Tag: 20th Century Studios

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‘Predator 5’ Officially Wraps Filming With Amber Midthunder, Dakota Beavers & Dane Diliegro Confirmed For Roles

It’s officially a wrap on Predator 5! Cinematographer Jeff Cutter reveals on Instagram that the film has finished production after spending the summer filming in Calgary, Alberta.

He also confirmed three actors for the film two of which The Ronin previously mentioned were involved with the new Predator film. They Include Amber Midthunder (Legion), Dakota Beavers, and Dane Diliergo.

UPDATE: Kyle Strauts, who we first revealed in May would be back in the predator role after appearing in Shane Black’s The Predator has also confirmed his role in the pic.

The new pic directed by 10 Cloverfield Lane’s Dan Trachtenberg will follow a group of Indigenous humans, the assumption has been this will be the first film in the Predator franchise taking place before the events of the original and will be a period film.

Filming kicked off back on June 10.

Predator 5’s production team consists of the aforementioned cinematographer Jeff Cutter (10 Cloverfield Lane), production designer Kara Lindstrom (Den of Thieves), and stunt coordinator Steven McMichael (Damnation).

Predator 5 isn’t the only project from the Alien/Predator franchise in the works has Ridley Scott has been teasing a third Alien prequel era film is on the table at 20th Century Studios and Scott is producing an Earthbound Alien series from Noah Hawley (Legion, Fargo) at FX.

It’ll be curious to see if Trachtenberg’s film will be a one-off or connect to future installments or a series.

Disney hasn’t announced a release date but trades had been speculation it would land a spot in the Summer of 2022.

However, Predator 5 is a co-production between 20th Century Studios and Hulu, which means it could skip a traditional theatrical release to become a Hulu exclusive.

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.

SOURCE: JEFF CUTTER

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‘Alien 5’: Neill Blomkamp Suggests Ridley Scott’s Reaction To ‘Chappie’ May Have Led To Cold Feet

While director Neill Blomkamp was able to convince both actress Sigourney Weaver and Aliens director James Cameron (called the film’s outline/idea “gangbusters”) about his pitch for Alien 5, but it sounds like Ridley Scott was ultimately the harder sell and may have ultimately led to the project’s death.

During a recent interview with The Playlist, Blomkamp suggested that Ridley Scott was possibly behind his exit from the sci-fi sequel.

“At the end of the day even though Ridley Scott is producing it, he brought that to the world, so if he changes his mind or if there is a director on it he doesn’t want, whatever it may be, it’s his. I understand that, it makes logical sense to me.”

Blomkamp further alluded to The Guardian that Alien 5 producer Ridley Scott (current gatekeeper of the Alien franchise) potentially watched Chappie and that may have behind Scott changing his mind about letting Blomkamp direct Alien 5 (a project Ridley Scott tried to make 20 years ago).

“It’s possible that Ridley watched Chappie and he was like, this guy can’t do Alien so let’s just go ahead and move on.”

When asked if he’d return to the franchise anytime in the future he declined that as a possibility and quickly debunked online rumblings that Alien 5 was back on track with his involvement.

“Not after, no no no, there’s no coming back from that. I’m not gonna work on a film for two years and have the rug pulled out from underneath me and then go hang out and have beers. It’s exactly why I don’t want to do IP based on other people’s stuff ever again.”

“I’m sure they will make many films with that piece of IP, it just doesn’t include me.”

It’s worth noting that as soon as Alien 5 got nixed by Scott/20th Century Fox, they quickly moved forward with Scott’s Alien: Covenant. There is a good chance that Scott saw Alien 5 as a competing film to Covenant and decided to curb-stomp it (considering his high status at the studio). There were some similarities between the two films with multiple androids as revealed in concept artwork (one good and one bad), and we wouldn’t be terribly shocked if Covenant lifted other elements from Alien 5.

Chappie was both a critical and box office disaster for Blomkamp. The sci-fi movie had multiple oddball choices including giving large roles to non-actors Die Antwoord (rapper pals of Blomkamp), who played awful characters that were on par with Hugh Jackman’s villain but were supposed to be “likable.” It certainly had less to say than the social commentary infused into the story as Blomkamp’s prior two movies District 9 and Elysium, feeling like more of “this would be cool if we did this” exercise.

With District 10 in development and other Elysium films on table, I don’t think we can say that the director has any interest in Chappie follow-ups anytime soon.

CHAPPIE – In the near future, a mechanized police force patrols the streets and deals with lawbreakers — but now, the people are fighting back. When one police droid is stolen and given new programming, he acquires the ability to feel and think for himself. While the robot, dubbed “Chappie (Sharlto Copley),” puzzles out human behavior, the authorities begin to see him as a danger to mankind and order; they will stop at nothing to ensure that Chappie is the last of his kind.

SOURCE: THE GUARDIAN & THE PLAYLIST

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Stephen Lang Says “Beautiful” ‘Avatar 5’ Script Left Him “Weeping”

According to James Cameron and producer Jon Landau, principal photography has wrapped on Avatar 2 and Avatar 3 (both motion-capture and live-action portions), but there are two more films to be made with their attention moving on to Avatar 4 an Avatar 5.

One of the unanswered questions of these four upcoming sequels is how they’ll be bringing back Stephen Lang’s villainous Colonel Miles Quaritch, as he died in the original movie. However, they have the ability of to clone Na’vi bodies, aka, avatars and there is assumption that Quaritch could simply be a clone or RDA having multiple versions Quaritch all over their off-world operations.

Lang recently spoke to Collider while promoting his horror film Breathe 2 and dished about his reaction to reading the Avatar 5 script (a bulk of the scripts were written before filming on Avatar 2 started). Highlighting his emotional reaction and calling it “beautiful” multiple times.

“When I finished the last script, I was weeping. I just thought it was so beautiful. Yeah, the final script, because he’s telling a great, great story, an original story, a beautiful, beautiful story, and I was just incredibly moved by it. I hope and I trust and believe that audiences will be too, because one of the things that he does really, really well is he moves it from the page to the stage in a way that that is very literal. You know what I mean? You really see it. What you read is what you get from him, I think, and more.”

Even more interesting than Quaritch’s resurrection, is how the dynamic will look like with Edie Falco’s (Sopranos) General Ardmore joining the franchise as the new head of RDA operations on Pandora and how compelling that new villain will be.

Baring any other delays, Avatar 2 will be released on December 22, 2022.

SOURCE: COLLIDER

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‘Deadpool 3’: Ryan Reynolds Down To First Appear In Another MCU Flim As Long As Disney Is Open To “Wildly Divergent” Uses Of Wade Wilson

We’re still curious why Marvel Studios hasn’t made a grand announcement about Deadpool 3, as Disney acquired the franchise along with the X-Men, Fantastic Four, and Silver Surfer when the Fox rights reverted to Marvel. 

Actor and producer Ryan Reynolds is promoting his latest film Free Guy (using Deadpool in the marketing campaign) and appeared on Comic Book’s podcast Phase Zero. Reynolds was asked if he prefers that Wade Wilson be first introduced to the MCU in Deadpool 3 or another unnamed project (Ryan has been extremely keen on the idea of interacting with mainstream MCU characters). 

“I think both are pretty warranted. I think you’re always gonna zig when everybody’s expecting you to zag when it comes to that character. As long as Disney’s open to doing some pretty wildly divergent or having some wildly divergent uses of Deadpool then I dig it, man. I think it’s all great,” Reynolds said on the Phase Zero podcast. 

It was announced in December that Jon Watt’s (Spider-Man: No Way Home) would direct their Fantastic Four reboot, but we’re still in the dark about mutant projects and if Deadpool 3 will release in 2023-2024 (Kevin had indicted that X-Men won’t be ready until 2025). 

Wendy Molyneux and Lizzie Molyneux-Loeglin (Bob’s Burgers) were previously announced as the film’s screenwriters, but we’re still waiting on a director announcement or an official release date to give us the indication of when it’ll begin shooting. Disney and Marvel have reiterated multiple times that they plan to keep the project R-rated and likely that it could end up distributed by 20th Century Studios (known for handling mature releases).

Disney obviously felt comfortable enough with Deadpool interacting with Thor: Ragnarok/Thor: Love & Thunder character Korg, played by Free Guy co-star Taika Waititi.

Technically, the reaction video could be considered the character’s first MCU appearance.

SOURCE: COMIC BOOK

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‘Planet Of The Apes 4’: Weta Digital Returning With ‘Alita: Battle Angel’ VFX Supervisor Tapped

It was heartbreaking to see Wes Ball’s (Maze Runner Trilogy) big special effects event film Mouse Guard getting scrapped as part of the wave of films that got cancelled in the wake of Disney’s merger with 21st Century Fox and taking oversight on feature films in development at 20th Century Fox (now 20th Century Studios).

Ball would instead be announced as the director and co-writer on a fourth installment in the modern Planet of The Apes franchise, the filmmaker assuring fans the project wouldn’t be a reboot but taking place in the same universe as the last three movies. The director co-writing the new film with Josh Friedman, who has worked on Steven Spielberg’s War of The Worlds, Brian De Palma’s The Black Dahlia, Terminator: Dark Fate, the Snowpiercer series, and Apple’s Foundation.

It looks like the next film should have the same level of impressive visual effects as previous installments.

The Ronin has learned that Weta Digital’s Phillip Leonhardt will be the visual effects supervisor on the untitled film having previously worked on Robert Rodriguez’s Alita: Battle Angel and Maze Runner: The Death Cure. Leonhardt is no stranger to the franchise with involvement on Matt Reeves’ War For The Planet of The Apes.

Weta Digital was working closely with Ball on Mouse Guard and Andy Serkis was going to have a role on that film, we would not be shocked if Serkis returned for Planet of The Apes 4. However, Serkis playing new chimpanzee role within the franchise could mimic how Roddy McDowall played both Cornelius and Caesar in the original string of films.

Folks unfamiliar with the original Planet of The Apes movies might be unaware that the modern trilogy really only covered pics such as Conquest of The Planet of The Apes and Battle For The Planet of The Apes, stories that don’t take place in the original timeline of the first two movies which is nearly 2,000 years in the future from the settings we’ve recently seen.

If I’m 20th Century Studios and Wes Ball, I would be ready at this point to make the true time jump to the point were the apes are running their own evolved society (less primitive and speaking) and potentially seeing a group of astronauts crash land on this planet having to navigate a setting where humans are no longer the dominate species. Beneath The Planet of The Apes revealed a secret group of mutated humans have gained the ability of telepathy (something that nobody has tackled since that installment), which could be an interesting spin as it’s not just a straight rehash of the original 1968 film and Tim Burton’s misguided reboot from 2001 starring Mark Wahlberg with fantastic makeup from Rick Baker.

Speaking of Wahlberg, we have our fingers crossed that Wes Ball hires someone with a little more age/skill to play a lead human role such as Pedro Pascal (The Mandalorian, Game of Thrones, The Last of Us) for potential roles of Colonel George Taylor or John Brent.

It was revealed he would be reuniting with production designer Daniel Dorrance ((A Good Day To Die Hard, Maze Runner: The Scorch Trials, Maze Runner: The Death Cure, The Expendables 3) on Planet of The Apes 4.

We have to assume that Ball will also bring on Maze Runner: The Death Cure cinematographer Gyula Pados (Predators, Jumanji: Welcome To The Jungle, Jumanji: The Next Level), who has been working on David F. Sandberg’s DC Comics sequel Shazam! Fury of The Gods in Atlanta. Pados having extensive experience with exterior shoots would certainly make his addition to the project an asset.

How far along Planet of The Apes 4 is at the moment is unknown and when they hope to begin shooting.

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EXCLUSIVE: ‘Godless’ Actor Samuel Marty To Appear In ‘Predator 5’

We’ve all been extremely interested to see what has been cooking with Disney/20th Century Studios’ next Predator installment as Predator 5, helmed by 10 Cloverfield Lane director Dan Trachtenberg (The Boys), has been quietly shooting in the Calgary area this summer.

The Ronin has learned that actor Samuel Marty, best known as Truckee from Netflix’s Godless, will have a role in the new untitled Predator movie. The young actor has also appeared on shows such as Fargo, Ray Donovan, and Hell On Wheels.

20th Century Studios and director Dan Tratchenberg have been mostly tight-lipped about Predator 5, but small details have been confirmed over the last couple of weeks/days.

Producers John Davis and John Fox while speaking with Collider, compared the film to The Revenant, teasing the period setting and supporting previous reporting that the film would focus on Native American characters.

This was amplified when cinematographer Jeff Cutter (10 Cloverfield Lane) posted a set photo from Skulls (working title) on Instragram with a Native American village seemingly in the background of the shot.

We first confirmed that Kyle Strauts (The Predator) would be back in the predator suit and mentioned Amber Midthunder (Legion, The Ice Road) as the potential female protagonist of the new film.

Midthunder and Marty would be the more high-profile of the cast members which are expected to be made up of mostly newcomers.

It was also announced by producer John Davis during an interview with Collider, that Dan Trachtenberg will be directing a Waterworld streaming series for Universal Television that will take place 20 years after the events of the Kevin Costner movie.

Predator 5 has yet to be given an official release date despite previous teases from trades about a date next summer and while producers have stated they’re shooting for an R-rating they’re open to the idea of it becoming PG-13 during the editing process (I really hope not).

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.

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‘Flash Gordon’: Taika Waititi’s Animated Film At 20th Century Studios Pivots To Live-Action

A new Flash Gordon movie has been in the works at 20th Century for ages with two different versions previously in development stages with directors Matthew Vaughn (Layer Cake, Stardust, X-Men: First Class) and Julius Avery (Overlord) assigned to the project at various points.

Flash Gordon is a pulp sci-fi hero that helped inspire George Lucas’ Star Wars franchise as Han Solo is directly connected to characters like Flash and Buck Rogers. A comic strip hero that debuted in 1937 with many live-action/animated incarnations with a string of serials and a campy film that released in 1980 that included music from Queen.

In the wake of 20th Century’s merger with Disney, Julius Avery’s incarnation was placed on ice and it was later announced that director Taika Waititi would be tackling an animated movie version of Flash Gordon by writing and directing it. However, producer John Davis has spoken to Collider revealing that Taika is currently writing it and has changed his mind wanting to do a live-action movie instead. He didn’t really give a timeline though or when they expect Waititi will be available to shoot it.

“Taika is writing it. It was a movie that was a huge influence on him growing up. It is one of his favorite movies. He initially said to me, ‘Let’s do it animated.’ I said, ‘Okay.’ Then we got into it and started developing it and he said, ‘No, let’s do it live-action.’ I said, ‘Even better,'” John Davis told Collider of Taika’s pivot to live-action with Flash Gordon.

Disney/20th Century certainly lucked-out nabbing the director as watching Thor: Ragnaok it’s hard not to notice that tone and visuals were most likely inspired by the 1980 movie.

Waititi only recently wrapped on Thor: Love & Thunder and is expected to direct a new Star Wars film for Lucasfilm in the near future alongside other films, but it’s possible that Flash Gordon could be the next big thing given how quickly he shoots these projects. He had once been attached to make a movie based on the manga Akira for Warner Bros., but he’s seemingly won’t be doing that.

I’ll continue to keep my fingers crossed that the studio and Taika will consider Black Panther franchise actor Winston Duke as the new Flash Gordon, given the actor’s stature fits the role perfectly and someone like Chris Hemsworth would be a little redundant since his Thor incarnation is essentially Flash now.

FLASH GORDON – Prepare to save the universe with the King of the Impossible! Alex Raymond’s famous comic strip blasts to life in the timeless sci-fi cult adventure Flash Gordon! When energy waves pull the moon out of orbit, New York Jets quarterback Flash Gordon unwittingly finds himself heading for the planet Mongo, where – with assistance from beautiful Dale Arden – he’ll take on Ming the Merciless and rescue humankind.

SOURCE: COLLIDER

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‘Predator 5’: Studio ADI Officially Returns To Handle Creature Effects

Predator 5 started production this week in Calgary and we finally know who will be tackling the creature effects on the fifth installment. Studio ADI, who tackled Alien vs. Predator, Alien vs. Predator: Requiem, and The Predator, is officially back for the latest project.

Some folks over at Studio ADI have confirmed on Instagram they’ll be returning to handle predator creature effects on Predator 5, including Alec Gills himself. The film is being directed by 10 Cloverfield Lane’s Dan Trachtenberg and it’s said that the alien hunter will clash with a group of Comanche warriors, something that the crew shirt reflects.

https://www.instagram.com/p/CP_P64sDH4a/

The Ronin first revealed that The Predator’s Kyle Strauts (we’ve now confirmed) would be reprising the role of the titular predator with Legion actress Amber Midthunder potentially taking a lead role (still unconfirmed by Disney/20th Century Studios).

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).

Neither Disney nor 20th Century Studios have announced a release date but trades had been speculation it would land a spot in the Summer of 2022.

A big thanks to our pal Nicholas Whitcomb for sending this our way, please give him a follow over on Twitter and subscribe to his channel on YouTube. Nick and I previously worked together at HN Entertainment. So, if you like what we’re doing here at The Ronin, I would advise you check him out as well as he’s equally as passionate about genre projects, if not more.

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.

Posted on in Film News

Dan Trachtenberg’s ‘Predator 5’ Has Begun Shooting In Calgary

It looks like production Disney’s Predator 5 has kicked off in Calgary, Alberta, Canada.

The project spent months being under the radar until the trades discovered the film from director Dan Trachtenberg (10 Cloverfield Lane, The Boys), was really a Predator installment as the working title threw people off originally.

Jhane Myers took to Instagram yesterday to announce that Day 1 of filming landed her a predator desert. Something Dan had been teasing on his own Instagram account.

The Ronin first revealed that The Predator’s Kyle Strauts (we’ve now confirmed) would be reprising the role of the titular predator with Legion actress Amber Midthunder potentially taking a lead role (still unconfirmed by Disney/20th Century Studios).

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).

Disney hasn’t announced a release date but trades had been speculation it would land a spot in the Summer of 2022.

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.

Posted on in Film News

Concept Art From Neill Blomkamp’s Unmade ‘Alien 5’ Features A New Android Character

Neill Blomkamp’s Alien 5 aka Red Harvest was once an elevator pitch made to Sigourney Weaver on the set of Chappie alongside a wave of concept art the filmmaker had commissioned on his own that materialized into an actual development deal with 20th Century Fox to make the sci-fi film.

Blomkamp’s idea was to ignore Alien 3 and Alien Resurrection treating Alien 5 as a direct sequel to Aliens, allowing them to have characters such as Michael Biehn’s Hicks and an adult version of Newt (the two characters spotted in concept artwork). If you missed David Fincher’s Alien 3 that movie opened by killing-off both Hicks and Newt something that frustrated fans and Aliens director James Cameron.

James Cameron famously called the Alien 5 script “gangbusters” (Cameron seemingly borrowed Alien 5’s concept for Terminator: Dark Fate) but the project ultimately didn’t get into the production phase as the studio pivoted to making Ridley Scott’s Alien: Covenant instead. Alien 5 would eventually be trust into limbo with Blomkamp exiting to pursue multiple other projects and Disney hasn’t suggested they plan on resurrecting it anytime soon.

However, a new batch of Alien 5 concept from artist Geoffory Thoorens’ Art Station page has been spotted by AVP Galaxy and it features a new android characters named Jax (fist image seen below with Ellen Ripley) and Killson, the latter looks a lot like Wolverine actor Hugh Jackman (second image seen below). I’m sort of curious if Neill Blomkamp wanted to have Jackman play one of the androids, the Australian actor was the face of 20th Century Fox’s popular X-Men franchise at the time and had recently worked with Blomkamp on Chappie that also co-starred Weaver.

Hugh Jackman as Killson?

UPDATE: Geoffroy’s website includes this stunning key frame image from an action sequence that features an alien queen and another type of xenomorph (Alien 5 was going to feature multiple hybrid xenomorphs). The film would have seen the evil corporation Weyland-Yutani getting their hands on one of the derelict ships filled with xenomorph eggs and finally experimenting on the dangerous alien species for their weapons division, something they’ve been trying to do since the original Ridley Scott film.

The Alien franchise is in odd place as a new television series set on Earth is in the works from Noah Hawley (Fargo, Legion) and Ridley Scott. There has been chatter from Ridley that he’s developing another film as well, but those plans have yet to be officially announced by the studio.

SOURCE: GEOFFROY THOORENS