuri would mean they’d also have to kill-off the T’Challa character and I’m not terribly sure Disney is keen on that idea. However, giving Wright more to do in sequel could lead to her becoming Black Panther at some point.

There seems to be a process where the ruler of Wakanda can retire the Black Panther position and still rule, as was the case of T’Chaka and T’Challa in Captain America: Civil War.

We’ll have to wait and see what Marvel/Coolger ultimately decide to do.

SOURCE: THE HOLLYWOOD REPORTER

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Marvel’s ‘Ant-Man 3’ Adds Production Designer Will Htay – Worked On Multiple ‘Star Wars’ Projects and ‘No Time To Die’

The Ronin has learned that Marvel Studios has added Will Htay as the production designer of Peyton Reed’s upcoming Ant-Man 3 and could speak to the scale of the film.

Will’s impressive credits on massive blockbusters as a concept designer includes films such as Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker, No Time To Die, Rogue One: A Star Wars Story, Solo: A Star Wars Story. His work on Star Wars isn’t relegated to just feature films as has been part of the production design team on Disney+ series Kenobi and the untitled Cassian Andor show.

Reed is no stranger to Star Wars either as he directed Chapter 10 of The Mandalorian.

Returning cast members include Paul Rudd, Evangeline Lilly, Michael Douglas, Michelle Pfeiffer, and Emma Fuhrmann

Lovecraft Country’s Jonathan Majors is reportedly playing the villain Kang The Conqueror in the sequel which suggests the scale of the Marvel Comics sequel.

We’ve been hearing for months that filming on Ant-Man 3 will be taking place mainly on the stages of Pinewood Studios UK in Buckinghamshire, England and they’ll have access to The Volume/StageCraft for their shoot. The facility was used for upcoming Marvel films Black Widow and Eternals, the latter finishing up their reshoots.

Sam Raimi’s Doctor Strange In The Multiverse of Madness is currently shooting at Longcross Studios in Surrey, England with Elizabeth Olsen suggesting she’ll join them next month.

Ant-Man 3 is without an official release date but is coming out sometime in 2022.

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James Gunn May Start Filming ‘Guardians of The Galaxy 3’ In Atlanta Before The End of 2021

A tiny tidbit mentioned by The Hollywood Reporter suggests that James Gunn’s Guardians of The Galaxy 3 could begin before the end of 2021, as it had been set to shoot in Atlanta, Georgia before Gunn’s firing/rehiring. He’s a busy bee lately as he’s in post with The Suicide Squad and will begin shooting Peacemaker early in the new year.

The studio will have Peyton Reed back for a new Ant-Man movie in 2021 and is ending the year with Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3 shooting with a returning James Gunn.

James Gunn’s HBO Max series Peacemaker will be shooting from January to June in Vancouver and if all things come together will release The Suicide on August 6th alongside a promotional tour for the film (most likely virtual) before jumping into shooting Guardians 3 in the fall/winter.

The Guardians cast are expected to show up in Thor: Love & Thunder after the announcement Chris Pratt’s Peter Quill will have a role in the Thor sequel which is being considered somewhat of an Avengers-level project (Doctor Strange 2 and Ant-Man 3 will be considered too once more characters are revealed officially).

Other Marvel films said to begin shooting in the 2021 include Peyton Reed’s Ant-Man 3 in London, Nia DaCosta’s Captain Marvel 2 in London, and Ryan Coogler’s Black Panther 2 in Atlanta.

Unlike most of the Marvel slate the sequel doesn’t have an official release date.

SOURCE: THE HOLLYWOOD REPORTER

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Stephen Lang Talks Returning As Colonel Miles Quaritch For The ‘Avatar’ Sequels – Already Shot A Scene For ‘Avatar 4’

We’re excited to finally get to see some footage from James Cameron’s Avatar sequels and during an interview with The Hollywood Reporter, franchise actor Stephen Lang sort of broke how how much filming he’s done so far on the projects as he is reprising the role of Colonel Miles Quaritch. Revealing he’s shot for two years already for Avatar 2 (finished filming) and Avatar 3 (expected to be finish soon) along with a scene already for Avatar 4.

LANG: “I haven’t shot anything in probably close to a year. But I’d shot for two years before that, so I’m good. I know there is still a huge amount of work to be done. As far as I can tell,  Avatar 2 — it’s shot.”

“I have no doubt that when Avatar 2 does come out, it’s going to be the movie he feels it needs to be. I’d say the same for 3, 4 and 5. We haven’t got to 4 or 5 yet, even though we have shot a scene from 4.”

In a world of cloning and new “avatar” bodies a resurrection for the very dead Colonel Quaritch isn’t terribly strange but they haven’t really explained how they plan on bringing him back. I have to assume that RDA has the kind of money laying around to clone a bunch of Colonels installing them all over their off-world operations.

Quaritch isn’t the only baddie in the new movies as Sopranos star Edie Falco will play General Ardmore, who is heading up a different RDA installation on Pandora called The Bridgehead.

I’ll be keeping my fingers crossed that they’ll start showing us more polished promotional materials beyond set photos.

Avatar 2 won’t be out until December 16th, 2021.

SOURCE: THE HOLLYWOOD REPORTER

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‘Predator 5’ In The Works For Almost 4 Years According To Director Dan Trachtenberg – Planned To Mirror ‘Cloverfield’ Films?

Yesterday, it was revealed by Deadline that 20th Century Studios and Disney would be moving forward with a new Predator film loosely being referred to Predator with Dan Trachtenberg (The Boys, Black Mirror, 10 Cloverfield Lane) set to direct. The project was unknowingly revealed by Discussing Film late last year under the working title Skulls and had been kept under the radar thanks to the working title/vague logline throwing people off the scent. This new report from Deadline first revealing it’s ties to the Predator franchise and Disney’s desire to keep things chugging along.

According to Dan on Twitter, they’ve been working on Predator 5 for much longer than a year, closely to four years. He also seemingly suggests they had been planning on quietly making and releasing the film as a surprise. I have to assume hearkening back to how his film 10 Cloverfield Lane was shot as something else and then connected to the Cloverfield franchise.

TRACHTENBERG: “This was meant to be a surprise. Been working on this for almost 4 years now. I am very sad that what we had in store for how you could discover this movie will no longer happen. It’s a bummer. But also…YAY!”

The film is expected to be a period piece focusing on a female Comanche human character. It sounds like a potential Native American proxy to expanded universe character Machiko Noguchi (a Japanese human inducted into a predator tribe) and would mean it could skew more in the western genre but other than that we don’t know too much about the project. It had been established back in Predator 2 that the aliens had been coming to Earth for hundreds of years to hunt and placing this new film in the past could be one way to make a film different enough from the previous four installments.

Maybe we’ll see Julia Jones (The Mandalorian, Westworld, Wind River) in the role?

Fans like myself were bummed-out when we finally got a look at Shane Black’s 2018 film The Predator and it was a giant mess with a bizarre sequel bait ending that landed flat on it’s face. Hopefully, this means that Alien 5/Alien V is seriously being considered after that spec-script tease from franchise screenwriters David Giler and Walter Hill was making the rounds on social media.

SOURCE: DAN TRACHTENBERG

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Brad Pitt’s ‘Bullet Train’ Enlists Logan Lerman and ‘Deadpool 2’ Production Designer David Scheunemann

There had been so many casting announcements concerning Sony’s upcoming assassin flick Bullet Train that they’ve been hard to keep track. But yesterday it was revealed by Deadline that Logan Lerman (Gamer, Fury, Hunters) has taken yet another undisclosed role in the action film directed by David Leitch (Deadpool 2, John Wick, Atomic Blonde).

The rest of the cast consists of Brad Pitt (Once Upon A Time In Hollywood), Joey King (The Dark Knight Rises), Andrew Koji (G.I. Joe Origins: Snake Eyes), Michael Shannon (Knives Out, Man of Steel), Aaron Taylor-Johnson (Godzilla, Kick-Ass, Avengers: Age of Ultron), Brian Tyree Henry (Godzilla vs Kong, Widows, Joker, Eternals), Lady Gaga (Gucci, A Star Is Born, Machete Kills), Masi Oka (Heroes), and Zazie Beetz (Joker, Deadpool 2).

Logan and Brad previously worked together on the WWII thriller Fury from David Ayer, so this will be a reunion of sorts for the two actors.

I’m starting to get a little concerned that Sony and Leitch have only hired two Asian actors of Japanese heritage out of the ten announced given that the film’s setting is supposed to be Tokyo, Japan. A location predominately populated by Japanese people and not westerners. Hopefully, they’ll start to notice how odd this looks to people and we’ll hear more Asian actors joining the cast.

Filming is taking place in Los Angeles under the working title of Haiku #87, a reference to the train in the action flick. The Ronin has learned that Leitch is expected to reunite with production designer David Scheunemann (Atomic Blonde, Deadpool 2, Hobbs & Shaw), who recently worked on Karen Gillan’s Gunpowder Milkshake.

Sony has yet to give Bullet Train an official release date.

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‘Narcos: Mexico’ Actor Tenoch Huerta In Talks To Play ‘Black Panther 2’ Villain – Eyeing July Production Start

The Hollywood Reporter has news that Marvel and director Ryan Coogler are in talks with Narcos: Mexico actor Tenoch Huerta to play one of the villains of Black Panther 2.

Also, they state that Marvel Studios wants filming to begin by July of next year in Atlanta, Georgia.

They’re not naming his role but Huerta would make for interesting MCU incarnation of Namor The Sub-Mariner, as he played a complex cartel member on Narcos: Mexico and I’ve been championing different types of actors for the role when it comes time for Marvel to cast an actor for it.

Namor’s Atlantis and T’Challa’s Wakanda have come to all-out war in the comics with Namor flooding Wakanda along with the two high-tech nations almost exchanging nuclear weapons. There is certainly tension there between them and plenty of unconfirmed rumors that Namor could end up being a villain go all the way back to the first film’s release. The sinking of Atlantis aka The Great Cataclysm in Marvel Comics has a direct connection to Celestials, Deviants, and Eternals which could be introduced in the upcoming Eternals film. Nods to Namor go all way back to Captain America: The First Avenger and have been sprinkled throughout multiple films since.

There are even objects from the Guardians of The Galaxy attraction Mission Breakout! located at the Disney theme parks that tease an Atlantis connection via “Terran Ocean Artifacts”.

Of course, the role could be something else entirely but he’s giving off Namor vibes.

Chadwick Boseman passed over the summer due to a battle with colon cancer (something he kept private) and everyone involved with the project has been taking time to mourn his passing. I’m not entirely sure how fixed that production start is given that was likely when they were planning on shooting before the death of Chadwick and there could be adjustments or delays upcoming.

Marvel Studios still hasn’t announced what their plans are with the T’Challa role but have debunked a rumor of using a digital-double of the late actor for the sequel.

SOURCE: THE HOLLYWOOD REPORTER

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‘Predator 5’ Officially Announced With Director Dan Trachtenberg Attached – Won’t Be A Continuation of ‘The Predator’

Deadline has announced a huge update concerning the future of the Predator franchise as Dan Trachtenberg (10 Cloverfield Lane) has been hired by 20th Century Studios/Disney to direct an untitled Predator 5 that will have a script from Patrick Aison (Treadstone, Jack Ryan).

The film isn’t expected to be a sequel to Shane Black’s soft-reboot The Predator.

Apparently, Discussing Film caught-wind of the project’s production grid information almost a entire year ago and didn’t make the connection it was part of the Predator franchise as it was under the working title of Skulls (the Predator collects skulls).

…will follow a Comanche woman who goes against gender norms and traditions to become a warrior.

It’s unconfirmed if Skulls’ logline is the official one they’ll actually be using as that information is year old and could have changed since then as films normally do over a year or more of development/script changes. The Predator and Alien franchises always have multiple incarnations in the development stages before the cameras roll on each installment.

However, the crux of Skulls does sound very similar to Machiko Noguchi, a Japanese human character that is inducted into a predator tribe after proving herself worthy.

A new Predator film so soon have the box office disaster of 2018’s The Predator would obviously signal Disney’s commitment to continuing 20th Century Studios’ legacy franchises and might mean that new Alien projects could be next.

They’re already moving forward with a new Planet of The Apes film from director Wes Ball along with a new spec-script for Alien V from franchise screenwriters/executive producers David Giler and Walter Hill.

SOURCE: DEADLINE

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‘Deadpool 3’ Development At Marvel Studios Moves Forward With The Molyneux Sisters Penning The Script

I guess the talk of Deadpool 3 never coming together at Marvel Studios was just a fevered dream of co-creator Rob Liefeld.

Deadline reports that Marvel Studios has tapped The Molyneux Sisters (Bob’s Burgers, The Great North) to write the third installment and would be a sign that the sequel could be the first official X-Men film produced/released by the studio since the merger brought the film/television rights to Disney.

Sources tell Deadline that Wendy Molyneux and Lizzie Molyneux-Loeglin to write Deadpool 3 with Reynolds set to reprise his role as wise-cracking superhero.

As we’ve been saying for ages via quotes from both Disney and Marvel brass that they still seem to be keen to keep the film R-rated. Deadline reaffirms this, yet again.

Besides Reynolds return, there is so many factors being worked but sources say the film is still expected to be rated R like the previous two installments. 

Ryan Reynolds is set to reprise the role of Wade Wilson but this would be the first film without the involvement of Paul Wernick and Rhett Reese, who tackled the last two movies when they were made at 20th Century Fox pre-merger. We don’t know officially if other cast members like Zazie Beetz or Josh Brolin will carry over their roles like Reynolds.

It’s unclear if David Leitch’s schedule will allow him to return for a third installment, but I wouldn’t be shocked if they considered a new director in all honesty given how many projects Leitch is juggling currently.

It sounds like with screenwriters set that we could see the sequel arrive at the earliest in 2023 with production taking place in 2022 if a script is completed in a timely fashion.

SOURCE: DEADLINE