A new trailer for Matthew Vaughn’s Kingsman prequel King’s Man has been released by 20th Century Studios and they’ll sticking to their September 18th release date.
This new footage includes Aaron Taylor-Johnson as a shadowy figure (bald and with a mustache) and is most likely playing the film’s main villain. The unnamed character also clearly has a Scottish accent and seems to be leading the group of villains our heroes will be going up against throughout the film.
Could Aaron’s ring be clue that connects him to the Duke of Oxford and the newly formed agency?
As a collection of history’s worst tyrants and criminal masterminds gather to plot a war to wipe out millions, one man must race against time to stop them. Discover the origins of the very first independent intelligence agency in The King’s Man.
I wouldn’t be terribly shocked if Disney/20th Century decides to delay the release date.
The rest of the cast in the prequel includes Ralph Fiennes as Duke of Oxford, Harris Dickinson as Conrad, Gemma Arterton as Polly, Djimon Hounsou as Shola, Charles Dance as Arthur, Daniel Bruhl, Stanley Tucci, Matthew Goode as Tristan, Tom Hollander, and Rhys Ifans as Rasputin.
You can see Aaron in the new poster wearing a British uniform.
Last week, it was revealed by Alien franchise actress Sigourney Weaver that producer Walter Hill penned a draft for Alien 5 over a year ago. Weaver didn’t sound terribly enthusiastic about reprising the Ripley role.
Hill has now reached out to SyFy Wire and has added some new information including images of the script titled “Alien V” is dated March 13th, 2020 and is co-written by fellow franchise producer/screenwriter David Giler. The pair did rewrites on the original Alien script, worked on Aliens with James Cameron, and were behind the final version of Alien 3.
HILL: “Sigourney, as she has from the very beginning, is being too modest about her proven ability to pull off the idea — which is to tell a story that scares the pants off your date, kicks the ass of a new Xenomorph, and conducts a meditation on both the universe of the Alien franchise and the destiny of the character of Lt. Ellen Ripley.”
This would establish the pair have been more recently working on the project since Neill Blomkamp exited to purse other films and might be something they’ve been doing on their own, rather than something guided by Disney or 20th Century Studios.
Meaning that Alien V hasn’t been greenlit.
“In space nobody can hear you dream” is mentioned on the tagline, which might suggest their version could attempt to retcon both Alien 3 and Alien: Resurrection via cryosleep. Blomkamp wanted to have Alien 5 a direct sequel to Aliens with bringing back characters like Hicks, Newt, and even Bishop.
I sort of get vibes from when Ridley Scott’s production company Scott Free was originally tasked to develop the Alien: Origins script with Jon Spaihts before it became the version of Prometheus we know today.
Yesterday, producer Jon Landau announced via his Instagram account (has oddly removed all his previous tweets) that the Avatar sequels have now resumed the live-action portion of the filming in Wellington, New Zealand.
Production is taking place at the Stone Street Studios facility.
Jon posted this image from the set.
LANDAU: “Used my iPhone to snap a picture of our first shot back in production on the Avatar sequels.”
This comes after their 14-day mandatory isolation as per government regulations.
The Avatar sequels are seemingly the first major productions to resume after the pandemic first broke out, worth noting that New Zealand has only had two new cases of COVID-19 over the last 24 days. The remote island nation is certainly in much better position to resume filming than the United States or even the United Kingdom.
It’s unknown if the production delays from back in March will directly impact the release date of December 17th, 2021.
We’ve been waiting to hear some update concerning the Alien franchise and while there has been some teases from Ridley Scott that his third prequel Alien: Awakening is still in development phases. A fifth Alien film starring Sigourney Weaver as Ellen Ripley might be still in the cards despite the Neill Blomkamp incarnation of the project being placed on ice.
While speaking with Empire, Weaver revealed that she received a 50-page Alien 5 treatment 18 months ago from franchise producer and screenwriter Walter Hill. Hill has been part of the franchise since the original 1979 film and worked on scripts (including rewrites and treatments) for Alien, Aliens, and Alien 3.
She doesn’t sound as enthusiastic about Ripley’s return it as she was when Blomkamp was attached for Alien 5 as it sounds like Ridley Scott could be calling the shots.
WEAVER: “I don’t know. Ridley has gone in a different direction. Maybe Ripley has done her bit. She deserves a rest.”
I think Alien 5 is still the best way to go. Neill Blomkamp wanted to make a film that directly connected to Aliens with the return of characters such as Newt, Hicks, and Bishop after being killed-off in Alien 3, which was co-written by Walter Hill.
There is a good chance that Hill’s version might have been a continuation from Alien: Resurrection following a clone version of Ripley. Something that had been the original intention of Alien 5 when Ridley Scott and James Cameron teamed-up for their own incarnation before the studio passed to make Alien vs Predator instead.
At one point, James Cameron was able to read Neill’s script and called it “gangbusters” during an Aliens Anniversary panel at San Diego Comic-Con back in 2016.
Ridley Scott has seemingly been the main reason Alien 5 hasn’t come together as he pulled his weight at Fox to have Alien: Covenant made instead of Blomkamp’s film, essentially killing it in the process.
Despite original reports that Wes Ball’s new Planet of The Apes film would be a hard reboot of the franchise, the director has come out publicly to debunk that the film will be ignoring or undoing the work of the last three films.
While speaking with Discussing Film, Wes dropped an interesting tidbit about the creative team working on the new Apes film that includes Avatar 2 and Terminator: Dark Fate screenwriter Josh Friedman tackling the script.
BALL: “We were using the same material, the same kind of technology, we were using a lot of the same people involved – I had asked Andy Serkis to join Mouse Guard. So it was kind of natural fit. I understand where it came from and my big thing was: what do you do for a Planet of the Apes sequel? One, those last three movies are one of the great trilogies we have in modern movie history. They are just so well done. They honored the original movies they sprang from, the Charlton Heston movies, but they grounded it in a modern sensibility and it just worked. Caesar is one of the great movie characters that we’ll have throughout time. So what do you do to follow that up, right? At the same time, I wasn’t interested in doing a part four either. We want to also do our own thing.”
“We have a take. We have a way of staying in the universe that was created before us, but we’re also opening ourselves up in being able to do some really cool new stuff. Again, I’m trying to be careful here. I’ll say this, for fans of the original three don’t worry – you’re in good hands. The original writers and producers that came up with Rise and Dawn, Rick Jaffa and Amanda Silver, they’re also on board with this. Josh Friedman is writing this thing, a lot of the same crew is kind of involved. We will feel like we’re part of that original trilogy, but at the same time we’re able to do some really cool new stuff. It will be really exciting to see on the biggest screen possible.”
It sounds like that “technology” tidbit would infer that Weta Digital will be making a return for his incarnation. Weta had previously worked on all three of the recent films.
Interestingly enough, Wes worked closely with Weta Digital in the past on his Maze Runner sequels Mazer Runner: The Scorch Trials and Maze Runner: The Death Cure.
He was also set to work again with Weta for his fantasy film Mouse Guard before Disney and 20th Century Studios pulled the plug on it post-merger. The graphic novel adaptation was going to be produced by Matt Reeves with Andy Serkis taking a lead role as the villain.
The director also mentions they’re still in the scripting and production design phase of the film but could begin “virtual production” soon.
BALL: “Well, Planet of the Apes is moving forward and we have a giant art team cranking away on some incredible concept art. We’ve got the screenplay continuing to move forward, that will take the time that it takes and so that’s all good. Planet of the Apes is moving forward baby! Not only that, but we could actually be in virtual production relatively soon because it’s largely a CG movie.”
I’m really curious if they’re going to push the franchise deep into the future side of things. As the recent trilogy only covered the settings of the final films in the franchise that took cues from the final two installments, Conquest and Battle.
I think it’ll be interesting to see what the ape society looks like in two thousand years or at the very least a couple of hundred years. Wes can surely honor the look and legacy of the first three films while pushing the franchise in a new direction to give it new life along with showcasing what ape cities could like in the future. It also allows them to bring back Andy Serkis to play another chimpanzee character, not unlike how Roddy McDowall played Cornelius and then later on his son Caesar.
You might be unaware but a full year ago it was reported by Variety that 20th Century Studios was still developing a third Alien prequel film (previously referred to Alien: Awakening) from director Ridley Scott attached and script being written.
This was reinforced by Scott himself when speaking The Hollywood Reporter that there were discussions for future installments.
Ruminating on the immediate future of the Alien franchise, now that Disney has acquired 21st Century Fox, Scott confirms that there are discussions for future installments, but warns that if the basic premise of “the beast” does not evolve like the Xenomorph itself, the “joke” gets old.
The Los Angeles Times was able to speak with Ridley recently and he gave some more hope to fans that are waiting for some official announcement about the project moving forward.
SCOTT: “I still think there’s a lot of mileage in ‘Alien,’ but I think you’ll have to now re-evolve. What I always thought when I was making it, the first one, why would a creature like this be made and why was it traveling in what I always thought was a kind of war-craft, which was carrying a cargo of these eggs. What was the purpose of the vehicle and what was the purpose of the eggs? That’s the thing to question — who, why, and for what purpose is the next idea, I think.”
We don’t know what the main details of Alien: Awakening could be other than David now having access to the Covenant colonists for his experiments. However, an excerpt from Empire Magazine claimed that the third film from screenwriter John Logan (Alien: Covenant) may see David face surviving Engineers, alluding to how the derelict ship got on LV-426 and led to the events of the original Alien.
Lead actor Michael Fassbender is still keen to return for more films after speaking with Italian outlet Bad Taste last year while promoting Dark Phoenix.
FASSBENDER: “I’d love to. I just absolutely love working with Ridley and it was a real moment for me. When I stepped onto the set of Prometheus and got to work with him, and yeah I love the character. It’s a lot of fun, so yeah.”
We’ll have to wait for 20th Century Studios to make an official announcement, but it’s worth mentioning that the new President of Production, Steve Asbell, has a facehugger on his official Twitter avatar image.
THE RONIN 