Tag: Amazon Studios

Posted on in Television News

‘Lord of The Rings’: Amazon Series Officially Adds 20 New Cast Members Including Benjamin Walker and Peter Mullan

Amazon Studios have announced today 20 brand new casting additions to their massive Lord of The Rings series which is currently shooting in Auckland, New Zealand. After a pause due to COVID-19 had resumed filming back in September.

Their massive announcement sees the additions of actors such as Lenny Henry, Peter Mullan (Trainspotting, Children of Men), Lloyd Owen, Augustus Prew, Peter Tait, Benjamin Walker (Heart of The Sea, Abraham Lincoln: Vampire Hunter), Cynthia Addai-Robinson (Arrow, Power), Simon Merrells, Maxim Baldry (finally confirmed by Amazon), Ian Blackburn, Kip Chapman, Anthony Crum, Maxine Cunliffe, Trystan Gravelle, Thusitha Jayasundera, Fabian McCallum, Geoff Morrell, Alex Tarrant, Leon Wadham, and Sara Zwangobani.

They join a cast that already consists of Robert Aramayo, Owain Arthur, Nazanin Boniadi, Tom Budge, Morfydd Clark, Ismael Cruz Córdova, Ema Horvath, Markella Kavenagh, Joseph Mawle, Tyroe Muhafidin, Sophia Nomvete, Megan Richards, Dylan Smith, Charlie Vickers, and Daniel Weyman.

Amazon has yet to give an official synopsis of the series other than it will be taking place during the Second Age and covering the ancient kingdom of Numenor that did not appear in the previous two trilogies.

However, we are hearing that the Amazon series will attempt to deviate from the Peter Jackson series by potentially ignoring the established look of Middle-Earth along with redesigning both familiar creatures and the population. There is also a much more diverse cast this time around which hints this will be different enough from the past two trilogies.

It’s looking like ILM and not Weta Digital will be handling the visual effects on the show. There sadly hasn’t been even confirmation that Weta Workshop is involved either given that they’re shooting in proximity of Weta makes this even more upsetting.

Also, the series set during the Second Age is said to cover Sauron’s perversion of the advanced kingdom of Numenor (essentially J.R.R. Tolkien’s Atlantis) leading to Morgoth (Middle-Earth’s version of Lucifer and the first Dark Lord) cults and a splintering of the forces of man in the island kingdom by fueling their hatred towards the elves because of their immortality. Sauron (a Maia just like the wizards) in a much more pleasing form allows himself to be captured and taken to Numenor corrupting the population from within stoking resentment against the Elves rather than being an unseen villainous force hiding in the shadows.

We’re expecting to see the creation of the rings of power and potentially the origins of the nine Nazgul/Ringwraiths that were once men tricked by Sauron to take rings of power turning them into his unnatural servants via dark magic. Three are supposedly Numenorean Lords including the Witch King of Angmar, who is their leader and had a significant role in The Return of The King. It’s also expected we’ll see the ultimate destruction of Numenor forcing surviving inhabitants to the mainland along with the eventual Last Alliance leading to the defeat of Sauron. The latter I wouldn’t expect to happen for a very long time.

I’ll be keen to see if they’ll also attempt to purse the eastern part of Middle-Earth as that could be an equally interesting part to explore as the two Blue Wizards (Alatar/Morinehtar aka Darkness Slayer and Pallando/Rómestámo aka East Helper) operated there during the Second and Third ages, but have only been briefly referenced in the past. One of the Nazgul, Khamûl The Easterling aka Shadow of The East, is said to be a former Easterling King. We only got a glimpse of the Easterling forces in The Lord of The Rings as they were mostly made up of mercenaries or those loyal to Sauron, who had a strong presence in East along with Morgoth in the First Age.

There are also rumblings of Amazon taking a much more mature tone which wouldn’t be shocking given that director John Boorman (Excalibur, Zardoz) had once attempted a live-action film based on Lord of The Rings in the 1970s that would have included sex and hard violence for the era likely would have landed an R-rating. The Second Age is described as extremely dark in comparison to the Third Age with men’s lust for wealth/power/immortality combined with what is essentially devil worshiping cults and human sacrifices.

The streaming service has yet to announce when episodes will begin dropping on Prime Video.

SOURCE: AMAZON STUDIOS

Posted on in Television News

Chloe Grace Moretz To Lead Amazon’s Sci-Fi Mystery Series ‘The Peripheral’ – Based On Novel By William Gibson

A while ago it was announced that Westworld’s Lisa Joy and Jonathan Nolan would be producing a brand new science fiction series The Peripheral, based on the William Gibson novel for Warner Bros. Television and Amazon Studios that will air on Prime Video with Scott B. Smith and Greg Plageman set to showrun.

Variety reports that Chloe Grace Moretz (Kick-Ass, Let Me In) has nabbed the role of Flynne Fisher in the show.

The series centers on Flynne Fisher (Moretz), a woman trying to hold together the pieces of her broken family in a forgotten corner of tomorrow’s America. Flynne is smart, ambitious and doomed. She has no future – until the future comes calling for her.

It’s certain one of the upcoming adaptations at Amazon I’m very interested in seeing come together.

William Gibson is credited as creating the cyberpunk genre as we know it starting with his seminal novel Neuromancer and his work has gone to influence things like The Matrix franchise, Altered Carbon, and the upcoming video game Cyberpunk 2077.

Chloe recently joined Miramax’s upcoming sci-fi flick Mother/ Android that will be written and directed by Mattson Tomlin (The Batman, Project Power).

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

Posted on in Film News

Daniel Dae Kim and Randall Park Reunite For Untitled Heist Flick At Amazon Studios

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.

When production will begin is a little unclear.

SOURCE: DEADLINE

Posted on in Film News

Paramount Selling Rights To Michael B. Jordan Action Flick ‘Without Remorse’ To Amazon – Crossover With ‘Jack Ryan’ Coming?

Yesterday, it was reported by Variety that Paramount Pictures is now in final negotiations with Amazon Studios to sell them the global rights to the Skydance Media action movie Without Remorse.

Based on the novel from Tom Clancy, it has a script penned by Taylor Sheridan (Sicario, Wind River). Stefano Sollima, who directed the feature adaptation previously worked with Amazon for the Prime Video series ZeroZeroZero.

Paramount had originally planned on releasing the Michael B. Jordan film on September 18th before moving it’s release to February 26th, 2021, after COVID-19 concerns but has instead decided to sell to Amazon instead and will drop on Amazon Prime.

Jordan plays Clark, a former U.S. Navy SEAL that is recruited into the C.I.A. as an operator. The character was previously played by Willem Dafoe in Clear & Present Danger and Liev Schreiber in The Sum of All Fears.

There is a good chance that Michael B. Jordan’s John Clark could eventually crossover with Amazon’s Jack Ryan series which is set in the same universe created by Tom Clancy. Jack and John have interacted on multiple times in the Jack Ryan novels, having Without Remorse at Amazon allows them some extra wiggle-room to have them cross paths in the future.

When Without Remorse will be released is currently unknown but since it was going to be ready for September there is a shot that it could be released on Amazon Prime before the end of the year.

SOURCE: VARIETY

Posted on in Television News

‘Fallout’ Series Officially Coming To Amazon – Produced By ‘Westworld’s Lisa Joy and Jonathan Nolan

Another high-concept and potentially expense series is coming to Amazon Prime Video.

Today, game developer Bethesda announced that they’re partnering with Amazon Studios and Kilter Films to bring to life a live-action series based on the beloved post-apocalypse video game franchise Fallout.

They’ve hired Westworld series co-creators and showrunners Lisa Joy and Jonathan Nolan to develop the show for the streaming service via Kilter Films and will act as producers. Nolan is also known as a screenwriter working on his brother Christopher Nolan’s films such as Interstellar, The Prestige, The Dark Knight, and The Dark Knight Rises.

Here is the press release.

Amazon Studios has licensed the rights to the worldwide best-selling game franchise Fallout, with acclaimed producers Jonathan Nolan and Lisa Joy’s Kilter Films attached to produce the project, currently in development with a series commitment.

The world of Fallout is one where the future envisioned by Americans in the late 1940s explodes upon itself through a nuclear war in 2077. The magic of the Fallout world is the harshness of the wasteland set against the previous generation’s utopian idea of a better world through nuclear energy. It is serious and harsh in tone, yet sprinkled with moments of ironic humor and B-movie-nuclear-fantasies.Fallout games have achieved record-setting sales and received hundreds of awards, including dozens of Game of the Year awards, while its mobile game, Fallout Shelter, has been downloaded more than 170 million times.

Fallout is from Amazon Studios and Kilter Films in association with Bethesda Game Studios and Bethesda Softworks, with executive producers Jonathan Nolan and Lisa Joy, and Athena Wickham for Kilter Films, Todd Howard for Bethesda Game Studios, and James Altman for Bethesda Softworks.

The pair’s Kilter Films is also in pre-production on their series adaptation of the William Gibson cyberpunk novel The Peripheral.

Lisa Joy recently made her feature film directorial debut with her sci-fi thriller Reminiscence for Warner Bros. starring Hugh Jackman, Rebecca Ferguson, and Thandie Newton.

This is yet another high-profile series in development at Amazon Prime Video as they’re about to resume production on their fantasy shows such as The Lord of The Rings and The Wheel of Time.

If successful, I’m curious if Amazon Studios will also attempt to license the rights for Doom and Skyrim in the future to give those properties series adaptations as well.

SOURCE: BETHESDA

Posted on in Television News

‘Spider-Man: Into The Spider-Verse’s Rodney Rothman Directing Live-Action ‘Promised Neverland’ Series For Amazon

 Amazon is tackling another interesting series adaptation with news today of them adapting a Japanese property for western audiences. It’s been announced via outlets like Variety that Amazon Studios, Fox 21 Television Studios, and Vertigo are moving forward with an English-langue live-action series adaptation of the manga The Promised Neverland. 

The manga is written by Kaiu Shirai and illustrated by Posuka Demizu. It is in it’s second season of an anime series in Japan as well. 

THE PROMISED NEVERLAND – A group of the smartest kids at a seemingly idyllic orphanage uncover its dark truth when they break a rule to never leave the orphanage grounds. Once the truth is discovered, they begin to plan an escape to save all of the children. 

Rodney Rothman, who co-directed the Oscar-winning animated film Spider-Man: Into The Spider-Verse will be helming the series with a script from Spider-Verse screenwriter Meghan Malloy.

I’m not familiar with the property but this certainly sounds interesting enough to be serialized. I’m curious how fans will react from a western adaption. 

SOURCE: VARIETY