It was recently revealed by Aussie actor Hugo Weaving that he was keen on returning to the Agent Smith role for Lana Wachowski’s Matrix 4, but the director ultimately decided against it.
However, when it comes to being asked to reprise the role of Elrond in future Middle-Earth projects such as Amazon’s Lord of The Rings series set in during the Second Age, he has no interest according to comments made to Variety.
WEAVING: “Matrix might have happened. But Lord of the Rings, no, I would never — I’m not interested in that at all. Look, I loved being in New Zealand with all those great people, and it was like going back to a family but actually, to be honest, I think everyone had more than enough of it.”
“They have to be something really interesting, with a different twist to make me really keen to do it.”
“I’m not saying ‘no’ [to those kinds of tentpole films] because I’m sort of open to anything,” he says. “But I suppose my interests have always lay with this country and trying to find really interesting projects out here. That’s my primary focus.”
His experience working on the Hobbit films and their outcome might have something to do with his stance.
There had been some unconfirmed fan rumblings of his character returning for the Amazon series, but Hugo won’t be involved.
Yesterday, it was announced by Amazon via Deadline that they’ve officially cast Alan Ritchson (Titans, Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles) as the new Jack Reacher for their Prime Video series, which will be a reboot of the Lee Childs hard-boiled character. Reacher is known to be a hulking figure at 6’5 (Ritchson is 6’4), so the casting seems to be great on paper, we’ll have to see if Amazon will have another Jack Ryan level hit on their hands.
Its first season is said to be based on the novel The Killing Floor and will take place in Georgia.
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.
The character had been previously played by action star Tom Cruise in Christopher McQuarrie’s Jack Reacher and the box office blunder Jack Reacher: Never Go Back. A casting choice that seemed to irk author Lee Childs in retrospect.
I’m sure folks are going to be curious if a Jack Ryan and Jack Reacher crossover event could be in the cards given they’re both Paramount/Skydance characters with their own Amazon shows.
Amazon has a bevy of shows based on novels on the way including Lord of The Rings and The Wheel of Time about to resume production after production pauses. They also announced plans in 2018 to make a series reboot of Robert E. Howard’s Conan The Barbarian, the film incarnation starred Arnold Schwarzenegger and is credited to launching his successful Hollywood career.
Variety reports that Phil Lord and Chris Miller are set to executive produce alongside Amy Pascal on a live-action series based on the Marvel Comics character Cindy Moon aka Silk, a character that is expected to be explored in future Spider-Verse films.
Adding that Lauren Moon may end up writing Silk and Amazon is in talks with Sony to acquire the Marvel series.
Cindy is a Korean-American superhero and would be a huge boost to the growing amount of diverse superheroes coming from the pages of Marvel Comics including Gemma Chan’s Sersi in Eternals and Simu Liu playing the martial arts spy Shang-Chi.
Having Lord and Miller involved could suggest they might eventually direct something live-action down the road.
Silk would be the first live-action Marvel series for Sony featuring characters from their Spider-Man rights roster. A feature film had once been reported but that seemingly hasn’t gone further than the early development stage if they’ve pivoted to a series instead.
Alex Garland’s Dredd is considered a modern cult-hit as the film has done exceptionally well on home video and streaming despite it being a bit of a finical flop when released in theaters back in 2012. The mature comic book film was a reboot of the 2000 AD character Judge Dredd previously portrayed by action-star Sly Stallone.
There had been a grassroots campaign to get a Dredd sequel off-the-ground which never really amounted to anything outside of both actors Karl Urban (Judge Dredd) and Olivia Thirlby (Judge Anderson) suggesting they’d be willing to reprise the role if a sequel was ever put together.
Producers pointed out the original film’s sprawling international global distribution combined with the poor box office as a major roadblock to a theatrical sequel ever coming together which led to Rebellion to announce plans for a series titled Mega-City One, taking place in the world of Judge Dredd but not exactly focusing on the character himself.
Karl Urban is currently doing press rounds for the upcoming second season of Amazon Prime Video’s The Boys and reaffirmed to Screen Geek his desire to reprise the Dredd role in that Mega-City One series from Rebellion CEO Jason Kingsley, that’s if they want his services.
URBAN: “Well, listen, it’s very, very early to get into any specifics on that, but I’ve gone on the record before saying that I would love to come back and be a part of that world and tell more Dredd stories. There is just a plethora of great, great stories within the Judge Dredd universe. I think that Jason [Kingsley] and his team – I think that the legacy of Judge Dredd is in great hands. And if I get the opportunity to work with those guys, you can bet your bottom dollar I will be there – because I think that it would be just a real rich and rewarding experience for, not only for us to collaborate, but for the fans. So, if that happens, that’d be fantastic and for whatever reason – and there are many – if it doesn’t happen, then I wish them the best, and I can’t wait to see what they do.”
Outside of some pieces of concept artwork, a pilot script being written Rob Williams and Rebellion building their own studio facility Rebellion Film Studios in Oxford, England for film and television, there haven’t been any substantial updates concerning the series.
That's a wrap on 'Percival' – the first ever production in the UK to be shot *entirely* using cutting-edge ‘virtual production’ technology! Incredible work by everyone at Rebellion Film Studios this week – just look at @RebellionJason *in* the thick of the action! pic.twitter.com/pHS8JYtdh1
Urban seemingly will have a bit of a break and then jump into filming Season 3 of The Boys next year in Toronto.
DREDD – Mega City One is a vast, violent metropolis where felons rule the streets. The only law lies with cops called “judges,” who act as judge, jury and executioner, and Dredd (Karl Urban) is one of the city’s most feared. One day, Dredd is partnered with Cassandra (Olivia Thirlby), a rookie with powerful psychic abilities. A report of a terrible crime sends Dredd and Cassandra to a dangerous area controlled by Ma-Ma (Lena Headey), a drug lord who will stop at nothing to protect her empire.
Yesterday, some really bad Star Wars rumors were making the rounds from the most unreliable source, YouTube streamer Grace Randolph. She was suggesting that because a trailer for The Mandalorian Season 2 didn’t magically appear during the NBA playoffs that there were extensive Season 2 reshoots ahead and most likely delays.
Stating that Disney was unhappy with the upcoming season.
However, it looks like she was again exposed as a huckster peddling in false information as Disney officially announced today on the show’s Twitter account that episodes will begin airing on October 30th on Disney+. This news should comfort those that were silly enough to fall for those attention seeking lies.
They also includes a new logo for the second season.
Lucasfilm is hard at work on Season 3 prep with writing scripts and pre-production stages as the pandemic has shuffled the schedule a little. The Ronin revealed last week that Jon Favreau is expected to direct at least one episode and that Emmy-nominated production designer Andrew L. Jones is confirmed to be returning.
Once the promotion for Mulan’s Premier Access on Disney+ is over there is a strong expectation that Disney will release a trailer and marketing wave for The Mandalorian.
Arnold Schwarzenegger is finally making his television debut!
Deadline reports that Arnold Schwarzenegger and Skydance Television are teaming for an original father-daughter spy adventure series from Scorpion creator Nick Santora.
They also mention that the project will be out to streamers soon but I think it’s obvious we’ll they’ll be taking it.
I would bet heavily that the series would end up landing on Amazon Prime Video or Netflix, given that Skydance has an existing relationship with Amazon for their Jack Ryan and Jack Reacher shows and multiple high-budgeted Skydance Media films have landed at Netflix.
I’m leaning towards Amazon as Santora is the showrunner and executive producer of their upcoming Jack Reacher series.
Arnold has previously worked with Skydance on the two soft-reboots of the Terminator franchise with Terminator: Genisys and Terminator: Dark Fate, both had trouble earning money at the box office.
You might remember that producer/director McG (Lethal Weapon, Terminator: Salvation, Charlie’s Angels) teased to Collider a while back he was developing a series based on James Cameron’s True Lies series, pitching with the aim for it to land at Disney+ that may have seen Arnold and Jamie Lee Curtis potentially reprising their roles.
This news might confirm that True Lies won’t be happening.
Schwarzenegger had been trying for years to get a direct sequel to Conan The Barbarian titled The Legend of King Conan, but hasn’t had much luck getting to the production stage as Universal Pictures has seemingly dropped those plans.
In 2018, it was reported by Deadline that a Conan The Barbarian series was in the works at Amazon. I’m curious if this spy series lands at Amazon that it would help establish a relationship that leads to Arnold reprising the Conan role. Amazon also is currently in production on shows set in the fantasy worlds of Lord of The Rings and The Wheel of Time.
Today, it was officially confirmed that Netflix will indeed be making a live-action series based on the Capcom horror video game franchise. They’ve hired Andrew Dabb (Supernatural) to showrun, executive produce, and write the series with executive producer Bronwen Hughes (The Walking Dead) set to direct the first two episodes.
The series will also get eight hourlong episodes.
Here is the official press release from Netflix that includes a synopsis for the new show that will focus on Jade Wesker, one of the daughters of franchise antagonist Albert Wesker.
Building on one of the most popular, best-selling survival horror video games of all time, Resident Evil will tell a brand new story across two timelines:
In the first timeline, fourteen-year-old sisters Jade and Billie Wesker are moved to New Raccoon City. A manufactured, corporate town, forced on them right as adolescence is in full swing. But the more time they spend there, the more they come to realize that the town is more than it seems and their father may be concealing dark secrets. Secrets that could destroy the world.
Cut to the second timeline, well over a decade into the future: there are less than fifteen million people left on Earth. And more than six billion monsters — people and animals infected with the T-virus. Jade, now thirty, struggles to survive in this New World, while the secrets from her past – about her sister, her father and herself – continue to haunt her.
A feature film is also in the works that will reboot the Mila Jovocih movies with traditional characters stepping up.
HBO has had some moderate success with its modern series adaptation of the Michael Crichton film Westworld as the series moves into the fourth season (expected to have six seasons).
Variety has learned that HBO will develop a series based on Crichton’s novel Sphere with Westworld’s Denise Thé set to write, showrun, and produce the new sci-fi show.
The novel was adapted into a feature film directed by Barry Levinson (Wag The Dog, Toys, Rain Man, Sleepers) film that was released in 1998 starring Dustin Hoffman, Samuel L. Jackson, Sharon Stone, Liev Schriber, Queen Latifah, and Peter Coyote.
SPHERE – When psychologist Norman Goodman (Dustin Hoffman) wrote a report for the government on how to deal with extraterrestrial life forces, he didn’t expect his recommendations to be used. Now that a secret government agency is investigating what may be an alien spaceship that has been discovered partially buried on the floor of the Pacific Ocean, Norman finds that the plan he outlined is being put into effect and that the team he named in his report has been assembled.
I’ll be honest, it wasn’t the most impactful sci-fi film as movies like The Abyss and Event Horizon had previously tread similar ground. It was pretty much one of those films from the 1990s you would just forget was made. I revisited the film recently and the CGI effects didn’t age well, weren’t great for the era either.
Dustin Hoffman had led the studio’s box office hit Outbreak in 1995, which is likely behind the thinking of Warner Bros. to cast him as the film’s lead. A huge miscasting.
Sphere would end up becoming a big flop for Warner Bros. as it barely earned it’s budget back and wasn’t able to turn a profit. It doesn’t hurt that the twist and ending were more than just a little anticlimactic when it’s revealed the ship isn’t alien, but actually from the future and built by humans.
Certainly, a property that could be improved upon with a new series exploration.
The Ronin has learned The Mandalorian Season 3 is already gathering up crew members and can confirm we will see the return of production designer Andrew L. Jones, who worked on the previous two seasons of the hit live-action Star Wars series airing on Disney+.
Jones recently earned a Primetime Emmy nomination for Outstanding Production Design for a Narrative Program (Half-Hour) for his work on the first season of The Mandalorian.
Jon Favreau is already confirmed to be writing and producing the next season as well.
We are hearing Jon is expected to direct at least one episode in the third season, but haven’t been able to confirm that aspect.
Season 2 is still set to begin airing on Disney+ sometime in October according to Disney and an official trailer is likely around the corner.
Production on Season 3 seems to have been delayed due to the pandemic but there is plenty of prep going on.
Back in July, it was announced HBO Max would be developing a series spinoff of Matt Reeves’ The Batman focusing on the Gotham City Police Department with writer and executive producer Terence Winter on board. Winter’s credits include The Sopranos, Wolf of Wall Street, and Boardwalk Empire.
Here is that official press release.
HBO Max announced today that it has given a series commitment to an original DC drama set in the Gotham City police department from The Batman filmmaker Matt Reeves, Boardwalk Empire creator Terence Winter, The Batman producer Dylan Clark, and Warner Bros. Television. The groundbreaking television series to be written by Winter is set in the world Reeves is creating for The Batman feature film and will build upon the motion picture’s examination of the anatomy of corruption in Gotham City, ultimately launching a new Batman universe across multiple platforms. The series provides an unprecedented opportunity to extend the world established in the movie and further explore the myriad of compelling and complex characters of Gotham. This marks the first television project for Reeves under his recently announced overall deal with the Warner Bros. Television Group.
Matt revealed a small detail about the series during DC FanDome yesterday stating the show takes place during Batman’s first year as the film is set in his second year.
REEVES: “The idea of this story was a story in which Gotham, which has this depth of corruption, and the idea that we could do a series that is going deeper into an aspect of it, which in this case is the corrupt police department, the corrupt inner workings of the city. And the way we’re gonna do this series. Terence Winter is just an incredible writer, so the idea that we got him to do this, just is literally a dream. The idea is, we go back to year one, and year one is the beginning of the first emergence, the first appearance of this masked vigilante that starts to unsettle the city, and you start to see the story through the POV of these corrupt cops, and one in particular. And the story is actually a battle for his soul.”
“He’s a cop over generations and the history of corruption in Gotham is enormous and goes back many years, and the story is like, as you realize that there’s this myth-building in the background, you’re actually in a new place where you’ve never seen these characters before – some of them we’ll touch on that you may have seen in the comics, but others are totally new. Then you can go down an avenue and go into detail that you couldn’t do in a movie, and to go into these rich places and meet entirely new characters that Terence is going to create.”
This means there is a strong chance that cast members such as Jeffrey Wright (Jim Gordon) and newly announced addition Barry Keoghan (Officer Stanley Merkel) could have reoccurring roles in the HBO Max show.
Teaser footage from The Batman establishes a much more grounded take on the caped crusader that explains why someone like Winter would get involved with a show set within a comic book universe. Reeves also talked about how much corruption is in Gotham City that will be explored in The Batman taking cues from the 1970s thriller Chinatown.
THE RONIN 