Tag: Amazon Prime Video

Amazon's 'Fallout' Season 2 Adds Macaulay Culkin To The Post-Apocalypse Frey
Posted on in News, Television News

‘Fallout’ Season 2 Adds Macaulay Culkin To The Post-Apocalypse Frey

One of the biggest surprises of 2024 was how fun and entertaining Amazon‘s “Fallout” series was, along with being able to properly adapt the satirical sci-fi video game world, which led it to become one of the more popular originals on the streaming service. “Fallout” season two has now added a familiar face to the call sheet as Macaulay Culkin has nabbed an unnamed part on the show.

While details of his character are limited, they did describe him as a “crazy genius,” which could mean more experiments gone wrong and wasteland creatures. Without spoiling the last season, the second one is expected to move from the Los Angeles area to New Vegas, the setting of an established video game.

Culkin now joins Ella Purnell, Aaron Moten, Walton Goggins, Kyle MacLachlan, Moisés Arias, Sarita Choudhury, Michael Emerson, Leslie Uggams, Frances Turner, Dave Register, Zach Cherry, Johnny Pemberton, Rodrigo Luzzi, Annabel O’Hagan, and Xelia Mendes-Jones.

Macaulay Culkin, Walton Goggins | Pressroom

The former child actor and sibling of Kieran Culkin (“Succession”) has been getting back into the acting world more frequently lately, showing up on TV projects recently like “American Horror Story” and “Righteous Gemstones.” Funny enough, in the latter, he plays the estranged son of Walton Goggins’ goofy televangelist character, Baby Billy Freeman, which could be a strong reason he’s been added to the new season of “Fallout,” given that Goggins plays a significant lead in the series after nabbing an Emmy nomination (one of 16 the show earned for season one) thanks to his portrayal of the Ghoul.

“Based on one of the greatest video game series of all time, Fallout is the story of haves and have-nots in a world in which there’s almost nothing left to have. 200 years after the apocalypse, the gentle denizens of luxury fallout shelters are forced to return to the irradiated hellscape their ancestors left behind — and are shocked to discover an incredibly complex, gleefully weird and highly violent universe waiting for them.”

SOURCE: DEADLINE

'Blade Runner 2099': Amazon Cyberpunk Spinoff Series Adds 'Civil War' & 'Annihilation' Cinematographer Rob Hardy
Posted on in News, Television News

‘Blade Runner 2099’: Amazon Cyberpunk Spinoff Series Adds ‘Civil War’ & ‘Annihilation’ Cinematographer Rob Hardy

Amazon Prime Video and Alcon are behind a new spinoff streaming series set within the world of “Blade Runner” (50 years after the events of “Blade Runner 2049”) that has Oscar-winning actress Michelle Yeoh (“Everything Everywhere All At Once”) attached to star in an undisclosed role and has “Shōgun” director Jonathan van Tulleken involved on “Blade Runner 2099” as well.

The Ronin can confirm that Rob Hardy (“Mission: Impossible – Fallout”) has joined the crew of “Blade Runner 2099” as a director of photography. Hardy is likely best known as the cinematographer of a bunch of Alex Garland movies such as “Ex Machina,” “Annihilation,” the FX series “DEVS,” the folklore horror pic “Men,” and his most recent film, “Civil War.”

Based on the Philip K. Dick novel “Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep?,” the original 1982 film focused on a group of replicants who have escaped the off-world colonies to Earth, where their presence is considered illegal. Authorities have sanctioned their termination by hiring a retired Blade Runner, Deckard, to quickly silence the situation by killing them on sight once they’ve been confirmed as replicants and not the humans they’re pretending to be. After being introduced to a non-violent replicant who isn’t aware they are one, Deckard decides to whisk off with her toward the end, leading the hunter to become the hunted.

We haven’t seen the nine off-world colonies in the main two movies (they have been teased/shown in tie-in shorts), and it would be quite the jump for the franchise for events to transpire in a non-Earthbound setting.

'Blade Runner 2099': Michelle Yeoh To Star In Amazon's Cyberpunk Spinoff Series
Posted on in News, Television News

‘Blade Runner 2099’: Oscar-Winner Michelle Yeoh To Star In Amazon’s Cyberpunk Spinoff Series

Amazon Prime Video is riding high after their latest series “Fallout” has become their second biggest viewed show on the streaming service behind “Lord of The Rings: The Rings of Power,” and one of their other ambitious projects looks to help expand the “Blade Runner” universe with “Blade Runner 2099.”

Best Actress Oscar winner Michelle Yeoh (“Everything Everywhere All At Once”) is the first actor to join the limited cyberpunk series, according to various trade reports, including one from Variety. That would suggest that Yeoh is taking a lead role, but there aren’t any concrete plot or character details about who exactly the actress is playing in “Blade Runner 2099.”

The world of “Blade Runner” hails from the Philip K. Dick novel “Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep?” but properly fleshed-out thanks to Ridley Scott in 1982 with the original movie and then Denis Villeneuve’s sequel “Blade Runner 2049.” As the title would suggest, there is going to be a 50-year time jump with this new streaming series, and we’ll keep our fingers crossed we’ll finally see some of these off-world colonies (nine colonies established back in 2049).

While both feature films have had a huge influence from both Japanese and Chinese atheistic, we really haven’t seen what these Asian countries look like in this universe. However, there is the assumption that various Asian countries like Japan are behind the effort to populate the off-world colonies, and Earthbound nations might be just as sparse as the United States.

One of the other impressive hirings for the spinoff series is director Jonathan van Tulleken, who most recently worked on the massive FX hit streaming series, “Shogun,” and helmed two episodes.

Yeoh has made her presence in Hollywood’s genre realm well-established going back to the 1990s when she joined the James Bond franchise with “Tomorrow Never Dies,” which nearly led to her own spinoff film but ultimately didn’t materialize. Some of those other genre projects include “Shang-Chi & The Legend of The Ten Rings,” “Star Trek: Discovery,” Danny Boyle’s sci-fi thriller “Sunshine,” “American Born Chinese,” “The Witcher: Blood Origin,” had a brief cameo in “Guardians of The Galaxy Vol.2,” “Morgan,” “The Mummy: Tomb of The Dragon Emperor,” and James Cameron’s highly-anticipated “Avatar” sequels to the two previous multi-billion dollar successes.

An exciting development on a streaming project that could help add to the “Blade Runner” mythology.

SOURCE: VARIETY

'Fallout' Season 2 Officially Announced By Amazon, Wasteland Series Will Continue
Posted on in News, Television News

‘Fallout’ Season 2 Officially Announced By Amazon As Wasteland Series Is Heading To New Vegas

Today, Amazon Prime Video has made it official via social media posts that their post-apocalypse series, with a satirical flare, will be returning for a second season. “Fallout” takes place 200+ years after nukes engulfed a fictional retro-futuristic world, leading a portion of humanity to hunker down in corporate-built self-sustaining bunker communities called Vaults.

This announcement was sort of telegraphed by a report from the California Film Commission that revealed that “Fallout” has been approved to relocate to California and earn tax credits to shoot a second season there, suggesting that it was already a foregone conclusion ahead of the show’s release this month.

The cast of “Fallout” consists of Ella Purnell, Walton Goggins, Aaron Clifton Moten, Kyle MacLachlan, Leslie Uggams, Zach Cherry, Frances Turner, Annabel O’Hagan, Moises Arias, Jon Daly, and Johnny Pemberton.

In the first season, Lucy (Purnell) leaves Vault 33 to find her kidnapped father after a group of raiders break into the Vault and cause chaos. Lucy navigates an increasingly hostile wasteland that leads to her bumping into The Ghoul (Goggins), an unkillable bounty hunter with a mysterious past that links him to Vault-Tech as he’s been kicking around since before the nukes dropped. Another character introduced is Maximus, a good-intentioned young soldier who happens to be trying to find a foothold in a fascist religious cult that is armed to the teeth that are trying to control the wasteland and what technology the population has access to.

Without spoiling too much about how the show ends, there is a connection to “Fallout: New Vegas,” which should play out in season two.

SOURCE: AMAZON PRIME VIDEO

Posted on in News, Television News

‘Blade Runner 2099’: Amazon Taps ‘Shōgun’ Director Jonathan Van Tulleken As New Helmer For Their Ambitious Cyberpunk Spinoff Series

While we’ve all been anticipating any sort of casting update concerning Amazon‘s live-action “Blade Runner” spinoff series “Blade Runner 2099,” there has been a bit of a creative shake-up as Deadline reports that “Shōgun” director Jonathan Van Tulleken has joined the sci-fi thriller streaming series and there is an expectation that filming might finally begin in Prague around the spring/summer of this year after multiple production delays. Moving from its original production home of Belfast, Northern Ireland.

Van Tulleken will replace the series’ previous director Jeremy Podeswa of “Station Eleven,” who is said to have exited over “scheduling issues.” His mature samurai series reboot, “Shōgun,” is already getting some major buzz from critics ahead of its late February debut on Hulu and on Disney+ internationally.

Welcome to 'Blade Runner' year, now where are my damn off-world colonies | Mashable

As the title suggests, the Amazon series will take place 50 years after the events of Denis Villeneuve‘s impressive sequel “Blade Runner 2049” which starred Ryan Gosling, Harrison Ford, Jared Leto, Ana de Armas, Sylvia Hoeks, and Robin Wright. Silka Luisa is the writer and showrunner with Michael Green (“Blade Runner 2049”) serving as an executive producer. Details are unknown, but in 2049 it’s revealed that there are nine off-world colonies none of which we have explored in live-action, so far. Given the 50-year time jump there is the potential for “Blade Runner 2099” to explore both Los Angeles and these off-world colonies that have been consistently teased over the last 40+ years. They are considered a hellish place for replicants as they’re used as slave labor in various mining operations and end up being also used as pawns in various off-world wars. In “2049,” there were hints of a replicant uprising being planned that could see Wallace’s new wave of androids rebelling against their human overlords across the galaxy.

The series hails from Alcon Entertainment and Ridley Scott’s production company Scott Free Productions. Scott as you might remember helped launch the “Blade Runner” franchise in 1982 with the first film (A loose adaptation of the Philip K. Dick story “Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep?”) becoming a bit of a cult smash on home video after a disastrous theatrical release which could be due to the horrendous voice-over element from Harrison Ford that would be removed from subsequent television and director cuts of the cyberpunk classic.

“Shōgun” looks to be just as big of a technical giant for a director to execute which could be a strong reason why Van Tulleken was selected as the new helmer. Now, with a director firmly set, the next phase will be filling out the show’s cast.

SOURCE: DEADLINE

Posted on in Film News

FIRST LOOK: Kate Beckinsale Returns To R-Rated Action With ‘Crank’ Knock-Off ‘Jolt’ Releasing July 23 On Amazon

Yesterday, it was announced by Amazon that they had acquired the Millennium Films action movie Jolt, starring British actress Kate Beckinsale best known for playing Selene in the Underworld franchise. The film will be officially heading to Prime Video and releases on July 23.

Below is the official synopsis from Amazon.

Lindy is a beautiful, sardonically-funny woman with a painful secret: Due to a lifelong, rare neurological disorder, she experiences sporadic rage-filled, murderous impulses that can only be stopped when she shocks herself with a special electrode device. Unable to find love and connection in a world that fears her bizarre condition, she finally trusts a man long enough to fall in love, only to find him murdered the next day. Heartbroken and enraged, she embarks on a revenge-filled mission to find his killer, while also being pursued by the police as the crime’s prime suspect.

Jolt sounds like an obvious proxy to Jason Statham’s Crank films, but until we get a trailer we can’t be sure it’ll have a similar wacky tone as those films were satirical and a parody of exploitation films.

Directed by Tanya Wexler with a script penned by Scott Wascha. The impressive supporting cast joining Beckinsale in the R-rated action romp include Bobby Cannavale, Jai Courtney, Laverne Cox, David Bradley, Ori Pfeffer, Susan Sarandon, and Stanley Tucci as Lindy’s therapist.

They also released three images featuring Kate Beckinsale as her character Lindy.

It’s been a while since Kate tackled an action film with Underworld: Blood Wars in 2016 and her last high-profile project was the Amazon Prime Video original series The Widow.

Millennium Films is also behind the new Red Sonja remake from director and co-writer Joey Soloway that stars Hannah John-Kamen (Ant-Man & The Wasp, Resident Evil: Welcome To Raccoon City) as the sword-wielding warrior with former Wonder Woman contender Jaimie Alexander (plays Lady Sif in Marvel’s Thor franchise) recently teasing a possible role. I’m sort of curious if Red Sonja will end up on Amazon.

Jolt hits Amazon on July 23.

SOURCE: AMAZON

Posted on in Television News

Amazon’s ‘The Boys’ Is Getting A Spinoff Series – Takes Place At A Superhero College

Variety reports that Amazon is moving forward with a spinoff of their popular mature comic book series The Boys with Craig Rosenberg set to write and showrun the pilot. This news comes on the heels that Amazon claims that the second season is their most popular original series, although this is coming from Amazon and this data can’t be verified.

Craig Rosenberg is writing the pilot and will serve as showrunner and executive producer under his overall deal with Sony Pictures Television, with Rosenberg currently serving as writer and executive producer on the original series.

The new series is said to focus on a college of superheroes run by Vought International.

The spinoff is set at America’s only college exclusively for young adult superheroes (or “supes”) that is run by Vought International. It is described as an irreverent, R-rated series that explores the lives of hormonal, competitive supes as they put their physical, sexual, and moral boundaries to the test, competing for the best contracts in the best cities. Part college show, part Hunger Games — with all the heart, satire and raunch of The Boys.

The Boys is heading for a third season with Supernatural actor Jensen Ackles playing the character Soldier Boy.

Filming takes place in Toronto and is expected to return there for Season 3.

SOURCE: VARIETY

Posted on in Television News

Arnold Schwarzenegger Returns To The Spy Genre For Original Skydance Television Series – ‘True Lies’ Series At Disney+ Not Happening?

Arnold Schwarzenegger is finally making his television debut!

Deadline reports that Arnold Schwarzenegger and Skydance Television are teaming for an original father-daughter spy adventure series from Scorpion creator Nick Santora. 

They also mention that the project will be out to streamers soon but I think it’s obvious we’ll they’ll be taking it. 

I would bet heavily that the series would end up landing on Amazon Prime Video or Netflix, given that Skydance has an existing relationship with Amazon for their Jack Ryan and Jack Reacher shows and multiple high-budgeted Skydance Media films have landed at Netflix. 

I’m leaning towards Amazon as Santora is the showrunner and executive producer of their upcoming Jack Reacher series. 

Arnold has previously worked with Skydance on the two soft-reboots of the Terminator franchise with Terminator: Genisys and Terminator: Dark Fate, both had trouble earning money at the box office. 

You might remember that producer/director McG (Lethal Weapon, Terminator: Salvation, Charlie’s Angels) teased to Collider a while back he was developing a series based on James Cameron’s True Lies series, pitching with the aim for it to land at Disney+ that may have seen Arnold and Jamie Lee Curtis potentially reprising their roles. 

This news might confirm that True Lies won’t be happening.

Schwarzenegger had been trying for years to get a direct sequel to Conan The Barbarian titled The Legend of King Conan, but hasn’t had much luck getting to the production stage as Universal Pictures has seemingly dropped those plans. 

In 2018, it was reported by Deadline that a Conan The Barbarian series was in the works at Amazon. I’m curious if this spy series lands at Amazon that it would help establish a relationship that leads to Arnold reprising the Conan role. Amazon also is currently in production on shows set in the fantasy worlds of Lord of The Rings and The Wheel of Time. 

SOURCE: DEADLINE