I think we’re all extremely fascinated by filmmaker Christopher Nolan (“Oppenheimer”) and knowing what films he enjoys is very much going to be something hardcore fans are going to over-analyze given how much he openly homages cinematic benchmarks. In the past, Nolan has spoken out about his love for the “Fast & Furious” franchise, specifically “Tokyo Drift.” More recently he said both Stanley Kurbick’s sci-fi masterpiece “2001: A Space Odyssey” and Adam McKay’s sports comedy “Tallagada Nights” were movies he’d always stop to watch if he saw them playing on television.
Another perplexing but still interesting selection was briefly praised by Nolan during his interview with the Happy Sad Confused podcast (See below). The subject of trailers came up along with Ridley Scott’s original 1979 “Alien” being referenced and host Josh Horowitz was quick to mention how the original teaser for David Fincher‘s “Alien 3” got ahead of what they were actually doing it teased an Earthbound setting that never happened.
Nolan would go on to say the following about the third installment, “And you know, Fincher has famously talked about how unhappy he was with it and how it changed. I think it’s a great movie but I think his work on that is remarkable.”
David Fincher and Sigourney Weaver on the set of “Alien 3” – 20th Century Studios/Disney
Of course, it wasn’t just Fincher unhappy with the producers/20th Century Fox’s everchanging ideas before, during, and in the final version. “Alien 3” was both a critical and financial failure, with the brass throwing the first-time feature director under the bus instead of self-reflection for all their micromanaging and narrative mistakes. You could forgive Fincher for trying to speak on the subject for the better half of 30 years.
Given the commercial success of the first two films, it was seen as a franchise low-point until “Alien Resurrection” ultimately became the final nail in the coffin despite three separate attempts to get an “Alien 5” going with Sigourney Weaver. Since 1992, a lot of sci-fi fans have warmed up to the film for its fantastic production design and painstaking attempt to honor that universe overseen by the evil corporation Weyland-Yuanti. Although, the movie does have some glaring issues like the mixed performances of the supporting cast and extremely wonky visual effects of the Xenomorph.
We already know Nolan’s affinity for both the James Bond movies and “Star Wars,” but it’s certainly interesting to hear him talk about the “Alien” franchise. While under Disney’s new ownership, there is an Earthbouth streaming series at FX/Hulu currently filming in Thailand and theatrical film on the horizon. I don’t think many fans would be terribly upset if Nolan eventually tried to tell a story within that universe, at some point, but hasn’t suggested there is any pressing desire to do so.
Director Ridley Scott is back with another period action drama after previously releasing Gladiator, Kingdom of Heaven, Exodus: Gods & Kings, and Robin Hood. 20th Century Studios has dropped the first trailer for The Last Duel, which is based on a historical event.
The cast consists of Matt Damon, Adam Driver, Jodie Comer, Harriet Walter, Marton Csokas, Ben Affleck, Nathaniel Parker, Sam Hazeldine, and Michael McElhatton.
THE LAST DUEL – In 14th century France, Norman knight Jean de Carrouges (Matt Damon) accuses squire Jacques Le Gris (Adam Driver) of raping his wife Marguerite (Jodie Comer). He takes the claim to King Charles VI, who declares that the two men must duel to the death. Based on the book The Last Duel: A True Story of Trial by Combat in Medieval France by Eric Jager with a script written by Ben Affleck, Matt Damon, and Nicole Holofcener.
The Last Duel hits theaters exclusively on October 15.
Friday marked the 25th anniversary of German director Roland Emmerich‘s alien invasion film “Independence Day,” but it wasn’t the only big sci-fi spectacle he had been working on for 20th Century Fox.
In the wake of David Fincher‘s “Alien 3,” it felt like 20th Century Fox was over the “Alien” franchise, and Sigourney Weaver leading it. Ellen Ripley had killed herself at the end of the film making subsequent sequels seemingly moot after their lead character’s death and flopping at the box office. Thinking they were done with the Ripley saga, between “Alien 3” and “Alien Resurrection” the studio tried to develop an early incarnation of an “Alien vs. Predator” movie years before the Paul W.S. Anderson version.
A rumor appeared in 1992 (same year that “Universal Soldier” is released) that Emmerich was going to direct an “AVP” film based on the popular Dark Horse Comics run, this wasn’t hard to imagine because 1990’s “Predator 2” had given audiences a nod to the comic book crossover as they added a xenomorph skull on a wall of trophies in the predator ship at the end of the film. In 1994, “Stargate” is released and that success leads to another original humans vs. aliens project with the 1996 box office juggernaut “Independence Day,” Toho and TriStar Pictures feel confident enough to allow Roland Emmerich to direct a modern “Godzilla” reboot using CGI special effects.
In 1996, “Alien Resurrection” begins shooting in Los Angeles with French director Jean-Pierre Jeunet overseeing the sequel and Ellen Ripley is brought back via the wonders of cloning (originally going to be a clone of Newt), thanks “Jurassic Park.” The film ends with the survivors landing in Paris and leaves the door open for a fifth installment.
In the November 1997 issue of Starlog Magazine, screenwriter Dean Devlin (“Stargate,” “Independence Day,” “Godzilla“) was interviewed about his Fox Television series “The Visitor” and asked about the status with “Alien vs. Predator” he replied, “For the time being, it’s dead. We wanted to do it if they had not just decided to do ‘Alien Resurrection,’ and now we’re all just waiting around to see how that film does. If it really works, the studio is going to want to continue the franchise with just the alien. If that were to happen, then we won’t be involved at all.”
This interview taking place before “Alien Resurrection”s late November release and while the sequel made slightly more than “Alien 3,” it still didn’t meet studio expectations. The following year, Roland and Dean released their critical disaster “Godzilla,” which was ridiculed and likely could have been a reason why 20th Century Fox ultimately didn’t want them handling a crossover to their two lucrative sci-fi franchises.
Speaking of “Predator 2,” Arnold Schwarzenegger was originally going to return as Dutch in the sequel before the role was reworked as Peter Keyes for actor Gary Busey and there has been a longstanding rumor that Arnold was going to star in this “AVP” movie, there might be something behind that.
In 1991, before Emmerich’s “Universal Soldier” starring Jean-Claude Van Damme was released in 1992, Schwarzenegger visited the film’s set, and we have a bunch of photos that documented that visit. There is a possibility that Arnold was there to get a read on Roland Emmerich and speak to Jean-Claude Van Damme about his experience working with him.
JCVD’s star was rising in the 1990s and had played the first incarnation of the alien hunter in “Predator” before leaving during Stan Winston‘s redesign of the creature (with some help from James Cameron) to lead his action film “Bloodsport” instead of being hidden behind a predator costume.
Producers had been trying to lure him back to the “Predator” franchise every chance they got and a crossover with a huge budget along with the right director could be attractive enough for Arnold to get involved. A reminder, the studio was looking to move past Weaver since Ripley was dead and Schwarzenegger was hot as a pistol at the box office, Dutch was theoretically still alive and every “Predator” sequel since there have been attempts to have him appear.
“Something similar to what we did with Aliens. A bunch of great characters, and of course Sigourney [Weaver]. I’ve even discussed the possibility of putting him [Arnold Schwarzenegger] into the Alien movie,” Cameron told the BBC in 2003 about the possibility of adding Schwarzenegger to his “Alien 5.”
Paul W.S. Anderson begins shooting “Alien vs. Predator” in Prague at the end of 2003 and essentially kills “Alien 5,” finally ending the Ellen Ripley saga for good.
James Cameron pivots to “Avatar” and the film still holds the global box office record thanks to a re-release with four sequels on the horizon.
The original version of “Alien 5” would see Ridley Scott direct with Cameron producing and co-writing (possibly with “Alien Resurrection” screenwriter Joss Whedon writing too) and would take Ripley to the homeworld of the xenomorph. The project was never made, but Ridley Scott returned to tackle his prequel “Prometheus” attempting to explore the origin of Space Jockey (engineers) and was a producer on Neill Blomkamp‘s new “Alien 5” incarnation (approved by James Cameron) that would have acted as a direct sequel to “Aliens” (ignoring the other two sequels) before that also stalled, “Alien: Covenant” stepping in to fill the void.
Scott is currently producing Noah Hawley‘s “Alien” series at FX that will be set on Earth and return the franchise to its class warfare root. He’s also talked-up a third prequel film still being in the works that has previously used the working title of “Alien: Awakening.”
The Ronin is hearing that a trio of unknowns might have roles in 20th Century Studios’ next installment of the Predator franchise. The project directed by Dan Trachtenberg shares the same casting director as Martin Scorsese’s Killers of The Flower Moon, which hinted to unknowns potentially joining Predator 5’s cast. Production began recently in Calgary and creature effects house Studio ADI confirmed their return to the franchise.
Those three unconfirmed names are model/activist Quannah Chasinghorse, musician Dakota Beavers, and Harlando Khat.
UPDATE: We’ve learned two more names with Cree actor Tymon Carter and Skye Pelletier.
The Ronin mentioned almost a full month ago they might be pursuing unknowns for the sci-fi movie.
We’re still waiting on casting announcements concerning who’ll be playing the humans in the new film, but we’re hearing that Dan might end up hiring unknowns for some of the lead roles.
Filming is expected to wrap in August.
We’ve confirmed a while ago that Kyle Strauts (The Predator) would be back in the predator suit and mentioned Amber Midthunder (Legion, The Ice Road) as the potential lead actress on the project, the latter was backed-up by Discussing Film.
The film is reportedly going to involve a group of Comanche warriors with a female protagonist, assumed to be played by Amber Midthunder and would suggest this could be the first Predator installment that entirely takes place before the events of John McTiernan’s original installment. Given the project’s setting, it wouldn’t be shocking to see them fill out roles with a bunch of new actors.
Predator 5’s production team consists of cinematographer Jeff Cutter (10 Cloverfield Lane), production designer Kara Lindstrom (Den of Thieves), and stunt coordinator Steven McMichael (Damnation).
A big thanks to Nicholas Whitcomb, who has been helping with our recent Predator and Alien franchise coverage. Please give him a follow over on Twitter and subscribe to his channel on YouTube. Nick and I previously worked together at HN Entertainment, we both share a mutual passion for these two sci-fi franchises.
Disney hasn’t given Predator 5 an official release day but trades had suggested a possible drop next summer.
PREDATOR – Dutch (Arnold Schwarzenegger), a soldier of fortune, is hired by the U.S. government to secretly rescue a group of politicians trapped in Guatemala. But when Dutch and his team, which includes weapons expert Blain (Jesse Ventura) and CIA agent George (Carl Weathers), land in Central America, something is gravely wrong. After finding a string of dead bodies, the crew discovers they are being hunted by a brutal creature with superhuman strength and the ability to disappear into its surroundings.
You might remember a cheeky video that was posted by Vin Diesel on Instagram back in April 2019 that had the Fast & Furious actor visiting director James Cameron on the Manhattan Beach Studios set of the Avatar sequels, where they shoot the motion-capture sequences. This originally gave fans the impression that Diesel could be joining the Cameron’s new Avatar movies in some capacity but nothing was ever officially announced, only speculated.
This was only bolstered because Vin’s Fast & Furious franchise co-star Michelle Rodriguez played SecOps pilot Trudy Chacon in the first Avatar installment.
Well, MTV News caught-up with Diesel during the promotional rounds for F9 and asked him directly about joining the massive sci-fi franchise. However, it sounds like if we’ll see Diesel in these movies, it won’t be until Avatar 4 or Avatar 5 as he says he hasn’t filmed anything “yet.” It’s been well established that James Cameron has completed motion-capture/live-action photography on Avatar 2 an Avatar 3.
Diesel responded with the following when asked if he’ll appear in the sequels, “I have spent time with [James Cameron], but I have not filmed yet. [smiles while pausing] I love James Cameron, and I love the series, and I think it’s safe to say that we will be working together.”
Hopefully, Avatar 2 will stick to it’s current release date of December 16, 2022.
AVATAR – On the lush alien world of Pandora live the Na’vi, beings who appear primitive but are highly evolved. Because the planet’s environment is poisonous, human/Na’vi hybrids, called Avatars, must link to human minds to allow for free movement on Pandora. Jake Sully (Sam Worthington), a paralyzed former Marine, becomes mobile again through one such Avatar and falls in love with a Na’vi woman (Zoe Saldana). As a bond with her grows, he is drawn into a battle for the survival of her world.
Filmmaker Neill Blomkamp (District 9, Chappie, Elysium) famously attempted to put together a new Alien sequel with Sigourney Weaver back in the Ellen Ripley role. Alien 5 aka Red Harvest seemingly would have acted as a direct sequel to James Cameron’s Aliens and ignoring the events of Alien 3/Alien Resurrection allowing them to bring back Hicks and Newt.
Previous concept art revealed that the evil Weyland-Yuanti got their hands on the derelict ship and are breeding xenomorphs in some sort of controlled facility.
Another small batch of concept artwork appeared on the website of artist Geoffroy Thoorens. It shows Ripley wearing a fireproof suit and an image of a space station.
The suit worn by Ripley was actually developed by Alien: Isolation and Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker concept artist Calum Alexander Watt. You can see one of his designs for the suit below.
Disney has had huge success with their family-friendly streaming service Disney+, however, the service is indeed geared towards families and younger audiences which means other Disney-owned content can’t really appear there.
A new report from Collider claims things might be changing soon with sources suggesting that their domestic service Hulu is being prepared to be folded into Disney+, Disney is a majority owner of Hulu and plenty of people have suggested this becoming an option given that Hulu doesn’t have an international presence being a domestic service but could with some help from Disney/Disney+ take the leap into the global realm like Netflix.
Sources say Disney is looking to combine its two streaming services into a single juggernaut.
For more than a year now, there has been speculation that Disney might one day fold Hulu into its Disney+ streaming service, and sure enough, Collider is hearing that multiple Hulu executives have been leaving or let go from the streaming service in anticipation of the move, which makes a lot of sense from a business perspective.
They phrase the report’s headline as a question which could mean this might be more of a rumor circulating among reliable people they’re talking to.
If this officially happens, Disney+ adding Hulu’s content, the 20th Century Studios library and their multiple television offerings from 20th Television/FX would add a massive under served demographic to their international streaming service. Another upside is that Disney might be forced into developing mature content with the Disney branding moving into the 21st Century as the media company will need to attract adult audiences as well and move beyond children’s entertainment.
We’ve already seen this with 20th Century Studios moving forward with Predator 5 and Marvel Studios hiring screenwriters for Ryan Reynolds’ Deadpool 3, both expected to be R-rated offerings. This could be a way for Disney+ to start making mature shows using their budgets that they’ve used for Star Wars and Marvel series. I’m sure that Alien series that Noah Hawley (Fargo, Legion) wanted to make wouldn’t have as much trouble getting the budget it would need to look proper. It also gives a home to franchise films like Die Hard, Alien/Predator franchises, Logan, and Deadpool.
Netflix and Amazon’s Prime Video are doing a lot to attract older subscribers with original content which to some extent HBO/HBO Max is doing as well but like Hulu isn’t on the global stage.
Speaking of HBO Max, does this mean Disney announces this and then throws their entire 2021 slate of films on the combined service? We don’t really know if they’re going to mirror HBO Max’s new release model for 2021 and if this happens it could be another ding on the theatrical runs of future films. Alongside their potential to earn the billions at the box office that Disney is accustomed to. Hulu could be placed in an odd spot here and might see massive layoffs as jobs become redundant.
Today marks the 30th anniversary of Predator 2 and director Stephen Hopkins stat down with Scream Magazine for an interview about the film. Hopkins explains how they wanted to originally introduce Arnold’s Dutch in the start of the film and how he ultimately had to chose between making Terminator 2 or making Predator 2.
HOPKINS: “I think we got on okay, in fact, the opening scene of the film was supposed to be these guys playing golf on a golf course and a helicopter lands, and there is a guy with white hair golfing and they come and say ‘he’s back’, and Arnold turns around he’s got white hair and a scar across his face. Him and Danny Glover would have teamed-up.”
“Actually what I think it was that Jim Cameron, who I used to work for, he said to Arnold that he wanted him to do Terminator 2 and he didn’t want to both to happen. He didn’t feel like help Terminator 2 if Predator 2 happened with Arnold in it and Jim was preparing it for a long time. I think Arnold had to make a choice and clearly it was a great choice because Terminator 2 is one of the great science fiction films.”
He also confirms the rumors that Steven Seagal almost joined the film but Hopkins met with him to talk him out of doing it as he wasn’t a fan of the action star.
HOPKINS: “I had to go up to have a meeting with [Seagal] at his house which was one of the most craziest afternoons I’ve had, sort of to talk him out of doing it. He’s an unusual kind of twisted kind of guy and in the end I couldn’t see myself doing it with him, it didn’t feel right.”
“He was desperate to do it. I went up to his house and he crushed my hand [makes handshake motion] and took me into a room where all the walls were covered with guns. He told me about how he wanted to play a C.I.A. psychiatrist, who also is a martial arts expert and carried a gun, I listened to him for a long time and he was clearly a little crazy at the time…then he threw his arm around me on the way out and he said ‘I want you to come to my ranch in Santa Barbara because I have a grenade launching range there so we could go launch grenades together’. That didn’t happen. I’m sorry, I’m not a fan of his.”
Predator 2 is considered one of the better sequels and totally worth revisiting for that fun cast along with some interesting action scenes.
PREDATOR 2 – Los Angeles is enduring a heat wave and a crime wave, so the pressure on police officer Michael Harrigan (Danny Glover) to solve a strange string of murders is mounting. Harrigan thinks the culprit can be found among the warring gangs and drug cartels, but FBI Special Agent Peter Keyes (Gary Busey) knows the horrible truth: Their killer is a fearsome extraterrestrial (Kevin Peter Hall) with keen hunting abilities that include superior night vision and the power to make itself invisible.
While we’re still waiting on an official announcement concerning the fate of Deadpool 3 at Marvel Studios, Cabble actor Josh Brolin spoke to cinematographer Roger Deakins on his podcast Team Deakins (spotted by The Playlist) about the differences between working on Deadpool 2 in juxtapose to working with Marvel/The Russo Brothers on Avengers Infinity War and Avengers: Endgame.
BROLIN: “Deadpool was hard. Even though it was funny, it was harder. That was more of a business transaction, it was more, ‘We need to make this like this,’ which I didn’t feel that way with Avengers.”
“[The Russo Brothers] would constantly go back and reference Scarface or Dog Day Afternoon. Whether or not it was a manipulation, they knew what to throw out there to bring it back into something inspired.”
Josh’s comments here are terribly off-base as the Deadpool sequel underwent specific reshoots because producers/studio felt certain scenes didn’t test well and it’s possible that set had less of a creative environment than with The Russo Brothers.
There have been rumblings of Marvel considering a return for Brolin’s Thanos but that remains only rumor at this point. It’ll be interesting if they do end up moving forward with new Deadpool movies that if they’ll keep Brolin in the Nathan Summers aka Cable role as the only official carry-over from the Fox era is Ryan Reynolds as Wade Wilson.
Before the merger, the plan at 20th Century was to tackle an X-Force movie from writer/director Drew Goddard before a third solo installment.
Ryan confirmed back in December 2019 that Deadpool 3 was indeed in development at Marvel Studios but we really haven’t a solid update since.
In a new interview with Nerdist, writer/director Josh Boone revealed that Warlock was almost going to be in early versions of The New Mutants and they even went as far to look at actors, revealing that comedian Sasha Baron Cohen was eyed for the part.
Josh going on to say that he spoke with Sasha about the role but ultimately 20th Century Fox had him pick between having Demon Bear or Warlock in the film, he ended up picking the former.
He also had plans on using Warlock in the sequel alongside casting Antonio Banderas as Sunspot’s father.
Despite all odds, the film is indeed being released in theaters this month as tickets went on sale today with an expectation it will be released on August 28th.
NEW MUTANTS – Set in an isolated hospital where a group of young mutants is being held for psychiatric monitoring. When strange occurrences begin to take place, both their new mutant abilities and their friendships will be tested as they battle to try and make it out alive.
THE RONIN 