‘John Wick’ Prequel Series ‘The Continental’ Lands ‘Dead Presidents’ Co-Director Albert Hughes

As John Wick 4 has already begun filming in Germany, Lionsgate is gearing up to finally shoot their spinoff series The Continental. The show on Starz will focus on a young Winston during the 1970s in New York City and will likely explore the character’s rise to power as the overseer of the hotel. There had been an original intention to have Keanu Reeves cameo, but given the period setting it wouldn’t make much sense.

We now have the name of the show’s main directors as The Hollywood Reporter reveals that Albert Hughes, one half of the sibling directing duo The Hughes Brothers, has been selected to direct two out of the three episodes.

Hughes’ credits include Dead Presidents, Book of Eli, the Alan Moore adaptation From Hell, and Menace II Society. The brothers were once enlisted by Warner Bros. to helm their live-action Akira adaptation, but like many others, they eventually exited to pursue other things.

The next big step will be casting the multiple roles for The Continental.

The cast of John Wick: Chapter 4 so far includes Keanu Reeves, Ian McShane,  Lance Reddick, Laurence Fishburne, Horiyuki Sanada, Donnie Yen, Scott Adkins, Marko Zaror, Bill Skarsgard, Shamier Anderson, and Rina Sawayama. Although, it’s unclear if Halle Berry, Asia Kate Dillion, John Leguizamo, Peter Stormare, Common, Jason Mantzoukas, Anjelica Huston, Said Taghmaoui, Yayan Ruhian, and Cecept Arif Rahamn will be reprising their roles from previous installments.  It’s releases on May 27, 2022 and John Wick: Chapter 5 is said to be the final installment of the main franchise.

However, the show isn’t the only spinoff in the works. Lionsgate hired Underworld director Len Wiseman to tackle a female-led action film set within the world of John Wick titled Ballerina. An actress has yet to be officially announced and it will interesting to see where the project’s setting lands in the franchise’s timeline, as it allow Keanu Reeves to appear.

SOURCE: THE HOLLYWOOD REPORTER

Robert Downey Jr. Joins HBO’s Vietnam War Spy Series ‘The Sympathizer’ From ‘Oldboy’ Director Park Chan Wook

HBO has secured the rights to an upcoming spy series from Oldboy director Park Chan Wook and A24, an adaptation of Thanh Nguyen’s novel The Sympathizer. It focuses on the tail-end of the Vietnam War with a French-Vietnamese communist spy and should be a thriller show. The project has landed a heavy-hitting western actor as the rest of the cast will be led by a majority of Viennese actors.

Thanh Nguyen’s novel is an espionage thriller and cross-culture satire about the struggles of a half-French, half-Vietnamese communist spy during the final days of the Vietnam War and his resulting exile in the United States. A worldwide search is currently underway for the lead role and the rest of the predominantly Vietnamese ensemble.

Deadline reveals that Robert Downey Jr. had nabbed a supporting role as various American antagonists in the show, a likely nod to the idea that American interventionism is executed and exploited by faceless cogs.

According to insiders, Downey Jr., is set to play multiple supporting roles as the main antagonists, all of whom represent a different arm of the American establishment — including an up-and-coming Orange County Congressman, a CIA agent and a Hollywood film director, among others.

Park Chan Wook has dabbled with the genre before with John Le Carre series adaptation The Little Drummer Girl that starred Michael Shannon, Florence Pugh, and Alexander Skarsgard. He’ll direct episodes alongside being the show’s co-showrunner with Don McKellar.

SOURCE: DEADLINE

Marvel Studios Officially Confirms ‘Loki’ Season 2; Will Likely Shoot In London

Long before we even got our hands on the first footage for the Loki series, the project’s LLC (Limbo Productions I LLC) seemingly gave away the studio’s intention to pursue a second season this was supported by trade reports that head writer/series creator Michael Waldron would be involved in Season 2 alongside a Star Wars film that Kevin Feige would be producing for Lucasfilm.

Back in April, The Ronin caught word of something Loki related shooting in London. That seemingly didn’t happen and won’t be happening for some time, potentially next year. It was a possibility that Season 2 would be moving from Atlanta to London. A reason this makes sense is that a bulk of the cast including folks such as lead Tom Hiddleston and Loki’s director Kate Herron are British. After an extended production in Atlanta during the height of the pandemic, you could understand if there were requests to shift filming across the pond for Season 2.

We’re already going to see stuff like the Skrull event Disney+ series Secret Invasion primarily film in London,so, moving Loki there wouldn’t be that shocking.

While I won’t spoil any of the plot details of the Season 1 finale, the show ended without a stinger just confirmation from Marvel that Season 2 was officially a go. You can see the image above clearly stating this. The episode does leave on a cliffhanger and it’ll be interesting to see how many more seasons we’ll get beyond Season 2.

There is also an expectation that Ms. Marvel is getting a second season with production heading to the United Kingdom too.

EXCLUSIVE: ‘Rogue’ Director M.J. Bassett Joins Amazon’s ‘Jack Reacher’ Series Reboot

The Ronin can confirm that British director M.J. Bassett is part of the directing team of Amazon’s series reboot of Jack Reacher, previously a film franchise led by Tom Cruise and will have Alan Ritchson (slightly more aligned with Reacher’s stature/size) taking over the role in the show.

Bassett had been once involved with Amblin’s new Halo series but dropped out and recently she was behind the recent Megan Fox actioner Rogue. Her others credits include Altered Carbon, Iron Fist, Nightflyers, Strike Back, Endangered Species, Ash vs Evil Dead, and Silent Hill: Revelation.

Bassett joins The Wachowskis as part of the growing club of trans women directors tackling action projects, the more the merrier.

We previously first reported Amazon hired Bodyguard director Thomas Vincent for Jack Reacher.

The first season is reportedly based on Lee Child’s novel Killing Floor.

Jack Reacher comes to the little town of Margrave looking for information about the mysterious death of a guitar player named Blind Blake. Instead, he finds one of the largest counterfeiting operations in history.

Skydance and Amazon are already partners on their popular Jack Ryan series based on the Tom Clancy novels led by John Krasinski, which is heading into it’s third season.

Guillermo del Toro’s Horror Anthology Series ’12 After Midnight’ Enlists ‘Nightmare Alley’ & ‘The Strain’ Production Designer; Jennifer Kent Also Directing

A new horror anthology from writer/producer Guillermo del Toro is coming to Netflix with the show titled Guillermo del Toro Presents 12 After Midnight (formerly 10 After Midnight), and it allows the filmmaker to honor the genre he loves. Guillermo del Toro is directing some episodes of the anthology alongside Australian director Jennifer Kent (The Nightingale, The Babadook). More directors will be announced later on. 

In this new genre-defining anthology series, acclaimed Academy Award-winning filmmaker Guillermo del Toro will present a collection of personally curated stories, that are both equally sophisticated and horrific. Creator and executive producer del Toro will bring his own visionary style as both a writer and director to certain episodes. In addition, he will handpick a team of the genre’s best writers and exciting new filmmakers to bring his selection of stories to life.

The Ronin can confirm that the horror series has added seasoned production designer Tamara Deverell (Star Trek: Discovery), who had recently worked with del Toro on his latest feature film Nightmare Alley and his vampire series The Strain. Deverell will work alongside art director Brandt Gordon (Nightmare Alley, Crimson Peak, Total Recall, Suicide Squad, Shazam!)

We’ve also learned that the production team will have visual effects supervisor Dennis Berardi, who has a fantastic body of work with projects such as Shazam!, Crimson Peak, Monster Hunter, Antlers, The Shape of Water, The Strain, Nightmare Alley, Vikings, and The Strain. 

Filming is already underway in Toronto, Ontario, Canada, and will wrap sometime in February. 

A longtime producing partner of del Toro, J. Miles Dale, is behind the series. His credits consist of Nightmare Alley, Antlers, Scary Stories To Tell In The Dark, The Shape of Water, The Strain, Mama, Shadowhunters, The Thing (2011), and Scott Pilgrim vs. The World. 

12 After Midnight will drop on Netflix sometime in 2022. 

‘Game Of Thrones’ Costume Designer Michele Clapton Confirmed For Amazon’s Cyberpunk Series ‘The Peripheral’; From Co-Creators Of HBO’s ‘Westworld’

Lisa Joy and Jonathan Nolan (Westworld) are producing a new Amazon series The Peripheral, an adaptation of the William Gibson cyberpunk novel with Chloe Grace Moretz (Kick-Ass, Shadow In The Cloud) and Irish actor Jack Reynor (Midsommar, Free Fire) set to play the show’s leads.

The William Gibson novel centers on Flynne (Grace Moretz) and her brother Burton (Reynor). Burton, a veteran of the United States Marine Corps’ elite Haptic Recon force, is hired for a security job which takes place in what he thinks is cyberspace. When Flynne temporarily takes his place, she witnesses something that might have been murder.

The Ronin can confirm the cyberpunk series has indeed added six-time Primetime Emmy-winner Michele Clapton to the production team as their costume designer, who previously worked on Seasons 1-8 of HBO’s Game of Thrones and The King’s Man directed by Matthew Vaughn. 

We previously reported the show’s production designer will be Jan Reolfs (Ghost In The Shell, F9: The Fast Saga, 47 Ronin). 

Production will take place around London with Vincenzo Natali set to direct the show’s pilot. Natali’s extensive credits include The Stand, Westworld, American Gods, The Strain, Lost In Space, Locke & Key, Luke Cage, Hannibal, Orphan Black, Splice, and Cube.

Gibson, alongside Philip K. Dick, is considered one of the fathers of the cyberpunk genre. Dick’s work, of course, inspired feature films such as Ridley Scott’s Blade Runner and Paul Verhoeven’s Total Recall. The Peripheral isn’t the only William Gibson adaptation in the works as we’ve previously reported that Luther creator Neil Cross is looking to turn his novel Pattern Recognition into a project as well and has yet to be officially announced.

Lisa Joy is making her feature film directorial debut with the Hugh Jackman and Rebecca Ferguson dystopian cyberpunk film Reminiscence, which will hit both theaters and HBO Max on August 20.

REMINISCENCE – Nick Bannister (Jackman), a private investigator of the mind, navigates the darkly alluring world of the past by helping his clients access lost memories. Living on the fringes of the sunken Miami coast, his life is forever changed when he takes on a new client, Mae (Ferguson). A simple matter of lost and found becomes a dangerous obsession. As Bannister fights to find the truth about Mae’s disappearance, he uncovers a violent conspiracy, and must ultimately answer the question: how far would you go to hold on to the ones you love?

EXCLUSIVE: Russo Brothers’ Action-Packed Spy Series ‘Citadel’ Adds Veteran Director Jessica Yu

The Russo Brothers (Avengers: Infinity War, Avengers: Endgame) are behind a new action-packed spy series at Amazon Prime Video, called Citadel with a cast that consists of Richard Madden (Game of Thrones, Bodyguard, Eternals), Priyanka Chopra Jonas (The Matrix 4, The White Tiger, Quantico, We Can Be Heroes ), and Stanley Tucci (Spotlight, Captain America: The First Avenger, Road To Perdition, The King’s Man), Ashleigh Cummings, Roland Møller, Nikki Amuka-Bird, Susan Lynch, Sara Martins, Leo Woodall, Gráinne Good, Osy Ikhile, Caoilinn Springall, and Leo Ashizawa.

The Ronin can now confirm that seasoned director Jessica Yu is helming at least two episodes of Citadel. Yu’s varied television career includes credits such as In Treatment, Billions, This Is Us, American Crime, Fosse/Verdon, Ratched, Hollywood, The Affair, I’m Dying Up Here, Scandal, ER, Grey’s Anatomy, West Wing, and directed the pilot for Walker.

Jessica Yu is also an Oscar-winner earning a statue for Best Documentary Short in 1997 for Breathing Lessons, which was presented to her by Will Smith and Tommy Lee Jones.

Joe and Anthony Russo are producing via their production company AGBO and are expected to direct episodes alongside fellow executive producer Brian Kirk (21 Bridges, Game of Thrones, Luther, Boardwalk Empire, Dexter). Josh Appelbaum (showrunner), André Nemec, Jeff Pinkner, and Scott Rosenberg of Midnight Radio serve as writers and executive producers.

Citadel is assumed to drop on Prime Video sometime in 2022.

The sibling pair is also working on The Gray Man, another high-profile spy project at Netflix, which is said to be budgeted at over $200 million, making it their most expensive production to date. The Gray Man’s impressive cast includes a heap of well-known names such as Ryan Gosling (The Nice Guys, Drive), Chris Evans (Snowpiercer), Ana de Armas (Knives Out, Blade Runner: 2049, No Time To Die), Rege-Jean Page (Bridgerton, Dungeons & Dragons), Jessica Henwick (The Matrix 4, Knives Out 2), Alfre Woodard (Luke Cage), Billy Bob Thorton (Fargo), Wagner Moura (Narcos), Deobia Oparei (Dredd, Game of Thrones, Independence Day: Resurgence), Robert Kazinsky (Pacific Rim), Dhanush, Scott Haze (Venom, Antlers), Callan Mulvey (The Outlaw King, Captain America: The Winter Soldier, Batman v Superman), and Julia Butters (Once Upon A Time In Hollywood, The Fabelmans).

‘She-Hulk’ Cinematographer Revealed To Be Florian Ballhaus

She-Hulk has been shooting for months in Atlanta and it looks like a major crew member has been revealed for the upcoming Marvel Studios series airing on Disney+ sometime in 2022. Thanks to a tipster, the German lens company Leitz’s website has the show’s cinematographer listed as Florian Ballhaus. The German director of photography’s credits include The One & Only Ivan, RED, The Devil Wears Prada, and The Captain.

The 10-episode series will be directed by Kat Coiro and Anu Valia with Emmy-winner Jessica Gao (Rick & Morty) set as head writer. It’s crew consists of production designer Elena Albanese (Lovecraft Country), costume designer Ann Foley (Godzilla Vs. Kong, Altered Carbon), and stunt coordinator Monique Ganderton (Loki, Avengers: Endgame).

Tatiana Maslany’s (Black Orphan) Jennifer Walters aka She-Hulk is the cousin of Avengers member Dr. Bruce Banner aka Hulk and after a blood transfusion from Bruce is granted her own Hulk powers becoming She-Hulk. The series officially will see the return of Tim Roth as Emil Blonsky aka Abomination (the new updated design recently revealed in Shang-Chi trailer) , Mark Ruffalo back as Banner aka Professor Hulk, Renee Elise Goldsberry as Amelia, and Ginger Gonzaga.

Jameela Jamil (The Good Place) was recently announced to be playing the super-strong villain Titania in She-Hulk and it’ll be interest to see if she’ll be in projects other than the series.

Set photos recently posted by actress Anais Almonte (Gotham, The Punisher) confirmed her involvement.

She-Hulk will likely debut on Disney+ sometime in the second half of 2022. Given the extensive visual effects involved and multiple motion-capture characters, we shouldn’t expect to see it arrive before the summer of next year, but we’ll certainly update if that changes.

Other live-action shows on the horizon from Marvel Studios consist of Hawkeye, Ms. Marvel, Moon Knight, Secret Invasion, Armor Wars, Ironheart, Echo, and the untitled Ryan Coogler-produced project about Wakanda.

SOURCE: LEITZ

Marvel’s ‘Ironheart’ Series Using The Working Title Of ‘Wise Guy’

A new Production Weekly update is supporting that Ironheart’s working title during production will indeed be Wise Guy. The production grid info for the Marvel Studios show was first spotted by the folks over at The Cosmic Circus earlier in the week.

Although, we should be cautious as Production Weekly has mixed up a handful of the Marvel Studios working titles lately. They recently attributed the working title of Buzzcut to The Guardians of The Galaxy Holiday Special, only for James Gunn to debunk that on Twitter.

We’re assuming at this point that Buzzcut is likely really being used for Ryan Coogler’s untitled Wakanda series (currently listed for an untitled Marvel project on Production Weekly) as a nod to the bald female warriors, the Dora Milaje. The Ronin recently confirmed the Wakanda series is using the Disney LLC, Maglev Train Productions, which is a direct nod to the high-tech railway system used in Wakanda.

Marvel Studios has yet to reveal who is even the head writer of Ironheart let alone the show’s directors, which could suggest that the show isn’t as close to starting as something like Armor Wars.

However, it was announced back in December that Dominique Throne will be playing Riri Williams, the brilliant youngster that is able to build her own armor suit and becomes a superhero. Williams is yet another character added to the Marvel Cineamtic Universe that could appear in a future Young Avengers project.

There is a good chance there could be some story/character crossover with the War machine series Armor Wars led by Don Cheadle.

Other recent working titles for Marvel projects include the following.

LOKI – ARCHITECT

BLACK WIDOW = BLUE BAYOU

ETERNALS = SACK LUNCH

SHANG-CHI & THE LEGEND OF THE TEN RINGS = STEAMBOAT

DOCTOR STRANGE IN THE MULTIVERSE OF MADNESS = STELLAR VORTEX

SPIDER-MAN: NO WAY HOME = THE NOVEMBER PROJECT

THOR: LOVE & THUNDER = THE BIG SALAD

SHE-HULK = CLOVER

MOON KNIGHT = GOOD FAITH

THE MARVELS = GOAT RODEO

BLACK PANTHER: WAKANDA FOREVER = SUMMER BREAK

ANT-MAN & THE WASP: QUANTUMANIA = DUST BUNNY

SECRET INVASION = JAMBALAYA

GUARDIANS OF THE GALAXY VOL.3 = HOT CHRISTMAS

SOURCE: PRODUCTION WEEKLY

‘Blade Runner: Black Lotus’ Anime Series Taps ‘Matrix 4’s Jessica Henwick, ‘The Wolverine’s Will Yun Lee & More For Voice Cast

Alcon Entertainment and Crunchyroll had teamed together for an anime series that takes place within the cyberpunk universe of Blade Runner. The dystopian alternative future where man has created a disposable workforce with Replicants, artificial humanoids that are mainly used as slave labor, sex workers, and soldiers on the off-world colonies with a limited lifespan.

The show called Blade Runner: Black Lotus has seasoned Japanese directors Shinji Aramaki (Appleseed) and Kenji Kamiyama (Ghost in the Shell: Stand Alone Complex) working on all 13 episodes with Shinichiro Watanabe (The Animatrix, Blade Runner Black Out 2022, Cowboy Bebop) set as a creative producer.

Deadline now says the English and Japanese voice cast will consist of Jessica Henwick, Arisa Shida, Will Yun Lee, Shinshu Fuji, Samira Wiley, Takako Honda, Brian Cox, Wes Bentley, Josh Duhamel, Taiten Kusunoki, Peyton List, Yoshiko Sakakibara, Stephen Root, Hochu Otsuka, Barkhad Abdi, Takayuki Kinba, Gregg Henry, Masane Tsukayama, Henry Czerny, Akio Nojima, Jason Spisak and Kazuki Yao.

Here is a rundown of who they’ll be playing.

Henwick/Shida voice Elle, a female replicant created for a secret and unknown purpose. Lee/Fuji voice Joseph, a mysterious figure who owns a spare parts junkyard in Los Angeles. Wiley/Hona voice Alani Davis, a fresh LAPD recruit. Cox/Hashi voice Niander Wallace Sr, founder and CEO of the Wallace Corporation. Bentley/Koyasu voice Niander Wallace Jr, brilliant scientist working for his father. Duhamel/Kusunoki voice Marlowe, a deadly Blade Runner. List/Sakakibara voice Josephine Grant, the wife of the police chief. Root/Otsuka voice Earl Grant, Police Chief of the LAPD. Abdi/Kinba voice Doc Badger, a black market dealer. Henry/Tsukayama voice Senator Bannister, a politician with strong feelings on replicant production. Spisak/Yao voice Hooper, a journalist in the pocket of the Wallace Corporation.

While Blade Runner 2049 director Denis Villeneuve has teased a Blade Runner 3, there aren’t any concrete plans for a third feature film despite how well-received the last installment was.

SOURCE: DEADLINE