Deadline reports that Man of Steel actor Michael Shannon has joined the growing cast of David Leitch’s (Deadpool 2, Atomic Blonde, John Wick) upcoming assassin film Bullet Train for Sony Pictures. His other credits includes The Shape of Water, Knives Out, Bad Boys 2, and Boardwalk Empire.
The film focuses on a group of assassins on Japanese bullet train in Tokyo.
Shannon is the latest addition to a cast that consists of recent Oscar winner Brad Pitt (Once Upon A Time In Hollywood), Joey King (The Dark Knight Rises), Andrew Koji (G.I. Joe Origins: Snake Eyes), Aaron Taylor-Johnson (Godzilla, Kick-Ass, Avengers: Age of Ultron), Brian Tyree Henry (Godzilla vs Kong, Widows, Joker, Eternals), and Zazie Beetz (Joker, Deadpool 2).
Sony Pictures hasn’t given Bullet Train an official release date and filming is taking place in Los Angeles, California.
Yesterday, Deadline broke a rumor that filming on an unannounced Boba Fett series could begin as early as this week.
They also added some new details concerning the untitled female-centric series coming from Russian Doll’s Leslye Headland. Stating that it will be an action thriller that will have martial arts elements taking place in “an alternate timeline”.
Adding to the confusion is the fact that Disney+ is developing a female-centered Star Wars series, written and showrun by Leslye Headland, believed to be a female-driven action thriller with martial arts elements and set in an alternate timeline from the usual Star Wars universe. The rumored spinoff is said to be separate from this Star Wars project but the situation is fluid.
While we’ve seen Jedi and gunslingers, we really haven’t seen a martial arts type project before. Star Wars: The Force Awakens featured The Raid 1-2 and John Wick: Chapter 3 actors Iko Uwais, Yayan Ruhian, and Cecep Arif Rahman as the group Kanjiklub. All three known for martial arts films. It’ll be interesting if they’ll be pursuing those kinds of actors for this new “action” series.
Martial arts star Donnie Yen’s also had a supporting role as Chirrut Imwe in Rogue One: A Star Wars Story.
It remains to be seen where this timeline will land. I know fans like myself would enjoy a setting in The Old Republic and could be one of the better untapped sectors of the Star Wars Universe.
Collider is reporting that Zac Efron has landed the role of Andy McGee in Blumhouse’s remake of the sci-fi action thriller Firestarter based on the Stephen King novel. Andy is the father of Charlie a young girl with telekinesis powers that include the ability to create fire out of thin air. Keith Thomas will direct a script penned by Halloween Kills screenwriter Scott Teems.
Zac Efron’s Netflix series Down To Earth turned heads when the actor revealed his “dad bod” which has led to him now playing dad roles.
The original 1984 film starred Drew Barrymore as Charlie.
Firestarter was a huge influence on the Netflix series Stranger Things.
Universal Pictures hasn’t given the film a release date.
FIRESTARTER – As youths, Andy McGee (David Keith) and his future wife, Vicky (Heather Locklear), participated in secret experiments, allowing themselves to be subjected to mysterious medical tests. Years later, the couple’s daughter, Charlie (Drew Barrymore), begins to exhibit the ability of setting fires solely with her mind. This volatile talent makes the youngster extremely dangerous and soon she becomes a target for the enigmatic agency known as “The Shop.”
News coming of the Toronto International Film Festival via Deadline that martial arts star Donnie Yen (Mulan, Rogue One: A Star Wars Story) will lead a new Boston-set action flick titled The Father from director Tommy Wirkola with production aiming to begin in early 2021.
Joining Yen in the film said to be an homage to action films of the 1980s will be Alec Baldwin (The Departed, Mission: Impossible – Fallout) and Frank Grillo (Captain America: The Winter Soldier).
The Father was written by Cut Throat City screenwriter P.G. Cuschieri.
Described as an ode to the revered action movies of the 1980s, The Father is set against the Irish-American gangland of South Boston and charts the struggle of middle-class Hong Kong immigrant John Chung (Yen) making the best of his family’s new American life while working as a modest fish broker in the city’s infamous docklands. When his wayward teenage boys stumble upon four kilos of heroin, they’re hunted by a local crime ring and a group of corrupt cops. Also starring are Alec Baldwin and Frank Grillo.
Arthur Sarkissian (Rush Hour), Basil Iwanyk and Erica Lee of Thunder Road (John Wick), John Schramm and Yen will produce from a script by P.G. Cuschieri to be directed by Tommy Wirkola (Hansel and Gretel: Witch Hunters).
Yen has been mostly known for his Ip Man franchise but has shown up in various Hollywood films such as Guillermo del Toro’s Blade II, Shanghai Knights, Rogue One: A Star Wars Story, xXx: The Return of Xander Cage, and most recently with Disney’s live-action remake of Mulan.
Norwegian director Tommy Wirkola is known for his genre hybrid films Dead Snow and Hansel & Gretel: Witch Hunters.
Actors Daniel Dae Kim and Randall Park were previously seen in Netflix’s Always Be My Maybe as romantic rivals, but the pair will be leading an untitled heist movie for Amazon Studios written by Yung Il Kim (Billions).
Plot details for the film are scarce but here is what the report said and seems to skew in the realm of comedy.
Loosely focused on a reunion of high school friends who come together in a nod to the classic, fun ensemble heist films.
Park recently returned the role of Ant-Man & The Wasp‘s Jimmy Woo in the Disney+ series Loki which is expected to resume production soon and begin airing on the streaming service in 2021.
Deadline reports that Universal 1440 and Netflix are teaming up for a sequel to the Keanu Reeves samurai fantasy film 47 Ronin, inspired by the Japanese historical event from the 18th Century but added fantasy elements to it. The new film is said to be set 300 years in the future and will be set in the exotic world of cyberpunk adding science fiction elements to the fantasy/horror from the original.
Mulan actor Ron Yuan will be directing with an expectation that filming could begin in the first quarter of 2021.
It’s unknown if they’ll attempt to bring any original cast members to play new characters but it certainly allows them to hire a majority of Asian actors to lead the film.
47 RONIN – In feudal Japan, Lord Asano rules his province with fairness. However, jealous Lord Kira (Tadanobu Asano) fears that the shogun favors Asano over him and hatches a plot that ends with Asano’s ritual suicide. After Asano’s death, his samurai, led by Oishi (Hiroyuki Sanada), are forced to live as outcasts. Oishi wanders for several years but realizes that he must turn to Kai (Keanu Reeves), a mixed-blood warrior he once rejected, to help him and his ronin comrades take revenge on Lord Kira.
Deadline reports that John Wick trilogy director Chad Stahelski and creator Derek Kolstad have joined New Line Cinema’s upcoming English remake of the South Korean film The Man From Nowhere. Chad will produce the remake via 87Eleven Entertainment with Derek tackling the script.
The original film centered around a quiet pawnshop keeper with a violent past who takes on a drug-and-organ trafficking ring in hope of saving the child who is his only friend.
Chad is currently helping out on The Matrix 4 action sequences, is expected to direct John Wick: Chapter 4 next, is behind a spinoff series titled The Continental, and is developing a reboot of the Highlander franchise for Lionsgate.
Kolstad is a busy bee working on Marvel Studios’ upcoming Disney+ series The Falcon & The Winter Soldier, a feature film adaptation of the video game Just Cause, and recently was tapped by Netflix to tackle two seasons of an animated series based on the video game franchise Splinter Cell.
It’ll be interesting who they end up casting in the lead role and how different this version will be from the original.
This isn’t the first or last American remake of popular Asian-made films. A Parasite series is in the works at HBO and Martin Scorsese’s The Departed is an Americanized take on Infernal Affairs.
Deadline reports that young actress Joey King is currently in negotiations to play the role of Prince in Sony’s action film Bullet Train from director David Leitch (Deadpool 2, Atomic Blonde). Oscar-winner Brad Pitt is set to play an assassin named Ladybug.
The film is based on the novel Maria Beetle from Japanese author Kotaro Isaka, it will focus on a group of assassins on a bullet train.
King’s credits include The Dark Knight Rises, The Conjuring, White House Down, The Act, and most recently with Netflix’s The Kissing Booth 2.
Filming is expected to begin this fall in Los Angeles, California.
However, that will likely be dependant on how the city/state is doing with the pandemic and if there is a second wave that shuts down productions.
While promoting her comic book Netflix film The Old Guard, actress Charlize Theron revealed to Total Film (via Games Radar) that she is indeed speaking with the streaming service as a home for their sequel to their 80s-set action flick Atomic Blonde, which she previously confirmed is in an early scripting phase.
THERON: “We took [Atomic Blonde 2] to them and Scott Stuber [Head of Original Films at Netflix] was really interested in it. We talked to him about it extensively, and we’re in the process of writing it right now. That character was set up in a way where she didn’t really reveal much of herself. So I feel like there’s a lot of potential there. The bar’s pretty high, but we’re excited about it.”
ATOMIC BLONDE – Sensual and savage, Lorraine Broughton is the most elite spy in MI6, an agent who’s willing to use all of her lethal skills to stay alive during an impossible mission. With the Berlin Wall about to fall, she travels into the heart of the city to retrieve a priceless dossier and take down a ruthless espionage ring. Once there, she teams up with an embedded station chief to navigate her way through the deadliest game of spies.
This would confirm previous information that was circulating months ago via Discussing Film.
Who will ultimately direct the sequel is up-in-the-air since David Leitch is busy with Sony’s Bullet Train starring Brad Pitt and has multiple other projects cooking at various studios as well such as an Enter The Dragon remake for Warner Bros., a movie based on the video game The Division for Netflix, and a feature film based on the classic martial arts series Kung Fu.
I think there is a good shot that we’ll see Atomic Blonde 2‘s setting push into the 1990s and explore a post-Soviet Union world of espionage.
Charlize is also hopeful about Netflix giving a sequel to The Old Guard.
THERON: “We went into this talking about [a sequel] as a possibility, and it’s definitely something that excites us.”
THE OLD GUARD – A group of mercenaries, all centuries-old immortals with the ability to heal themselves, discover someone is onto their secret, and they must fight to protect their freedom.
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.
THE RONIN 