Posted on in Film News

Margot Robbie and ‘Birds of Prey’ Screenwriter Christina Hodson Attached To A Second ‘Pirates of The Caribbean’ Film – Will She Play Redd?

It looks like Disney is putting a lot of energy into their Pirates of The Caribbean franchise.

The Hollywood Reporter has revealed Disney is now developing a second film alongside the reboot they’re working on. This second project would star Suicide Squad and Birds of Prey actress Margot Robbie in an undisclosed leading role with screenwriter Christina Hodson writing this new film.

Hodson is likely best known for her work on the DC Comics films such as Birds of Prey, Batgirl, and most recently with rewrites on The Flash.

Robbie being Australian might be a good excuse to shoot at the various sea-side locations and studios down under. I’m also curious if they’re planning on giving her the role of Redd, the updated attraction character from the parks that is now a female pirate.

This female project is said to be featuring new/original characters. Also, would separate from the Pirates reboot that writers Ted Elliott and Craig Mazin (Chernobyl, The Last of Us) had been working on recently for Disney.

It certainly sounds like the studio is planning on expanding on the franchise without Jack Sparrow as both the films aren’t being pegged as sequels or a continuation of the previous installments.

SOURCE: THE HOLLYWOOD REPORTER

Posted on in Television News

TRAILER: Take A Fresh Look At Peacock’s New Series ‘Brave New World’ Based On The Classic Sci-Fi Novel – Streaming July 15th

NBCUniversal’s new streaming service called Peacock is coming and yesterday they dropped a second trailer for their impressive looking launch series Brave New World, based on the classic Aldous Huxley novel.

BRAVE NEW WORLD – Based on Aldous Huxley’s groundbreaking novel, Brave New World imagines a utopian society that has achieved peace and stability through the prohibition of monogamy, privacy, money, family, and history itself.

As citizens of New London, Bernard Marx (Harry Lloyd) and Lenina Crowne (Jessica Brown Findlay) have only ever known a rigid social order, a perfect pharmaceutical called Soma, and a culture of instant gratification and ubiquitous sex. Curious to explore life beyond the strictures of their society, the two New Worlders embark on a vacation to the Savage Lands, where they become embroiled in a harrowing and violent rebellion. Bernard and Lenina are rescued by John the Savage (Alden Ehrenreich), who escapes with them back to New London. John’s arrival in the New World soon threatens to disrupt its utopian harmony, leaving Bernard and Lenina to grapple with the repercussions. The three become entwined in a fraught relationship that awakens them to the dangers of their own conditioning.

From UCP, in association with Amblin Television, the series is executive produced by David Wiener and Grant Morrison, along with Darryl Frank and Justin Falvey, co-presidents of Amblin Television. Brian Taylor executive produces on the first episode. Wiener also serves as series showrunner. Owen Harris will direct the first two episodes and executive produce the series.

The science fiction show begins streaming on July 15th.

SOURCE: PEACOCK

Posted on in Film News

‘Amazing Spider-Man’ Actor Campbell Scott Joins ‘Jurassic World: Dominion’ – Recast As ‘Jurassic Park’s Dr. Lewis Dodgson

Collider reported this week that Jurassic World: Dominion will be bringing back another classic Jurassic Park character. They’ve revealed that veteran character actor Campbell Scott (House of Cards) has been recast in the role of Dr. Lewis Dodgson, who briefly appeared in the original Jurassic Park giving Dennis Nedry the embryo canister to steal dinosaur DNA samples.

Dr. Dodgson had a larger role in the Michael Crichten novels as the head of InGen’s competition BioSyn. He’s said to be the CEO of BioSyn Genetics in Dominion.

Scott might be best known to audiences as playing Peter Parker’s father Richard Park in the two Amazing Spider-Man films.

Jurassic World director Colin Trevorrow returns with a cast that includes Chris Pratt, Bryce Dallas Howard, Sam Neill, Laura Dern, Jeff Goldblum, Daniella Pineda, Justice Smith, DeWanda Wise, Mamoudou Athie, Dichen Lachman, Scott Haze, Isabella Sermon, Jake Johnson, and Omar Sy. 

Recent reports revealed that Universal had planned on resuming production on Dominion next month at Pinewood Studios UK.

It was originally set for release on June 11th, 2021, but it expected to move to a later date.

SOURCE: COLLIDER

Posted on in Film News

Christopher Nolan’s ‘Tenet’ Officially Delayed To August 12th – Will Warner Bros. Move It Again?

Warner Bros. has flinched for a second time as they’ve officially delayed Christopher Nolan’s mind-bending action blockbuster from July 31st to August 12th.

Tenet had originally been set for release on July 17th.

This comes after the state of New York removed movie theaters from Phase 4 of reopening and multiple states across the United States seeing record breaking numbers of new cases including Texas and Florida surpassing 5,500+ per day.

However, it hasn’t scared the studio enough to push the film out of the summer entirely as they’re essentially bumping the release date a less than two weeks from it’s previous date. There had been reports that Christopher Nolan had been head-strong with the studio making demands to keep the release date in July, despite the coronavirus being extremely deadly and theaters potentially being places where it can spread like wildfire.

Theaters almost attempted to reopen without mandatory masks for patrons until a handful of them noticed the backlash from that weak safety policy.

I wouldn’t be surprised if the studio delayed the film to the fall or winter.

TENET – John David Washington is the new Protagonist in Christopher Nolan’s original sci-fi action spectacle “Tenet.” Armed with only one word—Tenet—and fighting for the survival of the entire world, the Protagonist journeys through a twilight world of international espionage on a mission that will unfold in something beyond real time. Not time travel. Inversion.

SOURCE: WARNER BROS.

Posted on in Film News

‘Deadpool 2’ Director David Leitch’s Next Film Will Be Sony’s Japan-Set Action Film ‘Bullet Train’ – Eyes Fall Production Start

Director David Leitch has landed yet another studio action project according to The Hollywood Reporter. The co-director of John Wick will return to the world of assassins with Bullet Train for Sony Pictures and they’re hoping to begin sometime in the fall. 

They’ve also provided a brief idea of what to expect from the project. Its script is being handled by Fear Street screenwriter Zak Olkewicz. 

Bullet Train centers on a group of hitmen and assassins with conflicting motives on a train in Tokyo. 

Oddly enough, Bullet Train shares it’s title with an existing Japanese film from 1975 directed by Jun’ya Satô with legendary action stars Sonny Chiba (The Street Fighter, Kill Bill) and Ken Takakura (Black Rain, The Yakuza) in leading roles. I’m curious if the original film from Japan will have any influence on this new project.

Sony is hopeful because of the contained setting of the project (on a train) they’ll be able to limit the number of people on set during the filming. 

David’s previous releases all have strong action sequences which has helped him gain the reputation of a solid action film director, thanks to his background in stunts.

At one point, Antoine Fuqua was attached to direct. 

The director has been putting together multiple deals to make multiple films at various studios, but I’m unsure if he’ll be able to make all of them. Here is a rundown of the other various projects that David has been reportedly attached to direct over the last year or so. 

  • A feature adaptation of the Ubisoft video game The Division for Netflix with Jessica Chastain and Jake Gyllenhaal attached to star. 
  • A remake of the classic Bruce Lee martial arts action film Enter The Dragon for Warner Bros. Pictures. 
  • Undying Love, a vampire action film set in Hong Kong and based on the Image Comics property. 
  • A feature film remake of the classic David Carradine series Kung Fu. 

Leitch is also producing a string of upcoming releases such as the Universal action flick Nobody starring Bob Odenkirk (Better Call Saul) coming to theaters on February 26th, 2021, the Toyko-set Netflix assassin film Kate starring Elizabeth Winstead (Birds of Prey), and the recently announced memory loss thriller for STX titled Fast & Loose. 

While sequels to Hobbs & Shaw, Atomic Blonde, and Deadpool 2 are said to be in early development stages. It remains to be seen if David will return to direct those projects. 

SOURCE: THE HOLLYWOOD REPORTER

Posted on in Television News

‘Cyberpunk 2077’ 10-Episode Anime Series Coming To Netflix In 2022 Titled ‘Cyberpunk: Edgerunners’

Yesterday, Netflix officially announced they’ve teamed with video game developer CD Projekt Red and Japanese animation studio Trigger Studio for a new animated series titled Cyberpunk: Edgerunners. The new series will be directly set within the universe of their upcoming video game Cyberpunk 2077.

The futuristic video game set in the fictional Night City mixes RPG and first-person-shooter elements. It also takes a massive amount of visual cues from the R-rated comic book film Dredd. 

Here is the official press release for the upcoming anime series. 

Netflix, CD Projekt Red, and Studio Trigger announce an all new original anime series CYBERPUNK: EDGERUNNERS set in the same universe as the upcoming game, Cyberpunk 2077. The series will premiere in 2022.

CYBERPUNK: EDGERUNNERS tells a standalone, 10-episode story about a street kid trying to survive in a technology and body modification-obsessed city of the future. Having everything to lose, he chooses to stay alive by becoming an edgerunner—a mercenary outlaw also known as a cyberpunk.

CD PROJEKT RED, the company behind the Cyberpunk 2077 video game, is producing the series, with a creative team formed of talent from The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt, and Cyberpunk 2077. The team at CD PROJEKT RED has been working on this new series since 2018. 

Acclaimed Japan-based animation company, Studio Trigger, will serve as the animation studio on the series and bring the world of Cyberpunk to life with their signature, vibrant style. Hiroyuki Imaishi (Gurren Lagann, Kill la Kill, Promare) will direct the series along with assistant director Masahiko Otsuka (Gurren Lagann, Promare), creative director Hiromi Wakabayashi (Kill la Kill) , character designer Yoh Yoshinari (Little Witch Academia, BNA: Brand New Animal) and Yuto Kaneko (Little Witch Academia), and the adapted screenplay by Yoshiki Usa (SSSS.GRIDMAN, Promare) and Masahiko Otsuka (Gurren Lagann, Kill la Kill, Promare). The original score will be composed by Akira Yamaoka (Silent Hill series).

This isn’t the first CD Projekt Red project Netflix has adapted as they turned their mature fantasy game The Witcher into a series starring Henry Cavill.

They’ve also included a teaser poster for Cyberpunk: Edgerunners. 

As mentioned before it will drop sometime in 2022. 

SOURCE: NETFLIX

Posted on in Film News

Robert Rodriguez Thriller ‘Hypnotic’ Starring Ben Affleck To Begin Shooting July 27th At Troublemaker Studios In Austin

Despite Robert Rodriguez’s original intention to shoot his next film Hypnotic in California, the film starring Ben Affleck is instead reportedly heading to Austin, Texas. 

Even though Texas has become a new hot-spot in the United States for coronavirus, the Austin Chronicle is reporting that the Affleck project is going to attempt to begin shooting next month in the state at Robert’s Troublemaker Studios facility located in East Austin around July 27th. 

The high-end estimates of Hypnotic’s budget are said to be in the range of $80 million. However, with the explosion of new cases in Texas, I wouldn’t be shocked if the shoot is delayed beyond the summer. Production was originally planned to begin in late April.

The film’s script was penned by Rodriguez and Monsterverse screenwriter Max Borenstein (Godzilla, Kong: Skull Island, Godzilla: King of The Monsters, Godzilla vs Kong). 

Ben Affleck has been set to star in Robert Rodriguez’s action-thriller Hypnotic, playing a detective who, while investigating a string of impossible high-end heists, becomes entangled in a mystery involving his missing daughter and a secret government program.

Robert recently worked on the Netflix superhero film We Can Be Heroes along with directing on Season 2 of the Star Wars live-action series The Mandalorian for Lucasfilm/Disney. He also released the cyberpunk film Alita: Battle Angel last year for 20th Century Studios, the manga adaption was a collaboration with blockbuster filmmaker and producer James Cameron. 

I’ve learned that cinematographer David Klein, who worked with Robert on The Mandalorian, is expected to reunite with him on Hypnotic. 

If they do end up starting production this summer or fall there is a good shot that it’ll be ready for release sometime next year.

Affleck had wrapped his erotic thriller Deep Water with co-star Ana de Armas and had been shooting a smaller role in Ridley Scott’s period drama The Last Duel before the production shutdown earlier this year.

SOURCE: AUSTIN CHRONICLE 

Posted on in Film News

Superman Actor Henry Cavill Hopes To Play The DC Comics Hero For “Years To Come”

On the heels of Deadline reporting that Henry Cavill might end up reprising the Superman role in an undisclosed DC Comics film, the actor has voiced his desire to keep playing the role.

Here is the quote via Variety’s Actors On Actors while Henry was speaking with Sir Patrick Stewart.

CAVILL: “I’ve always been a fan of Superman. With a character like that, you carry the mantle with you off set. And it becomes part of your public representation. When you meet children, children don’t necessarily see me as Henry Cavill, but they might see Superman, and there’s a responsibility which comes with that. Because it’s such a wonderful character, it’s actually a responsibility I’m happy to have, and I hope that I get to play more of Superman in years to come.”

It remains to be seen if we’ll end up seeing Superman in The Flash or the Shazam! sequel. Fans certainly will have their own theories where he could show up.

I’m interested to see what happens with Michael Keaton reportedly in talks to reprise Bruce Wayne in multiple projects becoming the Nick Fury of the DC Comics films.

SOURCE: VARIETY

Posted on in Television News

Amazon’s ‘Lord of The Rings’ Series Might Resume Production In New Zealand Next Month

New Zealand’s Star News says that fellow Kiwi outlet, The New Zealand Herald, is reporting from an “insider” that production on Amazon’s billion-dollar Lord of The Rings series is expected to resume shooting next month. Filming had paused in mid-March due concerns of the COVID-19 pandemic.

Amazon’s giant Lord of the Rings shoot is set to resume in West Auckland next month, an insider earlier told the Herald.

The original story is behind a paywall.

It’s certainly believable they could begin next month as last week 20th Century Studios/Disney resumed filming on James Cameron’s Avatar sequels at Wellington’s Stone Street Studios. New Zealand is also in a better position to resume film and television productions than places like the United States. As America is still dealing with a prolonged first wave of coronavirus with staggering amounts of new cases popping up in various states like Texas.

Production on the Lord of The Rings series is expected to take place in Auckland.

It’s cast is said to include Robert Aramayo (Game of Thrones), Morfydd Clark, Ema Horvath, Joseph Mawle, Markella Kavenagh, Owain Arthur, Nazanin Boniadi, Tom Budge, Ismael Cruz Cordova (The Mandalorian), Tyroe Muhafidin, Sophia Nomevete, Megan Richards, Dylan Smith, Charlie Vickers, and Daniel Weyman. 

The new series is confirmed to take place during the Second Age of Middle-Earth which likely means the show could potentially follow the rise and fall of franchise baddie, Sauron. The Second Age is set thousands of years before the events of The Hobbit and The Lord of The Rings trilogy.

We’ll have to wait for official word from the show’s Twitter account that would likely be the place that an announcement is going to be made by Amazon about filming resuming.

SOURCE: THE NEW ZEALAND HERALD

Posted on in Film News

TRAILER: Colin Farrell Wants Jessica Chastain Dead In New Assassin Action Flick ‘Ava’

VVS Films has released a first-look trailer and poster for their upcoming action film Ava.

The film set in the world of black ops assassins stars Jessica Chastain (IT: Chapter Two, Zero Dark Thirty), Colin Farrell (Widows, The Batman), John Malkovich, Common (John Wick: Chapter 2), Geena Davis (The Long Kiss Goodnight) and Joan Chen (Judge Dredd, Twin Peaks).

It’s directed by Tate Taylor, who previously helmed the horror flick Ma and The Girl On The Train.

Ava (Chastain) is a deadly assassin who works for a black ops organization, traveling the globe specializing in high profile hits. When a job goes dangerously wrong she is forced to fight for her own survival.

A late August release date was originally planned but the new trailer fails to mention if they’re sticking to that or being delayed.

SOURCE: VVS FILMS