After yesterday’s report from the DisInsider that Tron 3 starring Oscar-winner Jared Leto (Morbius, Suicide Squad) is potentially getting a second wind at Disney. The report was supported today by The Playlist, who cite their own sources on the matter that Disney is indeed keen on pushing forward with a third film and has been shopping it around to various directors.
The Playlist also cites a June episode of a podcast called Light The Fuse that spoke with Disney’s Mitchell Lieb (President of Music & Soundtracks) revealing that that producers have already approached Daft Punk about returning to score the film and they indeed have a script ready to go.
LIEB: “We’re looking at making a Tron 3. We’ve got a great script. A really phenomenal script that we’re very excited about. Whereas the timing wasn’t right to do it years ago, I think we feel the timing is right, now. We learned a lot of lessons from [Tron: Legacy].“
“The right and first thing to do is to bring Daft Punk back and see if they want to [return]…We don’t even know who will be directing yet. We’re hopeful that Joe Kosinski will come back and do another one…A lot of things gotta fall into the right places…”
Their soundtrack on Tron: Legacy was pretty much the highlight of the marketing campaign and the film itself.
What seems to be up to debate at the moment is if the film will be a direct sequel, hard-reboot, or soft-reboot/continuation of the existing mythology established in the first two films. While fans would obviously like to see the studio continue Joseph Kosinski’s vision, it’s unlikely.
TRON: LEGACY – Sam (Garrett Hedlund), the son of famous video-game developer Kevin Flynn (Jeff Bridges), has been haunted for a long time by his father’s mysterious disappearance. A strange signal draws Sam to Flynn’s Arcade, and he is pulled into the same cyberworld in which his father, its creator, has been trapped for 20 years. With fearless warrior Quorra (Olivia Wilde), Kevin and Sam seek to escape from a universe that, while magnificent, is far more advanced and dangerous than Kevin had ever imagined.
The Ronin has uncovered a bunch of previously unseen concept artwork from the unmade Fantastic Voyage that was in development by Lightstorm Entertainment and 20th Century Fox. The project was a futuristic remake of the 1966 film based on the novel by science-fiction author Isaac Asimov (Foundation).
Fantastic Voyage (1966)
FANTASTIC VOYAGE – The brilliant scientist Jan Benes (Jean Del Val) develops a way to shrink humans, and other objects, for brief periods of time. Benes, who is working in communist Russia, is transported by the CIA to America, but is attacked en route. In order to save the scientist, who has developed a blood clot in his brain, a team of Americans in a nuclear submarine is shrunk and injected into Benes’ body. They have a finite period of time to fix the clot and get out before the miniaturization wears off.
Directors such as James Cameron (Aliens, Terminator 2: Judgement Day, Avatar), Roland Emmerich (Stargate, Universal Soldier, Independence Day), Paul Greengrass (Bourne Identity), and Shawn Levy (Free Guy, Real Steel, Stranger Things) had once been in the mix at different points of development. Cameron and Jon Landau would end up producing the film via Lightstorm Entertainment.
In 2010, screenwriter Laeta Kalogridis (Avatar, Alita: Battle Angel, Ghost In The Shell, Altered Carbon) was hired to do rewrites after director Roland Emmerich trashed the previous script in interviews.
In 2016, it was announced that Guillermo del Toro would be attached to direct with a script from Terminator: Dark Fate screenwriters David S. Goyer (Batman Begins, Blade, Blade II, Green Lantern Corps) and Justin Rhodes (RoboCop Returns, Green Lantern Corps) before he pivoted to passion projects like The Shape of Water and his current film Nightmare Alley.
There had been plans on shooting Guillermo’s version in Toronto, Ontario, Canada when had been assembling his production team development/pre-production stages.
While speaking with Screen Rant in the fall of 2017, del Toro suggested he was still keen on the project before moving on to Nightmare Alley.
DEL TORO: “That was on the calendar already. I announced the year in September, and if everything goes well and it happens, it would happen next September. We’d start prepping again. We had already delayed it. It is a very difficult movie, technically, and I needed to figure out a bunch of stuff. We’ve been doing R&D and we’ve been building stuff. I never know whether they’re going to happen or not. I’ve learned that, in 25 years. But, we’re still working on it.”
It remains to be seen if he’ll return to Fantastic Voyage in the future.
A batch of artwork from Shawn Levy’s incarnation (before Guillermo got involved) posted by production designer Tom Meyer (Real Steel, Spectral, BIOS) in a concept reel we spotted for the project features a bunch of concept artwork for the futuristic setting, animations, and storyboard animatics. Some plot details are also revealed in the video.
“Scaling” is the process of nano-sizing bio-technology hardware mechanisms. All illness has been eradicated through a vaccine of networked nano-implants. Hacking of the implant network is now our body’s primary threat.
Killing a pilot by hacking his implants with a “smart virus”, terrorists crash a jet into Washington D.C.’s icy Potomac.
One piece of artwork suggests that X-Men franchise actor Hugh Jackman was indeed wanted for a lead role as his likeness was used for one of the characters. It wouldn’t have been surprising given Shawn having worked with Hugh on Real Steel.
Deadline first connected him to the project back in 2011 and this artwork would support that reporting.
Here are the rest of images we captured from Tom’s concept reel.
Scaling Operating RoomPatient “0”New Langley, N.S.A. – Implant Tracking CenterIs that William Fichtner on the right?Main Ship Called Proteus During Scaling Ignition
Below is the reel posted by the film’s production designer Tom Meyer.
After Disney/21st Century Fox merger a handful of high-profile and expensive film projects were killed including Wes Ball’s Mouse Guard. There is a good chance that Disney might have squashed Fantastic Voyage as well.
The Ronin has been able to independently confirm that Disney’s upcoming Peter Pan film from director David Lowery titled Peter & Wendy has added veteran cinematographer Bojan Bazelli as the film’s director of photography.
David and Bojan previously worked together on Pete’s Dragon.
Bazelli’s other credits include The Ring, Mr. & Mrs. Smith, The Lone Ranger, Spectral, Michael Bay’s 6 Underground, and had recently wrapped on Paramount’s G.I. Joe spinoff Snake Eyes.
Filming on Peter & Wendy (working title Bonfire) was originally expected to take place between June and October in Vancouver, but after the delays from COVID-19 it is unlikely to begin before the fall.
Variety reported in March that Ever Anderson is set to play Wendy and Alexander Molony playing the iconic Peter Pan. At the time, they were convinced that the film was still heading to theaters and not Disney+.
There is also an expectation that The Green Knight and Pete’s Dragon production designer Jade Healy is working on the film as well, but I’ve been unable to confirm it.
Director David Lowery’s latest film is the Arthurian tale The Green Knight which has had it’s released delayed after theaters closed due to the pandemic.
According to Deadline, Oscar-winner Brad Pitt will be reuniting with Deadpool 2 director David Leitch on Sony’s upcoming action flick Bullet Train taking a lead role.
There are finally some details revealed about the film as well.
Bullet Train is based on the Japanese novel Maria Beetle by Kotaro Isaka and was penned by screenwriter Zak Olkewicz.
In the novel, five assassins find themselves on a fast moving bullet train from Tokyo to Morioka with only a few stops in between. They discover their missions are not unrelated to each other. The question becomes who will make it off the train alive and what awaits them at the terminal station?
Leitch is best-known as co-directing the first John Wick film then moving on to his solo directing career on projects such Atomic Blonde, Hobbs & Shaw, and the previously mentioned Deadpool sequel where Pitt cameos as the Vanisher.
There had been some expectations that production could begin before the end of the year.
During an in-depth interview with The Hollywood Reporter to promote her upcoming comic book film The Old Guard, Oscar-winning actress Charlize Theron gave her genuine reaction to George Miller looking to recast the Furiosa role for the upcoming prequel to Mad Max: Fury Road.
THERON: “It’s a tough one to swallow. Listen, I fully respect George, if not more so in the aftermath of making Fury Road with him. He’s a master, and I wish him nothing but the best. Yeah, it’s a little heartbreaking, for sure. I really love that character, and I’m so grateful that I had a small part in creating her. She will forever be someone I think of and reflect on fondly. Obviously, I would love to see that story continue, and if he feels like he has to go about it this way, then I trust him in that manner. We get so hung up on the smaller details that we forget the thing that we emotionally tap into has nothing to do with that minute thing that we’re focusing on.”
Just because that George Miller is making a prequel to Fury Road, it doesn’t mean that Charlize won’t be asked to reprise the role in the future for a direct sequel.
Theron also states that the Atomic Blonde sequel is still in only development stages, despite a previous report it was a done-deal that was later debunked.
THERON: “Yes, we’re in the development stages right now, and that’s the one thing that lockdown has been good for — being able to develop with writers over Zoom. So, we’re actively developing [an Atomic Blonde sequel] right now.”
Development could mean a lot of things, as we know that director/producer David Leitch is busy lately signing up to direct multiple studio productions for the foreseeable future including the Japanese-set action flick Bullet Train for Sony Pictures.
Deadline reports that an impressive cast has been hired for an upcoming IRA thriller titled Borderland. The group of young talent assembled includes John Boyega (Detroit, Star Wars: The Force Awakens), Jack Reynor (Free Fire, Midsommar), Felicity Jones (Theory of Everything, Rogue One: A Star Wars Story), and Jodie Turner-Smith (Without Remorse, Nightflyers).
Borderland will explore the violent tensions between the unwelcomed British military presence and the IRA in Northern Ireland.
The film will follow an Irish paramilitary, Michael (Reynor), who witnesses the shooting of his pregnant wife at the hands of an SAS sergeant named Tempest (Boyega) when a border ambush goes wrong. When Tempest is sent back to London to lead a covert counter-terrorist operation, Michael joins a ruthless active service unit (ASU) wreaking havoc in the capital. For Michael, the mission is personal – to hunt down Tempest – and he’ll stop at nothing to avenge his wife’s death.
It will be directed by The Guard Brothers and the pair of siblings co-wrote the script with Ronan Bennett.
Filming is said to begin on location in the United Kingdom starting sometime in early 2021.
‘Black Widow’ Director Cate Shortland Says They’re Passing Baton To Florence Pugh’s Yelena Belova
Black Widow director Cate Shortland tells Empire in a newly published interview that instead of making the solo film an origin story for Scarlett’s Natasha Romanoff, they see is as passing the baton to Florence Pugh’s Yelena Belova.
SHORTLAND: “[Kevin Feige] realized that the audience would expect an origin story so, of course, we went in the opposite direction,” Shortland tells Empire. “And we didn’t know how great Florence Pugh would be. We knew she would be great, but we didn’t know how great. Scarlett is so gracious, like, ‘Oh, I’m handing her the baton.’ So it’s going to propel another female storyline.”
“In Endgame, the fans were upset that Natasha did not have a funeral. Whereas Scarlett, when I spoke to her about it, said Natasha wouldn’t have wanted a funeral. She’s too private, and anyway, people don’t really know who she is. So what we did in this film was allow the ending to be the grief the individuals felt, rather than a big public outpouring. I think that’s a fitting ending for her.”
The film has been expected to be released on November 6th, after Disney gave the film Eternal‘s original spot in the spring. However, it’s unknown if the film will get pushed to February 12th given the rise in new cases of COVID-19 in the United States which could be a problem for the studio attempting to earn hundreds of millions of dollars at the global box office.
Also, a new trailer is expected to be on the way after it was classified in the United Kingdom.
‘Thor: Love & Thunder’ Actress Tessa Thompson Expects An Explosion of Diversity In Marvel’s Phase Four
In a recent interview for Variety, Thor franchise actress Tessa Thompson talked-up how Marvel’s Phase Four will be ramping-up representation in a big way.
THOMPSON: “I think in this next phase of Marvel, we’re really talking about what representation looks like in those spaces. Because the truth is these movies travel globally in such huge ways, and if you can represent people that are of color, if you can represent people with disabilities, if you can represent the LGBTQIA community inside of these films, it’s a pretty big deal.”
“There’s millions and millions of people, particularly young people, that show up to the cinema. And I think if you can show them something that looks like them, they feel valued. Particularly inside of these narratives of the comic books, that’s what it’s all about. It’s that our differences make us special.”
We know they’ll be making some strides soon with having Asian main leads in Eternals with Gemma Chan playing leading heroine Sersi and Shang-Chi with Simu Liu and Awkwafina.
Pakistani-American comedian/actor Kumail Nanjiani has a decently sized role in Eternals playing superhero Kingo and deaf actress Lauren Ridloff plays speedster Makkari in the film. We’ll also see openly gay parents played by Brian Tyree Henry (Phastos) and Haaz Sleiman.
One of their upcoming Disney+ series Ms. Marvel will feature a Pakistani-American Muslim teenager from New Jersey named Kamala Khan.
Oscar-winner Mahershala Ali was announced as the new actor to play a rebooted version of Blade in the MCU last summer and it remains to be seen if his version of the Daywalker in the Phase Five project will reflect his own Muslim faith.
Tessa’s own Valkyrie will be seeking her queen in Thor: Love & Thunder. Hopefully, Disney/Marvel will be more comfortable in the future to actually have non-hetero heroes leading their films, not just in supporting roles.
We’ll have to see what other doors they’ll be opening for characters/actors in the future, but as pointed out recently by Anthony Mackie the studio needs to do a better job of hiring a diverse group of people behind the camera as well.
‘Doctor Strange 2’ Actor Chiwetel Ejiofor Excited To Work With Director Sam Raimi
While promoting his new Netflix film The Old Guard, actor Chiwetel Ejiofor expressed his excitement to work with director Sam Raimi on the upcoming Doctor Strange sequel titled Doctor Strange In The Multiverse of Madness.
Chiwetel will be reprising his role as villain Baron Karl Mordo.
Raimi, who directed the original Spider-Man trilogy for Sony Pictures had replaced Scott Derrickson on the Doctor Strange sequel after there were “creative differences”
EJIOFOR: “I love Sam Raimi, so I’m very excited that he’s making a film, the second Doctor Strange. He brings to anything he does, a wealth of imagination and passion. In this genre, he’s just one of the seminal figures. I remember seeing Darkman when I was a kid. It was beyond, it’s so amazing.”
“So I think he has an incredible mind and I think he’s really able to bring that mind into his storytelling in a really unique way, and it’s very suited to the world that’s been created by Doctor Strange, and I’m very excited to see what he does with that world.”
The cast also includes Benedict Cumberbatch as Strange, Elizabeth Olsen taking a co-starring role as Scarlet Witch, and we’ll also see the return of Benedict Wong as Wong.
There is an expectation that both Disney+ series Loki and WandaVision will help establish the events of the sequel along with introducing the Multiverse.
Filming had been originally expected to begin in the spring/summer at Longcross Studios in Surrey, England along with exterior locations in Norway and New York City.
There is a slim possibility that filming could begin in the fall on the Doctor Strange sequel, but it’s unlikely they’ve been able to finish the set construction phase of prep to shooting anytime soon. Suggesting they could push the production start into 2021 as I believe they will for Spider-Man 3 as well.
Chris Evans Already Misses Playing Captain America
During an interview with Backstage, Captain America and Avengers star Chris Evans mentioned that he already misses the role. However, don’t get too excited about the potential of him returning to the role anytime soon.
EVANS: “I absolutely loved my time with Marvel. I already miss it, but there’s no denying that it is very exciting to just have complete freedom to pursue whatever my creative appetite wants.”
We know Evans has been linked for a supporting lead role in the new Little Shop of Horrors incarnation from Warner Bros. and we’ll see Anthony Mackie’s Sam Wilson eventually take on the Captain America mantle in his Disney+ series The Falcon & The Winter Soldier.
Director Gina Prince-Bythewood Hopeful She’ll Pivot Back To ‘Spider-Man’ Spinoff ‘Silver & Black’
The Old Guard director Gina Prince-Bythewood has revealed to GamesRadar+ that she would be open to returning to Sony’s Silver & Black at some point. The project is a Spider-Man spinoff that would have paired talented thief Felicia Hardy aka Black Cat and mercenary Silver Sablinova aka Silver Sable in their own movie.
Gina sounds open to the idea of returning to the project once Sony is ready to make it.
PRINCE-BYTHEWOOD: “My honest answer is I don’t know. I really love those characters, I loved having them together. I thought, what we came up with was a really good, really organic way to have the two together. That world is changing so much because of the success of the Spider-Man films.”
“There’s a question of, ‘Can you really have these films with Spider-Man not in them? Should he at least have some sort of part in them?’ That’s always the question. I’ve taken two years off of that for [The Old Guard] so once this gets out into the world, I hope it’s a success, and then I’ll certainly go back and start talking with them again.”
In the wake of Gina leaving to make The Old Guard, Sony announced plans to split the project into two separate films. They haven’t updated since and Prince-Bythewood had suggested previously that a possible Disney+ series was being considered.
Sony has been hellbent on getting together as many Spider-Man spinoff films in development as possible after the massive success of Tom Hardy’s Venom at the box office back in 2018.
In 2021, we’ll see the release of both Morbius and Venom: Let There Be Carnage, the latter project confirmed with its teaser trailer the film is directly connected to Spider-Man: Homecoming after featuring Michael Keaton’s Vulture in a scene. It remains to be seen how much involvement if any we’ll see from Marvel Studios concerning these spinoffs and if they’ll be allowed to call themselves part of the greater Marvel Cinematic Universe.
Not too long ago there was a rumor circulating from Deadline that Henry Cavill was in early discussions with Warner Bros. about reprising the Superman role in a non-solo film, but that seemingly spiraled into a massive amount of fan speculation that ballooned into him coming back for a Man of Steel sequel and folks guessing where he’d show up next.
While speaking with Variety, Henry Cavill revealed he’s frustrated by those Superman rumors and speculation online, even more so that he can’t publicly comment on them.
However, isn’t opposed to the regular fans speculating as they normally do.
CAVILL: “They get wilder and wilder by the day. The amount of speculation, the stuff I read on the Internet, is extraordinary and sometimes frustrating. It’s when you see people stating stuff as fact. Like, ‘No, that’s not the case. That hasn’t happened, and that conversation isn’t happening’. But the important thing is that people are excited about it, and I think it’s important to be excited about a character like Superman. Superman is a fantastic character. If people are chatting about it, and even if they’re making stuff up, it’s okay, because that means they want to see the character again. And in an ideal world, I would absolutely love to play the character again.”
He also mused about using an alias to comment on those rumors.
CAVILL: “I’m not going to lie; I’ve been very tempted, but there’s something about that, that feels deeply immoral. When it’s about Superman, and if I’m representing Superman, it just feels like the wrong thing to do. I’m just going to let this all play out. Me saying something isn’t going to make a difference. What does it really matter? One day, people will know the truth, and if they don’t know it now, it’s okay.”
Henry is a little busy at the moment as he’s expected to resume production on his Netflix series The Witcher soon in the United Kingdom.
Superman had a brief cameo in Shazam! which I called back in the summer of 2018 after previously confirming the new movie was indeed set in the DCEU. Because talks broke down between the studio and Cavill he wasn’t able to portray the hero in that scene. There is a good chance since Shazam! established Cavill’s Superman exists in that film having him show up in the sequel would be a good bet to make.
There are plenty of movies that never came together for director Guillermo del Toro such as a remake of The Fantastic Voyage and DC Comics film Justice League Dark (now being developed as a series for HBO Max by J.J. Abrams/Bad Robot).
One of the bigger projects he was forced to walk away from was a high-budget R-rated version of H.P Lovecraft’s At The Mountains of Madness that had Tom Cruise set to star with James Cameron producing. The film ultimately didn’t come together over budget concerns.
While speaking with Indie Wire he spoke about still being hopeful about making the film and wears a memento ring to remind him about it.
DEL TORO: “This is why I wear this ring since the project got canceled. This is the fake ring about a fake university, the one that appears in the book, Miskatonic University, and I’m gonna wear it until I make the movie. They may bury me with it.”
“It’s difficult to tackle. We had James Cameron as a co-producer with me …. we had Tom Cruise [starring] and we thought we were gonna get it made and we didn’t, it didn’t happen. These are not decisions you make. Most of us filmmakers, we exist in a world that moves above our paygrade. People think that our career is a series of decisions. Our career is a series of accidents happening with your decisions on top. You don’t decide to do one movie instead of another.”
The classic story has had a large influence on the horror film genre including John Carpenter’s films such as The Thing and In The Mouth of Madness along with more modern stuff like Ridley Scott’s Alien prequel Prometheus.
In an interview with Indie Wire, Oscar-winning director Guillermo del Toro (The Shape of Water) has revealed that they are hoping to resume production on his current film Nightmare Alley this fall in Toronto and that they’ve only completed 45% of the shoot.
DEL TORO: “We were roughly 45 percent in. We were literally in the middle of a great scene. We went to lunch and talked to the studio and when we came back we said, ‘Everybody leave your tools and leave now.'”
The film’s cast includes Cate Blanchett, Bradley Cooper, Toni Collette, Rooney Mara, Ron Perlman, Willem Dafoe, Holt McCallany, David Strathairn, and Richard Jenkins.
Recently, Pinewood Toronto Studios chairman Paul Bronfman was hopeful to begin shooting after Labour Day, September 7th. This could mean that is around when they plan to get cameras rolling on Nightmare Alley.
The Searchlight film likely won’t be ready to be released until late 2021.
THE RONIN 