Posted on in Film News

‘John Wick 4’ and ‘John Wick 5’ Expected To Shoot Back-To-Back According To Lionsgate

Mr. Wick is coming back for two more movies!

Earlier in the year, John Wick creator Derek Kolstad suggested that John Wick: Chapter 5 could be the final installment of the franchise, it looks like Lionsgate is indeed moving forward with that installment much sooner than we had expected. 

On the Lionsgate earnings call yesterday (via The Hollywood Reporter), CEO Jon Feltheimer revealed their current plan is to hopefully shoot both John Wick: Chapter 4 and John Wick: Chapter 5 back-to-back. 

Hinting they could both begin production next year depending on Keanu’s schedule. 

FELTHEIMER: “We’re also busy preparing scripts for the next two installments of our John Wick action franchise, with John Wick 4 slated to hit theaters Memorial Day weekend 2022. We hope to shoot both John Wick 4 and 5 back-to-back when Keanu becomes available early next year.”

This is likely due to the delays on John Wick 4 after Keanu’s filming of Matrix 4 happened to land squarely during the pandemic and production was ultimately paused until recently where it seemingly has resumed in Germany. 

It would be expected that both director Chad Stahelski and Keanu Reeve are returning for John Wick 5. 

Pushing forward with John Wick 5 is likely more of a way to finalize the franchise and making sure they have everything tied up in a nice bow, the extra development time during the pandemic also possibly led to the fifth installment being pushed into script phases. Another reason could be to essentially shoot it as one big movie and save production costs. 

Filming on John Wick: Chapter 4 is expected to begin sometime next year once Keanu completes his work on Matrix 4 and the studio recently gave it a new release date of May 27th, 2022. 

The fourth installment is expected to see John (Reeves) and The Bowery King (Fishburne) going to war with The High Table, the mysterious group that controls their violent world of assassins. 

This would further delay Chad’s Highlander reboot as well. 

Lionsgate is also looking to expand the franchise with spinoffs including a Starz series titled The Continental and Len Wiseman’s upcoming female-led action flick Ballerina both directly set in the world of John Wick. 

SOURCE: LIONSGATE

Posted on in Features

FEATURE: ‘Captain Marvel 2′ Guaranteed To Include Teyonah Parris’ Monica Rambeau In A Significant Role

We finally got a big update on Captain Marvel 2 with the hiring of director Nia DaCosta and it might be yet another hint that Marvel Studios is preparing to give Monica Rambeau a sizable role in the upcoming sequel. 

Here is a string of reasons why actress Teyonah Parris will likely be showing up in Captain Marvel 2 as Monica. 

  • A young Monica Rambeau was introduced in Captain Marvel setting up Carol’s friendship with her mother Maria, a fellow female Air Force pilot. 
  • An adult Monica Rambeau will appear alongside S.W.O.R.D. (cosmic counterpart to S.H.I.E.L.D.) in WandaVision, played by actress Teyonah Parris. Both having an important role to play in Captain Marvel 2 wouldn’t be at all shocking. 
  • WandaVision writer Megan McDonnell is currently working on the sequel’s script and has already tackled the character.
  • Captain Marvel 2 director Nia DaCosta recently worked with Teyonah Parris on her horror film Candyman. 
  • Rambeau took on the Captain Marvel mantle before Carol Danvers in 1982. She more recently uses the hero name Spectrum, a member of the Ultimates team alongside Carol Danvers and T’Challa aka Black Panther.
  • There is a good shot that Monica could replace Nick Fury as Carol’s buddy/sidekick in the sequel as their friendship was previously established.
Posted on in Film News

‘Captain Marvel 2’ Reportedly Adds ‘Candyman’ Director Nia DaCosta

It looks like another Phase 4 film has landed a director!

Deadline is reporting that Marvel has chosen a new director for Captain Marvel 2 instead of bringing back Ryan Fleck and Anna Boden, who directed the first installment. According to the new report they’ve hired Nia DaCosta the director of Little Woods and the upcoming Candyman film for MGM Studios that is produced by Jordan Peele.

This news has yet to be confirmed by Marvel Studios or Disney.

Brie Larson is returning as Carol Danvers and it’s a little unknown when cameras will begin rolling.

Considering the current release date of the film is July 8th, 2022, starting production next spring/summer would make sense, however, it’s unknown if the backlog of projects at Marvel Studios due to COVID-19 will have an impact on that.

Feature films like Thor: Love & Thunder, Doctor Strange In The Multiverse of Madness, Spider-Man 3, and Ant-Man 3 are most likely going to shoot in 2021 alongside various new Disney+ shows. There is a small chance that stuff like Black Panther 2 and Captain Marvel 2 might see their shoots pushed to 2022 with rescheduled release dates sometime in 2023.

Details on the upcoming project are scarce but with WandaVision‘s Megan McDonnell having been tapped to write the sequel this would suggest that it could have a huge connection to S.W.O.R.D. (S.H.I.E.L.D.’s intergalactic counterpart) and an adult Monica Rambeau played by Teyonah Parris, both being introduced in the Disney+ series.

We most likely will see the return of Samuel L. Jackson’s Nick Fury, who last we saw was busy on vacation as a group of Skrulls were building a space station. That station would most likely end up being The Peak or another base of operations for S.W.O.R.D. considering that humans aren’t likely able to building something like that as quickly as Skrulls.

It remains to be seen if Ms. Marvel‘s Kamala Khan will also join the project but there is a good shot the teenager might have a role to play in Captain Marvel 2.

There have been unconfirmed internet rumors of the sequel tackling the Secret Invasion storyline from the comics. That might just be a little too ambitious given the scale of that story and the volume of heroes/actors needed to be involved for that to come together.

SOURCE: DEADLINE

Posted on in Film News

‘The Man From Nowhere’ Remake Adds ‘John Wick’ Screenwriter Derek Kolstad – Chad Stahelski To Produce

Deadline reports that John Wick trilogy director Chad Stahelski and creator Derek Kolstad have joined New Line Cinema’s upcoming English remake of the South Korean film The Man From Nowhere. Chad will produce the remake via 87Eleven Entertainment with Derek tackling the script.

The original film centered around a quiet pawnshop keeper with a violent past who takes on a drug-and-organ trafficking ring in hope of saving the child who is his only friend.

Chad is currently helping out on The Matrix 4 action sequences, is expected to direct John Wick: Chapter 4 next, is behind a spinoff series titled The Continental, and is developing a reboot of the Highlander franchise for Lionsgate.

Kolstad is a busy bee working on Marvel Studios’ upcoming Disney+ series The Falcon & The Winter Soldier, a feature film adaptation of the video game Just Cause, and recently was tapped by Netflix to tackle two seasons of an animated series based on the video game franchise Splinter Cell.

It’ll be interesting who they end up casting in the lead role and how different this version will be from the original.

This isn’t the first or last American remake of popular Asian-made films. A Parasite series is in the works at HBO and Martin Scorsese’s The Departed is an Americanized take on Infernal Affairs.

SOURCE: DEADLINE

Posted on in Film News

Fresh Concept Artwork From ‘Avatar’ Sequels – New RDA Aquatic Vehicle Called The Crabsuit Revealed

The official Avatar Twitter account has dropped two new pieces of concept artwork from the upcoming films, this time highlighting a brand new RDA submersible vehicle called The Crabsuit. 

The Crabsuit: A human driven multifunction submersible. One of the many new RDA vehicles that will be seen in the Avatar sequels. 

It seems like they’ve sort of used the cockpit from the C-21 Dragon Assault Ship from the first movie. The Sea Dragon was another vehicle previously revealed through set photos. 

James Cameron and the team recently resumed the live-action portion of filming at Stone Street Studios in Wellington, New Zealand. 

However, it was officially announced that the release date would be getting pushed back an entire year because of the production delays due to the COVID-19 pandemic. 

Here are those new release dates. 

  • AVATAR 2 – 12/16/22 
  • AVATAR 3 – 12/20/24 
  • AVATAR 4 – 12/18/26 
  • AVATAR 5 – 12/22/28

SOURCE: DISNEY/20TH CENTURY STUDIOS

Posted on in Film News

Seth Rogen Suggests Making Teenage Films Like ‘Superbad’ Prepared Him To Tackle ‘Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles’

Actor Seth Rogen has been making the promotional rounds for his upcoming HBO Max film An American Pickle while speaking with Collider they brought-up his new CGI animated Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles film that he is producing with his production company Point Grey Productions alongside partner Evan Goldberg. 

The reboot will be directed by Jeff Rowe (Gravity Falls, Disenchantment) with Brendan O’Brien (Neighbors) writing it. 

Seth revealed to Collider that he’s not only a fan of the property but believes that his experience making teenage movies would allow him to tap into what makes the Turtles awesome, their teenager aspect. 

ROGEN: “As a lifelong fan of Ninja Turtles, weirdly the ‘Teenage’ part of Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles was always the part that stuck out to me the most. And as someone who loves teenage movies, and who’s made a lot of teenage movies, and who literally got their start in their entire profession by writing a teenage movie, the idea of kind of honing in on that element was really exciting to us. I mean, not disregarding the rest, but really using that as kind of a jumping-off point for the film.”

It’ll be interesting to see how “drastic” this reboot actually will be and if they’ll attempt to bring back the spirit of the original 1980s cartoon or taking more of a modern spin on the Turtles. 

SOURCE: COLLIDER

Posted on in Television News

Guillermo del Toro’s ‘Mimic’ Getting The Series Treatment With ‘Resident Evil’s Paul WS Anderson Directing The Pilot

Deadline is reporting that Guillermo del Toro’s 1997 creature horror flick Mimic will be adapted into a new television series from Miramax TV with Resident Evil and Event Horizon director Paul WS Anderson tackling the show’s pilot episode. 

Jim Danger Gray will write and showrun Mimic with previous credits that include Hannibal, American Gods, and Orange Is The New Black. 

The horror film was based on a short story from author Donald A. Wollheim with a script from Matthew Robbins and Guillermo.

MIMIC – When a cockroach-spread plague threatens to decimate the child population of New York City, evolutionary biologist Susan Tyler (Mira Sorvino) and her research associates rig up a species of “Judas” bugs and introduce them into the environment, where they will mimic the diseased roaches and infiltrate their grubby habitats. So far so good … until the bugs keep on evolving and learn to mimic their next prey — humans.

The original film’s cast included Mira Sorvino, Josh Brolin, Jeremy Northam, Charles S. Dutton, Norman Reedus, Giancarlo Giannini, and F. Murray Abraham. It would end up getting two direct-to-video sequels. 

Sadly, Guillermo del Toro won’t be involved in the new series. 

I thought the original Resident Evil movie was fine and Paul’s work on Event Horizon might be the highlight of his career, hopefully, there is a bit more care put into this new horror series than the Resident Evil sequels that got increasingly worse. 

I would recommend giving Event Horizon a shot.

SOURCE: DEADLINE

Posted on in Film News

Vinnie Jones Explains That Juggernaut In ‘X-Men: The Last Stand’ Was Drastically Altered From The Original Version He Agreed To Play

2020 marks the 20th anniversary of the original X-Men movie and while that film is regarded as one of the best early examples of the comic book genre, it’s third installment X-Men: The Last Stand is considered one of the biggest stinkers in the franchise. While most remember that Rush Hour director Brett Ratner was hired to get the film past the finish line and released on time, Matthew Vaughn had been previously attached to direct and was deep in the casting process before he ultimately jumped ship. 

One of the key roles Vaughn filled before the exit was his pal Vinnie Jones in the Cain Marko aka Juggernaut, the pair had previously worked together on Lock, Stock & Two Smoking Barrels and Snatch. 

Jones spoke with Comic Book revealing his massive disappointment throughout the production and how multiple promises were broken concerning his character along with being drastically cut-back from the original version he signed-up for. 

Mentioning that he had committed to three films. 

JONES: “I loved the role, but hopefully you can put it fucking right here, mate. I basically got mugged off. Matthew Vaughn signed me up, and it was a great role and a great script, and Juggernaut was a great character. I signed up for three of them, and that will show you how serious I was about it. Brett Ratner basically dissolved the character. I was in my fucking trailer half the time. It’s one of the most disappointing jobs I’ve been on as far as, you know, ‘What am I doing here?'”

“It wasn’t the same Juggernaut as I signed on for. They took his storyline away, they’d taken his character away, his dialogue. I had two big meetings with Brett about it, and he said, ‘Yeah, yeah, it’s coming. They’re writing stuff for you as we speak’ and it never fucking happened. Disappointment wise, that was probably one of the biggest. What’s upsetting is some of the fans blame me! It was fucking nothing to do with me! That role, I didn’t sign up for. The Juggernaut you saw was not the Juggernaut I signed on for with Matthew Vaughn, I’ll tell you that now. It upset me.”

Vinnie and Matthew would eventually reunite for Kingsman: The Golden Circle. 

Juggernaut would get a second shot on the big screen in Deadpool 2 as a CGI character. It remains to be seen if we’ll see the hulking character return in the Marvel Cinematic Universe given his crassness in the Deadpool universe. The characters are now at Marvel Studios/Disney allowing them to get a hard-reboot outside of Ryan Reynolds’ Wade Wilson. 

Vaughn would also circle back to X-Men eventually with X-Men: First Class giving 20th Century Fox the blueprint for their string of prequel films. He’s voiced a desire to get involved with Marvel’s Fantastic Four reboot but nothing has been made official as he’s busy overseeing the Kingsman franchise for 20th Century Studios. 

SOURCE: COMIC BOOK

Posted on in Film News

Matthew Vaughn Considers Directing ‘Kingman 3’ Himself Over Someone Else and Says ‘The King’s Man’ Plants Seeds For Third Movie

In a new interview with Empire, co-writer/director Matthew Vaughn suggests he is now considering directing Kingsman 3 himself. There had been chatter a while back that they were courting Scottish director Jon S. Baird (Filth) before these new comments from Vaughn that he might end up tackling it. 

After initially planning to hand the third Harry Hart-Eggsy adventure off to another director, Vaughn is now considering helming that next instalment himself. 

VAUGHN: “I actually don’t know what I want to do,” he says. “There is an opportunity for a director to really change it up, but I’m considering it.”

Matthew reveals what we’ve all assumed that The King’s Man will help set up Kingsman 3. 

VAUGHN: “We’ve put seeds for what’s going to happen in Kingsman 3 all the way back into this,” confirms Vaughn. “And it’s going to be very different.”

At one point, we theorized that the villainous Shepherd in The King’s Man could be related to Eggsy and lead to himself learning about a very despicable family tree. 

Vaughn also confirms that he had to cut 40 minutes from The King’s Man and teases a director’s cut with the extra footage that could come together in the future with an extended cut. 

However, Matthew’s tidbit about directing Kingsman 3 doesn’t sound like it has been cemented and Baird could very well end up still doing it. His work on the James McAvoy film Filth would suggest he could be an excellent successor. 

Colin Firth and Targon Egerton are attached to reprise their roles for the third untitled film.

20th Century Studios and Disney still has The King’s Man set to release on September 18th but things could change due to the pandemic. 

THE KING’S MAN – As a collection of history’s worst tyrants and criminal masterminds gather to plot a war to wipe out millions, one man must race against time to stop them. Discover the origins of the very first independent intelligence agency in The King’s Man.

SOURCE: EMPIRE

Posted on in Film News

Bradley Cooper Reportedly In Talks To Join Paul Thomas Anderson’s 1970s High School Drama

Paul Thomas Anderson is finally moving forward with his follow up to Oscar-winning drama Phantom Thread and The Hollywood Reporter has word that Bradley Cooper is in talks to take a unknown role in the untitled drama that has landed at MGM Studios. 

Cooper is expected to resume filming on Guillermo del Toro’s Nightmare Alley this fall in Toronto, so I wouldn’t hold my breath about their tidbit about it starting to begin shooting this fall in Los Angeles. That is unless Cooper’s role is extremely small.

The 1970s project will be set in the San Fernando Valley, the setting of Paul’s previous films Boogie Nights and Magnolia. It will focus on a child actor going to high school in the Valley. 

I’m sure we’ll be hearing more casting additions in the following weeks. 

SOURCE: THE HOLLYWOOD REPORTER