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‘Logan’ Director James Mangold Tapped For Horror-Centric ‘Swamp Thing’ Movie Based On Alan Moore Run

Earlier this week, the first wave of new DC Studios projects were finally announced and one of the more interesting standouts from that upcoming Gods & Monsters 2025-2027 slate included a horror film focused on the underrated DC Comics character, Swamp Thing. It really didn’t take long for a creative to be attached to the new comic book project.

We ended up seeing director James Mangold (Ford v Ferrari) tweet out a comic book image from Swamp Thing and led to co-CEO James Gunn to retweet that post. Only for the The Hollywood Reporter to reveal that Mangold was indeed in early talks to write/direct a new feature film remake. This news was a bit of surprise that it simply wasn’t mentioned in that big announcement from Tuesday, but neat none-the-less.

Mangold isn’t exactly known for his horror chops but has a fantastic library of pulpy credits which includes two comic book films with the Hugh Jackman-led pics The Wolverine and Logan. The two X-Men films certainly inspired by established comics but also were given a more origin spin by the filmmaker making them slightly more unique. He most recently worked with Lucasfilm’s final installment of the Indiana Jones franchise starring Harrison Ford with Indiana Jones & The Dial of Destiny that is due to be released this July.

Given that the we’re expected to play within the horror genre, we’re hopeful that Mangold will take cues from other body horror movies like The Thing and The Fly for inspiration.

Gunn also recently added on Twitter that the upcoming film will indeed be inspired by the Alan Moore run of the character. Previous comic book properties that have been adapted from Moore’s work consists of Watchmen, From Hell, The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen, and V For Vendetta. However, the writer is well-known as being completely adverse to his source material being touched by Hollywood and likely won’t be supporting this project either.

Swamp Thing isn’t some new undiscovered property but certainly has had an odd go when it comes to live-action adaptations. The 1982 live-action film was written and directed by legendary horror director Wes Craven, that version led to a sequel, television show, and a cartoon series as well. It wouldn’t be until 2019 that producer James Wan (Aquaman) attempted a revival for the now dead DC Universe streaming service via his production company Atomic Monster after a version of Justice League Dark (that would have included the character) fell apart.

SOURCE: THR

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‘Avatar 3’: Oona Chaplin Is Playing Varang, Leader Of The Villainous Fire Na’vi

James Cameron is finally back after delivering audiences one of the biggest box office blockbusters in cinematic history with Avatar: The Way of Water crushing it and surpassing other massively successful films such as Spider-Man: No Way Home, Star Wars: The Force Awakens, and most recently Avengers: Infinity War. Making this the third film from Cameron to cross $2 billion globally, quite the feat. Well, with the second film out of the way producer Jon Landau is already hyping up the sequels after previous teases from Cameron what the next three chapters will explore and what we can expect with new villains.

While speaking with Empire Magazine (via Variety) the producer confirms that actress Oona Chaplin (Game of Thrones, Taboo) is set to play Varang, starting with Avatar 3. The character is said to be the leader of The Ash People, a group of Fire Na’vi that are expected to be more villainous than previous tribes on Pandora and being referred to as “an aggressive, volcanic race.”

“There are good humans and there are bad humans,” Landau told Empire. “It’s the same thing on the Na’vi side. Oftentimes, people don’t see themselves as bad. What is the root cause of how they evolve into what we perceive as bad? Maybe there are other factors there that we aren’t aware of.”

There have been some telegraphing that The Ash People could end up aligning themselves with RDA as they continue with their colonization plans to more humans onto Pandora in subsequent installments as Earth is dying. We’re equally curious if the new Recom version of Miles Quaritch might be the one who is sent in to potentially make that alliance with the Ash People, to help them thwart Jake Sully and other the Na’vi tribes that will need to be eliminated before the mass exodus of humanity to Pandora happens.

Disney/20th Century Studios have already etched-out a release date for Avatar 3 (potentially titled Avtar: The Seed Bearer) on December 20th, 2024 and likely means we’re a year away from a solid marketing campaign from the studio. However, given that the film was shot alongside Avatar: The Way of Water we could end up seeing images and footage a little earlier than expected.

SOURCE: EMPIRE MAGAZINE

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Julius Onah To Direct ‘Captain America 4’ For Marvel Studios

At the end of Avengers: Endgame, we saw Steve Rogers hand down the Captain America mantle and shield to Sam Wilson. However, that was easier said than done as the U.S. government had its own ideas for who should take the position leading to the complex events of The Falcon & The Winter Soldier.

In the series, we see that the government that turned its back on Wilson also threw another super-soldier in prison with Isaiah Bradley simply because a black man couldn’t be “trusted” with his powers. or follow orders. The entire reason for the Disney+ project was to show the transition of Anthony Mackie’s Falcon to Captain American before getting his own film.

The Hollywood Reporter has an update concerning Captain America 4 as Marvel has tapped director Julius Onah (Cloverfield Paradox, Luce) to helm the fourth installment. We should expect some of the hard-hitting themes the streaming series as head writer Malcolm Spellman is co-writing the script with Dalan Musson.

Captain America 4 is expected to continue the events after The Falcon & The Winter Soldier, which likely means that Zemo and U.S. Agent could make their return or have some connective tissue to the upcoming Thunderbolts film that has Jake Schreier (Frank & Robot) attached to direct or even the Armor Wars show.

The Serpent Society would make for a great surrogate for HYDRA in the Sam Wilson films, after the terrorist orgainzation that was embedded within SHIELD was dissolved, because the roster is massive and would move away from the Nazi/Red Skull connection.

While most have accepted that Mackie is now the new Captain America, there have been an oddball group that believe that Rogers will return to take up the shield. As Evans and Kevin Feige has downplayed Rogers’ future in the MCU. The actor doubling-down with the following tweet after THR added ambigous/unsourced spectulation that Evans could be coming back.

https://twitter.com/ChrisEvans/status/1545826871262056449

Marvel Studios is heading back to Comic-Con later this month and we could learn about its release date.

SOURCE: THE HOLLYWOOD REPORTER

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Ryan Gosling Wants A Crack At Playing Marvel’s Ghost Rider After Denying ‘Nova’ Rumor

Ryan Gosling stars in the massive Netflix film The Gray Man, which sees him work alongside Marvel Studios alumni such as the directing team The Russo Brothers, and Captain America actor Chris Evans. This had led many to consider that he might eventually join the MCU in a heroic role.

While there had been rumblings about Gosling being courted to play Nova in a yet-to-be-confirmed project at Marvel, during a tease for a new interview with MTV News the Canadian actor said that is “untrue.”

However, added he would be keen to play one superhero, Ghost Rider.

“Ryan and I chatted about the Nova rumors yesterday which he said aren’t true. But this morning Ryan reached out to me to say there is one superhero he wants to play…Ghost Rider.”

A horror-centric hero that was previously played by Nicolas Cage in two feature films before a television incarnation that appeared on Agents of SHIELD before a spinoff series at Hulu was snuffed out.

It’s unclear if Gosling has met with Marvel for anything recently but given the fan demand to see him join the MCU and the return of Ghost Rider, we shouldn’t be surprised if the studio at least speaks to him at some point. You might remember that before Mahershala Ali was announced as the new Blade, the Oscar-winning actor was the one who brought up playing the vampire hunter in a reboot to Marvel in a meeting and seemed to convince them.

Speaking of Blade, Marvel entering their era of exploring horror characters means that the return of Ghost Rider is only a matter of time.

SOURCE: MTV NEWS

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Russo Brothers Still “Open” To MCU Return & Comment On Tackling Marvel’s ‘X-Men’ Reboot 

The Russo Brothers have been behind directing four major Marvel Studios releases Captain America: The Winter Soldier, Captain America: Civil War, Avengers: Infinity War, and Avengers: Endgame. Giving the studio a combined global box office total of $6.7 billion and some of the biggest hits the Marvel Cinematic Universe has had, so far. 

Having the Russos return is certainly in the cards given their success.

You might remember back when the drama between Disney brass and actress Scarlett Johansson over money in the wake of Black Widow being released last year when the Russo Brothers were revealed to have been in talks with the studio to return for a mystery project. Despite talking up the idea of getting their hands on the new Wolverine or adapting a huge crossover event like Secret Wars, we still don’t know for sure what exactly they would direct if they’d come back to the MCU. 

While speaking with the Associated Press (See video interview below), they were asked about returning and also potentially tackling their highly-anticipated X-Men reboot. Joe Russo, of course, reminds us he has a copy of the Hulk comic where Wolverine made his first appearance and suggested once Kevin Feige was ready to pursue an X-Men film, they’d be game to be involved in shaping a new take on the mutant team. 

“Wolverine being so essential to the ‘X-Men,’ of course, that would be a fun project to work on and find a new way into it. But I do think that’s probably something [Kevin Fegie] has rightfully put aside for a while to introduce some new characters to the world and bring that back when it’s ready.”

The duo isn’t hurting for project ideas, they’re about to release the massive Netflix action flick The Gray Man this month and are already set to bring their sci-fi film The Electric State, starring Millie Bobby Brown (Stranger Things) to Netflix. Also, there are early plans to make a direct sequel to The Gray Man and a spinoff prequel featuring Chris Evans’ character, Lloyd Hansen. Not to mention other things like a live-action film based on the anime Battle of The Planets and a remake of The Thomas Crown Affair with Michael B. Jordan attached in the lead role.

On the X-Men front, it seems that Shawn Levy’s Deadpool 3 starring Ryan Reynolds is the only big mutant project the studio is ready to confirm at the moment. However, between announcements incoming at San Diego Comic-Con later this month and D23 Expo in September, we could learn about Phase 5 and X-Men plans very soon. 

Brtish actor Taron Egerton had recently stated he’d be keen to play the new Wolverine incarnation after revealing he’s met with Marvel Studios for an unnamed role/project.

SOURCE: AP

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‘Godzilla vs. Kong’ Sequel Set For March 2024 & Cast Assembled For Apple’s ‘Godzilla & The Titans’ Series 

Adam Wingard is back to direct the follow-up to the kaiju box office hit Godzilla vs. Kong, as the untitled film is aiming to begin shooting sometime this year in Australia and Warner Bros. has now announced that it will be ready to hit theaters on March 15, 2024. Although, it’s unclear what the movie is about there had been suggestions it could be a remake of Son of Kong or at least take elements from it (including Kong’s son Kiko).

There are a bunch of things that Legendary could pursue in this next installment such as Hollow Earth being a replacement location for Skull Island and could mean more giant apes or creatures similar to Godzilla hidden there. One big sci-fi element that hasn’t wiggled its way into the Monsterverse franchise, as of yet, is the presence of aliens which had been part of the Godzilla franchise for ages. Humanoid or ape-looking aliens could be thrown into the mix to give human characters something else to do between the battle scenes/city destruction.

As the film side seems to be chugging along, the Apple series directed by Matt Shakman (WandaVision) has found the first group of actors assembled for Godzilla & The Titans. A Godzilla spinoff that is said to focus on Monarch and take place after the events of the first film in Legendary’s franchise reboot. 

The Monsterverse series follows the thunderous battle between Godzilla and the Titans that leveled San Francisco and the shocking new reality that monsters are real. It will explore one family’s journey to uncover its buried secrets and a legacy linking them to the secret organization known as Monarch.

Deadline reports that the series has added Anna Sawai (Pachinko), Ren Watabe (461 Days of Bento), Kiersey Clemons (Hearts Beat Loud), Joe Tippett (Mare of Easttown), and Elisa Lasowski (Versailles) for the Monsterverse show and have shared character breakdowns. 

Watabe will portray ‘Kentaro,’ an intelligent, creative, and curious young man who has yet to find his own path. He will embark on a quest to learn more about his revered yet mysterious father and discover his own talents in the process. 

Clemons will portray ‘May,’ an American ex-pat with a roguish exterior that she uses to protect herself as well as others. Whether it be deciphering a code or finding the loophole, she is always three steps ahead of everyone around her.

Tippett will portray Tim, an office drone who dreams of secret agent adventure. His overconfidence gets him in trouble in the field, but he is determined not to fail his organization. 

Lasowski will portray ‘Duvall,’ an expert operative with unwavering confidence in herself and her skills. She also possesses a wry sense of humor, which she uses to guide her less field-oriented colleague.

It’ll be interesting to see if the Monarch series characters will end up crossing over into the films in the future. 

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Taron Egerton Has Met With Marvel’s Kevin Feige For Mystery Project & Wants To Play Wolverine Succeeding Pal Hugh Jackman 

Hugh Jackman’s tenure as Wolverine has had its ups and lows, thankfully, the Aussie actor got to give his beloved X-Men anti-hero a perfect send-off with James Mangold’s Logan and has since retired the role leaving the stage for the next actor to pick up the claws. Jackman once gave his support to a pre-Venom Tom Hardy to play the next Wolverine, but it looks like someone closer to him might end up landing the role. 

His Eddie The Eagle co-star Taron Egerton has been a fan favorite to be recast as the Canadian X-Men member and has previously brushed off casting rumors over the last couple of years. However, during a recent interview with The New York Times, he revealed a mystery meeting with Marvel’s Kevin Feige but wasn’t clear what it was for (outlets making the leap it was about Wolverine without the actor naming role/project). 

Separately, at the same time, Egerton said it would be a challenge but is game to succeed his friend as the next actor to play Wolverine in the Marvel Cinematic Universe. 

“I don’t think it would be wrong to say that,” Egerton said of taking on the Wolverine reboot. “I’d be excited, but I’d be apprehensive as well because Hugh is so associated with the role that I’d wonder if it’d be very difficult for someone else to do it.” He paused, then flashed a grin. “But hopefully, if it does come around, they’ll give me a shot.”

Wolverine is a huge crossover character and also had his own film trilogy, which means whoever ends up playing him might be signing on for multiple films and television series on Disney+ meaning their commitment might have to be similar to Ms. Marvel actress Iman Vellani, who has her own series (expected to get a Season 2 announcement soon) but also has a major role in The Marvels. 

While Deadpool 3 is expected to be the first big mutant project post-merger with Shawn Levy set to direct the R-rated film with Ryan Reynolds carrying over as Wade Wilson, the plans for the X-Men reboot haven’t been fully revealed by the studio and likely won’t happen before 2025.  There is some hope Marvel will reveal their X-Men plans at Comic-Con or at D23 Expo.

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James Cameron Suggests He Might Let Someone Else Direct ‘Avatar 4’ & ‘Avatar 5’ So He Can Focus On “Other Things”

Signing up to direct four sequels to the hit Avatar must be a daunting task for James Cameron and while there has been “some” work done on Avatar 4 (spill over from the Avatar 3 shoot), it hasn’t been completed and during a new chat with Empire Magazine, the filmmaker might end up pivoting to other things instead of doing the next two Avatar films or beyond the fifth installment.

“The Avatar films themselves are kind of all-consuming,” Cameron admits to Empire. “I’ve got some other things I’m developing as well that are exciting. I think eventually over time – I don’t know if that’s after three or after four – I’ll want to pass the baton to a director that I trust to take over, so I can go do some other stuff that I’m also interested in. Or maybe not. I don’t know.”

Cameron also mentioned what is happening with the later installments. 

“Everything I need to say about family, about sustainability, about climate, about the natural world, the themes that are important to me in real life and in my cinematic life, I can say on this canvas,” he explains. “I got more excited as I went along. Movie four is a corker. It’s a motherfucker. I actually hope I get to make it. But it depends on market forces. Three is in the can so it’s coming out regardless. I really hope that we get to make four and five because it’s one big story, ultimately.”

This wouldn’t be the first time that Cameron would have stepped aside to let someone else direct one of his projects. He had been originally developing Alita: Battle Angel as the first in a trilogy of films Cameron would direct based on the manga/anime, but to focus on his Avatar sequels he enlisted the help of Robert Rodriguez instead. 

It’s unknown what those other things will be, however, he has been sharing a bunch of artwork of his unmade epic sci-fi film Xenogenesis, which had been turned into a short film and has been taking elements from for all sorts of movies such as Terminator 1-2 and Avatar. 

Avatar: The Way of Water and Avatar 3 have completed their shoots but when Avatar 4/Avatar 5 begins is a little unclear given their massive budgets. 

Could he ask Rodriguez to help with the next two Avatar films after tackling Alita, The Mandalorian, and The Book of Boba Fett? That remains to be seen but he seemingly does have a foot in the door already.

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James Cameron Compares Development Of ‘Avatar’ Sequels To ‘Lord Of The Rings’ Novels

Writer/director James Cameron has helped change the landscape of the blockbuster going back to the 1980s with his landmark films Aliens and T2: Judgment Day changing the way we see studio sequels. With that in mind, Cameron is behind four massive sequels to his $2.7 billion hit, Avatar, and expectations couldn’t be higher. 

The next installment is heading to theaters this December and Cameron is already hyping up the string of sequels while speaking to Empire Magazine. Stating that when he pitched the movies to 20th Century Fox, he imagined them as similar to the Lord of The Rings novels, but would have to write them first which sort of explains why he waited until he completed the four scripts before even shooting Avatar 2. 

“What I said to the Fox regime at the time was, ‘I’ll do it, but we’ve got to play a larger game here. I don’t want to just do a movie and do a movie and do a movie. I want to tell a bigger story,” he explains. That meant a comparison with a certain literary saga. “I said, ‘Imagine a series of novels like The Lord of The Rings existed, and we’re adapting them.’ Now, that was great in theory, but then I had to go create the frickin’ novels from which to adapt it.”

“I had to think long and hard whether I even wanted to make another Avatar film because it was kind of ours to lose,” Cameron explains. “When you’ve done something that’s been that transcendent in terms of success, do you really want to go try and do that again? There’s a lot of pressure on it. I thought about it for a good two years before we finally made a deal.”

Hopefully, with all the time and energy put into the scripts, we will see much stronger writing with these sequels. The biggest critique of the first film was how thin the plot was and how it mirrored things like Dances With Wolves and the 1992 animated environmentalist film Ferngully: The Last Rainforest. 

Some of the more interesting aspects of the sequel see Stephen Lang playing a Na’vi avatar of his dead character Colonel Quaritch and Sigourney Weaver playing a completely different role as she plays Kiri, the adoptive daughter of Sam Worthington’s Jake Sully, and Zoe Saldaña’s Neytiri.

Avatar: The Way of Water is set to be released by Disney on December 16. 

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‘Black Panther 2’: Official Merchandise Promo Art Confirms Namor, Atlantis & Attuma 

When Narcos: Mexico breakout actor Tenoch Huerta was announced as playing a villain of Ryan Coogler’s Black Panther: Wakanda Forever, everyone jumped on the idea he would be playing the MCU incarnation of Prince Namor McKenzie, aka, The Sub-Mariner. One of Marvel’s first superheroes and mutants that predates the popular Stan Lee era. 

Now, Huerta’s role as Namor has been confirmed thanks to the official promo artwork that circulated on Twitter (via @MCU_Facility) over the weekend. It shows Namor in mesoamerican Indigenous garb along with another image with Namor wearing a headdress that seems to be honoring Tepeyollotl, the Aztec jaguar god that might share superhero similarities to Wakanda’s own feline god Bast. 

A welcomed update on the character’s origin. His original heroics saw him mostly destroying America’s WWII enemies including very racist depictions of the Japanese forces but would eventually be an important cog in the Fantastic Four comic books and the greater Marvel Comics universe. Namor has played both anti-hero, and villain at varying points of the comics and almost went to all-out nuclear war with Wakanda in the pages of The Defenders. So, having him join the Black Panther sequel was something many of us wanted to see going back to 2018. 

Not only that, the artwork also featured the Atlantis villain Attuma, who is expected to be an antagonist. How exactly Atlantis will be featured in the film remains to be seen but will hopefully be extremely different from the Aquaman films. 

Universal Pictures for the longest time held the solo film rights and even once attempted a feature film with Jonathan Mostow (Terminator 3: Rise of The Machines), but it never went in front of cameras. However, it looks like Marvel Studios figured out how to include him in the Marvel Cinematic Universe but we don’t know if he’ll end up getting his own solo series or film down the road. It wouldn’t be hard to imagine that Namor could factor in future things like the Fantastic Four reboot, Doctor Strange 3, Captain America 4 (via a McGuggin like the Serpent Crown), or even a big crossover event like Secret Wars as a supporting character. 

We’ll likely see some first-look images or even teaser footage at San Diego Comic-Con later this month as the Black Panther sequel is heading to theaters on November 11 and promotion for the film will likely begin as soon as Thor: Love & Thunder is released into the wild later this week.