Tag: Amazon Studios

Posted on in News

Amazon Studios Nearing Deal To Turn Sci-Fi Video Game ‘Mass Effect’ Into A Series

Amazon Studios is behind a wave of high-profile fantasy series with Robert Jordan’s The Wheel of Time and a new take on J.R.R. Tolkien’s Middle-Earth franchise with The Lord of The Rings (taking place in the Second Age before events of the two trilogies).

They are seemingly pivoting towards sci-fi shows based on video games after previous plans to turn Fallout into a show as well at Amazon from Westworld’s Jonathan Nolan and Lisa Joy, another one is said to be on the horizon.

Deadline is now claiming the streamer is attempting to adapt the beloved sci-fi action video game series, Mass Effect, into a new television series. Amazon is reportedly “nearing a deal” but without mentioning potential showrunners or writers that would be adapting the project.

One of the company’s newest hopefuls in the arena is Mass Effect. Amazon Studios is nearing a deal to develop a series based on the best-selling sci-fi video game franchise from Electronic Arts.

A potential television series was teased over the summer by Mass Effect’s project director Mac Walters.

“It’s such an expansive world, and so many people I know in the TV and film industry have reached out to ask me when we’re going to do it and saying we’ve got to do it,” Walters told Business Insider.

In a technologically advanced future, an elite human soldier takes command of a prototype starship and works to defend the galaxy from danger.

At one time, a feature film based on Mass Effect had been in the works for ages, but for various reasons never came together. Legendary (Dune) got their hands on the film rights back in 2010. It’ll be interesting to see how they’ll attempt to adapt the universe or try to do something brand new set in that world.

The Halo series has been shooting for two years during the pandemic and will debut next year on Paramount+, setting the stage for more expensive shows based on popular video games. Other live-action projects on the horizon include The Last of Us at HBO and Assassin’s Creed at Netflix.

SOURCE: DEADLINE

Posted on in Film News, News

Sterling K. Brown To Lead Amazon Action Pic ‘Coyote Blue’ Penned By ‘John Wick’ Creator Derek Kolstad

Amazon Studios and John Wick creator Derek Kolsad are teaming up for an original action film.

Variety reports that Sterling K. Brown (This Is Us) will lead the pic titled Blue Coyote, which will see Brown playing a man on the run from a group of ruthless criminals, but as seen in other Kolstad projects he has a certain set of lethal skills that will be begrudging be used at some point against his would-be killers.

The story revolves around an everyman (Brown) who’s hunted by a ruthless criminal syndicate for his mysterious cargo, and now must navigate the treacherous terrain of Route 66 while unleashing his lethal set of skills in a fight for survival.

Coyote Blue will be the feature film debut for television director Hanelle M. Culpepper, who has worked on Star Trek: Discovery, Star Trek: Picard, Kung Fu, American Crime, Mayans M.C., Samuel L. Jackson’s Apple TV+ limited series The Last Days of Ptolemy Grey, and the upcoming Amazon series adaptation of Neil Gaimen’s Ansani Boys.

Sterling K. Brown is no stranger to action projects with credits such as Hotel Artemis, The Predator, The Rhythm Section, and had a brief role in Marvel’s billion-dollar hit Black Panther playing the father of Michael B. Jordan’s Erik Killmonger.

Kolstad was recently behind the Bob Odenkirk actioner Nobody (sequel in early development) and worked with head writer Malcolm Spellman on Marvel’s hit streaming series The Falcon & The Winter Soldier.

With Culpepper busy with Amazon’s Anasni Boys, it’s unknown when we can expect Blue Coyote to begin shooting.

Still, it’s interesting to see Sterling K. Brown make the big jump to action lead and should be a fun ride given how he’s grown as a solid actor over the years. We don’t normally see seasoned actors given these type of roles and Brown’s involvement should easily elevate the material, just like with Bob Odenkirk in Nobody.

SOURCE: VARIETY

Posted on in News, Television News

‘Wheel Of Time’: Amazon Announces Season 2 Has Started Shooting With Director Thomas Napper

We’re still waiting on a trailer and release date for Season 1 of Amazon’s big fantasy series The Wheel of Time, based on the series of Robert Jordan novels. The streaming service announced plans to move forward with Season 2 even before anyone has got a real good look at the show and even crazier they have officially started filming the next season this week.

The Wheel of Time is one of the most popular and enduring fantasy series of all-time, with over 90 million books sold. Set in a sprawling, epic world where magic exists and only certain women are allowed to access it, the story follows Moiraine, a member of the incredibly powerful all-female organization called the Aes Sedai, as she arrives in the small town of Two Rivers. There, she embarks on a dangerous, world-spanning journey with five young men and women, one of whom is prophesied to be the Dragon Reborn, who will either save or destroy humanity.   

Season 1 only just wrapped production in the Czech Republic back in May.

Wheel of Time’s cast consists of Rosamund Pike, Josha Stradowski, Madeleine Madden, Marcus Rutherford, Barney Harris, Zoë Robins, Daniel Henney, Álvaro Morte, Hammed Animashaun, Johann Myers, Priyanka Bose, Taylor Napier and Emmanuel Imani.

The official Wheel of Time series account on Twitter announced on Monday that they started shooting Season 2 with Thomas Napper behind the camera as that episode’s director.

It’s still unclear when Amazon will begin airing Season 1 of the show, but they have been stating it will hit Prime Video sometime in 2021. The amount of money involved is insane to jump forward with a second season without even knowing if audience will even embrace the series.

The Hollywood Reporter revealed earlier this month that Radar Pictures is also moving forward with a planned film trilogy set in the fantasy world of author Robert Jordan. Screenwriter Zack Stentz (X-Men: First Class, Thor) will tackle the first installment, Age of Legends, that takes place thousand years before the events of the Amazon series.

SOURCE: AMAZON

Posted on in Television News

EXCLUSIVE: ‘Rogue’ Director M.J. Bassett Joins Amazon’s ‘Jack Reacher’ Series Reboot

The Ronin can confirm that British director M.J. Bassett is part of the directing team of Amazon’s series reboot of Jack Reacher, previously a film franchise led by Tom Cruise and will have Alan Ritchson (slightly more aligned with Reacher’s stature/size) taking over the role in the show.

Bassett had been once involved with Amblin’s new Halo series but dropped out and recently she was behind the recent Megan Fox actioner Rogue. Her others credits include Altered Carbon, Iron Fist, Nightflyers, Strike Back, Endangered Species, Ash vs Evil Dead, and Silent Hill: Revelation.

Bassett joins The Wachowskis as part of the growing club of trans women directors tackling action projects, the more the merrier.

We previously first reported Amazon hired Bodyguard director Thomas Vincent for Jack Reacher.

The first season is reportedly based on Lee Child’s novel Killing Floor.

Jack Reacher comes to the little town of Margrave looking for information about the mysterious death of a guitar player named Blind Blake. Instead, he finds one of the largest counterfeiting operations in history.

Skydance and Amazon are already partners on their popular Jack Ryan series based on the Tom Clancy novels led by John Krasinski, which is heading into it’s third season.

Posted on in Television News

‘Game Of Thrones’ Costume Designer Michele Clapton Confirmed For Amazon’s Cyberpunk Series ‘The Peripheral’; From Co-Creators Of HBO’s ‘Westworld’

Lisa Joy and Jonathan Nolan (Westworld) are producing a new Amazon series The Peripheral, an adaptation of the William Gibson cyberpunk novel with Chloe Grace Moretz (Kick-Ass, Shadow In The Cloud) and Irish actor Jack Reynor (Midsommar, Free Fire) set to play the show’s leads.

The William Gibson novel centers on Flynne (Grace Moretz) and her brother Burton (Reynor). Burton, a veteran of the United States Marine Corps’ elite Haptic Recon force, is hired for a security job which takes place in what he thinks is cyberspace. When Flynne temporarily takes his place, she witnesses something that might have been murder.

The Ronin can confirm the cyberpunk series has indeed added six-time Primetime Emmy-winner Michele Clapton to the production team as their costume designer, who previously worked on Seasons 1-8 of HBO’s Game of Thrones and The King’s Man directed by Matthew Vaughn. 

We previously reported the show’s production designer will be Jan Reolfs (Ghost In The Shell, F9: The Fast Saga, 47 Ronin). 

Production will take place around London with Vincenzo Natali set to direct the show’s pilot. Natali’s extensive credits include The Stand, Westworld, American Gods, The Strain, Lost In Space, Locke & Key, Luke Cage, Hannibal, Orphan Black, Splice, and Cube.

Gibson, alongside Philip K. Dick, is considered one of the fathers of the cyberpunk genre. Dick’s work, of course, inspired feature films such as Ridley Scott’s Blade Runner and Paul Verhoeven’s Total Recall. The Peripheral isn’t the only William Gibson adaptation in the works as we’ve previously reported that Luther creator Neil Cross is looking to turn his novel Pattern Recognition into a project as well and has yet to be officially announced.

Lisa Joy is making her feature film directorial debut with the Hugh Jackman and Rebecca Ferguson dystopian cyberpunk film Reminiscence, which will hit both theaters and HBO Max on August 20.

REMINISCENCE – Nick Bannister (Jackman), a private investigator of the mind, navigates the darkly alluring world of the past by helping his clients access lost memories. Living on the fringes of the sunken Miami coast, his life is forever changed when he takes on a new client, Mae (Ferguson). A simple matter of lost and found becomes a dangerous obsession. As Bannister fights to find the truth about Mae’s disappearance, he uncovers a violent conspiracy, and must ultimately answer the question: how far would you go to hold on to the ones you love?

Posted on in Television News

EXCLUSIVE: Russo Brothers’ Action-Packed Spy Series ‘Citadel’ Adds Veteran Director Jessica Yu

The Russo Brothers (Avengers: Infinity War, Avengers: Endgame) are behind a new action-packed spy series at Amazon Prime Video, called Citadel with a cast that consists of Richard Madden (Game of Thrones, Bodyguard, Eternals), Priyanka Chopra Jonas (The Matrix 4, The White Tiger, Quantico, We Can Be Heroes ), and Stanley Tucci (Spotlight, Captain America: The First Avenger, Road To Perdition, The King’s Man), Ashleigh Cummings, Roland Møller, Nikki Amuka-Bird, Susan Lynch, Sara Martins, Leo Woodall, Gráinne Good, Osy Ikhile, Caoilinn Springall, and Leo Ashizawa.

The Ronin can now confirm that seasoned director Jessica Yu is helming at least two episodes of Citadel. Yu’s varied television career includes credits such as In Treatment, Billions, This Is Us, American Crime, Fosse/Verdon, Ratched, Hollywood, The Affair, I’m Dying Up Here, Scandal, ER, Grey’s Anatomy, West Wing, and directed the pilot for Walker.

Jessica Yu is also an Oscar-winner earning a statue for Best Documentary Short in 1997 for Breathing Lessons, which was presented to her by Will Smith and Tommy Lee Jones.

Joe and Anthony Russo are producing via their production company AGBO and are expected to direct episodes alongside fellow executive producer Brian Kirk (21 Bridges, Game of Thrones, Luther, Boardwalk Empire, Dexter). Josh Appelbaum (showrunner), André Nemec, Jeff Pinkner, and Scott Rosenberg of Midnight Radio serve as writers and executive producers.

Citadel is assumed to drop on Prime Video sometime in 2022.

The sibling pair is also working on The Gray Man, another high-profile spy project at Netflix, which is said to be budgeted at over $200 million, making it their most expensive production to date. The Gray Man’s impressive cast includes a heap of well-known names such as Ryan Gosling (The Nice Guys, Drive), Chris Evans (Snowpiercer), Ana de Armas (Knives Out, Blade Runner: 2049, No Time To Die), Rege-Jean Page (Bridgerton, Dungeons & Dragons), Jessica Henwick (The Matrix 4, Knives Out 2), Alfre Woodard (Luke Cage), Billy Bob Thorton (Fargo), Wagner Moura (Narcos), Deobia Oparei (Dredd, Game of Thrones, Independence Day: Resurgence), Robert Kazinsky (Pacific Rim), Dhanush, Scott Haze (Venom, Antlers), Callan Mulvey (The Outlaw King, Captain America: The Winter Soldier, Batman v Superman), and Julia Butters (Once Upon A Time In Hollywood, The Fabelmans).

Posted on in Television News

‘Ghost In The Shell’ & ‘F9’ Production Designer Jan Reolfs Confirmed For Amazon’s Cyberpunk Series ‘The Peripheral’; From The Co-Creators Of HBO’s ‘Westworld’

Westworld co-creators Lisa Joy and Jonathan Nolan are behind the Amazon series The Peripheral, an adaptation of the William Gibson novel with Chloe Grace Moretz (Kick-Ass, Shadow In The Cloud) and Irish actor Jack Reynor (Midsommar, Free Fire) set to play the show’s leads.

The William Gibson novel centers on Flynne (Grace Moretz) and her brother Burton (Reynor). Burton, a veteran of the United States Marine Corps’ elite Haptic Recon force, is hired for a security job which takes place in what he thinks is cyberspace. When Flynne temporarily takes his place, she witnesses something that might have been murder.

The Ronin can confirm that the Amazon series has indeed enlisted production designer Jan Reolfs, who is likely best known for working on the gorgeous box office disaster Ghost In The Shell starring Scarlett Johansson, the Keanu Reeves fantasy film 47 Ronin loosely inspired by Japanese historical events, and Universal’s massive blockbuster F9 that is about cross $300 million at the global box office before it’s domestic debut later this week.

Having previously tackled the world of cyberpunk with Ghost In Shell, it would suggest The Peripheral is going to look stunning. Hopefully, it will be a stronger and compelling adaptation than the 2017 film from director Rupert Sanders.

Production will take place around London with Vincenzo Natali set to direct the show’s pilot. Natali’s extensive credits include The Stand, Westworld, American Gods, The Strain, Lost In Space, Locke & Key, Luke Cage, Hannibal, Orphan Black, Splice, and Cube.

Gibson, alongside Philip K. Dick, is considered one of the fathers of the cyberpunk genre. Dick’s work, of course, inspired feature films such as Ridley Scott’s Blade Runner and Paul Verhoeven’s Total Recall. The Peripheral isn’t the only William Gibson adaptation in the works as we’ve previously reported that Luther creator Neil Cross is looking to turn his novel Pattern Recognition into a project as well and has yet to be officially announced.

Lisa Joy is making her feature film directorial debut with the Hugh Jackman and Rebecca Ferguson dystopian cyberpunk film Reminiscence, which will hit both theaters and HBO Max on August 20.

REMINISCENCE – Nick Bannister (Jackman), a private investigator of the mind, navigates the darkly alluring world of the past by helping his clients access lost memories. Living on the fringes of the sunken Miami coast, his life is forever changed when he takes on a new client, Mae (Ferguson). A simple matter of lost and found becomes a dangerous obsession. As Bannister fights to find the truth about Mae’s disappearance, he uncovers a violent conspiracy, and must ultimately answer the question: how far would you go to hold on to the ones you love?

Posted on in Television News

‘The Boys’ Superhero College Spinoff Adds Shane Paul McGhie, Aimee Carrero & Maddie Phillips

As the new untitled Amazon series set in the universe of The Boys inches closer to getting an order, the mature superhero college spinoff has added three more cast members to play young supes. Joining Jaz Sinclair and Lizze Broadway on the project include Shane Paul McGhie, Aimee Carrero, and Maddie Phillips according to a new report from Deadline.

The untitled The Boys spinoff is set at America’s only college exclusively for young adult superheroes (and 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 primarily shot in Toronto and filming on Season 3 is currently underway.

SOURCE: DEADLINE

Posted on in Film News

George Clooney Adds ‘The Midnight Sky’ Cinematographer For His Long Island Drama ‘The Tender Bar’ Starring Ben Affleck

The Ronin can confirm that director George Clooney will be reuniting with cinematographer Martin Ruhe for his Amazon drama The Tender Bar. Martin and George previously worked together on Netflix’s The Midnight Sky and the WWII satirical series Catch-22 for Hulu.

Ruhe’s other credits include Control, The American, and Harry Brown.

A recent Deadline report revealed that Ben Affleck is in negotiations to take a lead role.

The Departed screenwriter William Monahan worked on the drama’s script which is based on the J.R. Moehringer memoir and that will focus on J.R’s experiences growing up in Long Island and seeking out father figures at his uncle’s bar.

Ben Affleck’s recent projects include the erotic thriller Deep Water, Ridley Scott’s The Last Duel, and leading Robert Rodriguez’s crime thriller Hypnotic. The latter will see Affleck playing a detective that becomes entangled in a mystery involving his missing daughter and a secret government program, while investigating a string of impossible high-end heists. He also signed-up to direct Keeper of The Lost Cities for Disney and had been attached to direct the WWII film Ghost Army.

Posted on in Film News

‘The Tender Bar’: George Clooney-Directed Long Island Drama Adding Ben Affleck In Lead Role

Deadline is reporting that director George Clooney is looking to cast Ben Affleck (The Way Back, Gone Girl) is his next film as the actor is currently in negotiations to join the Amazon drama titled The Tender Bar. It’s unclear if Clooney will also take a role but the outlet suggests it’s a possibility.

Based on the J.R. Moehringer memoir about growing up in Long Island seeking out father figures among the patrons at his uncle’s bar, the film originally was set up Sony with Ted Melfi directing. When Melfi fell off, Sony put the film into turnaround, allowing Amazon to grab it.

Clooney latest directorial effort is the Netflix sci-fi film The Midnight Sky.

Affleck’s other recent projects include the erotic thriller Deep Water, Ridley Scott’s The Last Duel, and leading Robert Rodriguez’s crime thriller Hypnotic. The latter will see Affleck playing a detective that becomes entangled in a mystery involving his missing daughter and a secret government program, while investigating a string of impossible high-end heists.

SOURCE: DEADLINE