Tag: Amazon

Posted on in Film News

‘Ministry Of Ungentlemanly Warfare’: Guy Ritchie Expected To Reunite With ‘Covenant’ Cinematographer Ed Wild On WWII Action Pic

The Ronin has learned that cinematographer Ed Wild, who recently worked with director Guy Ritchie on his action thriller The Covenant, is expected to be lensing his World War II film The Ministry of Ungentlemanly Warfare. Production is currently underway in Turkey with multiple locations expected to be used throughout filming.

Wild’s other credits include the recent Halo series, Black Mirror, and the British crime thriller Welcome To The Punch. The latter had a cast that featured James McAvoy, Mark Strong, Andrea Riseborough, Peter Mullan, Jason Flemyng, Daniel Kaluuya, and David Morrissey.

Ministry has assembled quite the cast as it consists of Henry Cavill, Eiza González, Alan Ritchson, Henrique Zaga, Henry Golding, Alex Pettyfer, Cary Elwes, Hero Fiennes Tiffin, Babs Olusanmokun, and Til Schweiger. Ritchie was able to get mega-producer Jerry Bruckheimer involved too, he is recently coming off the billion-dollar hit Top Gun: Maverick.

Of course, the film is based on the true story the top secret WWII combat organization formed by British Prime Minister Winston Churchill and Ian Fleming (long before his James Bond novels). The commandos’ unconventional and brutal fighting techniques against the Nazis helped changed the course of the war and gave birth to the modern Black Ops unit. Using the novel by war correspondent Damien Lewis as template, the script was penned by Ritchie, Paul Tamasy, Eric Johnson, and Arash Amel.

Lionsgate nabbed the US distribution rights earlier this month and is expected to release it sometime in 2024 with Amazon Prime landing a heap of international rights, including Canada. There are already early plans for the film to launch into a full-blown franchise and could spawn subsequent sequels. However, it’s unclear if we’ll see the same cast lineup in those potential follow-ups but might be a good idea to secure Cavill early on.

Ritchie’s other upcoming projects he’s attached to include the Aladdin sequel for Disney along with their live-action musical version of Hercules.

You can watch the trailer Ritchie’s The Covenant below to get an idea of what Wild will be bringing to the WWII actioner.

Posted on in News

‘Lord Of The Rings: The Rings Of Power’: The Second Age of Middle-Earth Revealed With Amazon Series First-Look Trailer

After an extensive in-depth look at Amazon’s billion-dollar series set in J.R.R. Tolkien’s iconic fantasy world of Middle-Earth with Vanity Fair’s preview, the streaming giant has launched the first-look footage with a trailer for Lord of The Rings: The Rings of Power.

The show takes place in the Second Age, many many years before the Peter Jackson films that took place in the Third Age. Established characters in the show include Galadriel (Morfydd Clark), Elrond (Robert Aramayo), Celebrimbor (Charles Edwards), Isildur (Maxim Baldry), and The Dark Lord Sauron is expected to be the looming threat as he is the “Lord” referred to in the title.

Sauron with the help of Elf smith Celebrimbor created and gifted the Rings of Power.

Amazon Studios’ forthcoming series brings to screens for the very first time the heroic legends of the fabled Second Age of Middle-earth’s history. This epic drama is set thousands of years before the events of J.R.R. Tolkien’s The Hobbit and The Lord of the Rings, and will take viewers back to an era in which great powers were forged, kingdoms rose to glory and fell to ruin, unlikely heroes were tested, hope hung by the finest of threads, and the greatest villain that ever flowed from Tolkien’s pen threatened to cover all the world in darkness. Beginning in a time of relative peace, the series follows an ensemble cast of characters, both familiar and new, as they confront the long-feared re-emergence of evil to Middle-earth. From the darkest depths of the Misty Mountains to the majestic forests of the elf-capital of Lindon, to the breathtaking island kingdom of Númenor, to the furthest reaches of the map, these kingdoms and characters will carve out legacies that live on long after they are gone.

The Rings of Power will debut on September 2nd.

Posted on in Television News

Live-Action ‘She-Ra’ Series Being Developed By Amazon

A new report from Variety has revealed that a new live-action series with Masters of The Universe character She-Ra is in very early development at Amazon Studios with DreamWorks Animation producing the potential show.

Sadly, we’re not getting anything concerning potential creatives such as writers, directors or even who they’ll want to play She-Ra. It’ll be interesting how they’ll approach the character after Netflix’s recent animated series She-Ra & The Princesses of Power.

She-Ra & The Princesses of Power is set on the planet Etheria and follows the stories of Adora and Catra, orphans who were raised to be soldiers in the Horde. They are part of an evil army led by Hordak, a tyrannical despot who dreams of conquering the planet.

This would be the first time She-Ra was given a live-action adaptation, while He-Man has a feature film previously and a new one has stalled multiple times to the point it seems unlikely that will come together anytime soon.

It’ll be curious to see if She-Ra series happens before a He-Man movie goes into production.

She-Ra isn’t the only fantasy hybrid projects in the works with an animated ThunderCats film from Adam Wingard (Godzilla Vs. Kong) and Millennium Films is taking a crack at a brand new Red Sonja film with Hannah John-Kamen (Ant-Man & The Wasp, Residential Evil: Welcome To Raccoon City) playing the female warrior.

Amazon is also behind two high-profile fantasy series The Wheel of Time and Lord of The Rings, both have multiple season commitments. It’ll be interesting to see if Amazon’s version of She-Ra will skew as a mature incarnation or be developed for younger audiences.

SOURCE: VARIETY

Posted on in News, Television News

Filming On ‘Lord Of The Rings’ Officially Moves From New Zealand To UK: Production On Season 2 Begins In 2022

Filming on Season 2 of Amazon’s Lord of The Rings series has officially moving from New Zealand to United Kingdom. Amazon Studios claims that it’s part of their commitment to expand their footprint in the United Kingdom, but failed to mention what facility they’ll be using as the homestead stage location.

Below is the official press release:

Amazon Studios announced today that its untitled The Lord of the Rings original series will film Season Two in the United Kingdom (U.K.). The shift from New Zealand to the U.K. aligns with the studio’s strategy of expanding its production footprint and investing in studio space across the U.K., with many of Amazon Studios’ tentpole series and films already calling the U.K. home.

The highly anticipated The Lord of the Rings series recently wrapped principal photography on Season One in New Zealand and is scheduled to premiere on Prime Video in more than 240 countries around the world on Friday, September 2, 2022.

Season One post production will continue in New Zealand through June 2022, and pre-production on Season Two will begin concurrently in the U.K. after the first of the year.

This should be hugely disappointing to fans hoping that Amazon would keep the series in New Zealand for all five seasons.

The new epic drama brings to screens for the very first time J.R.R. Tolkien’s fabled Second Age of Middle-earth’s history. Beginning in a time of relative peace, thousands of years before the events of J.R.R. Tolkien’s The Hobbit and The Lord of the Rings books, the series follows an ensemble cast of characters, both familiar and new, as they confront the long-feared re-emergence of evil to Middle-earth.

The series is led by showrunners and executive producers J.D. Payne & Patrick McKay. They are joined by executive producers Lindsey Weber, Callum Greene, J.A. Bayona, Belén Atienza, Justin Doble, Jason Cahill, Gennifer Hutchison, Bruce Richmond, and Sharon Tal Yguado. Wayne Che Yip is co-executive producer and directs along with J.A. Bayona and Charlotte Brändström. Christopher Newman is a producer and Ron Ames is a co-producer.

SOURCE: AMAZON

Posted on in News, Television News

Amazon’s ‘Lord Of The Rings’ To Debut Weekly Episodes Starting September 2022; Season 1 Wraps Filming

Amazon made waves when they announced they had secured the television rights to tackle a new Lord of The Rings series, even more incredible have already agreed to a five season commitment which makes it one of the most expensive shows to be ever produced. Lord of The Rings takes place many many years before the events of Peter Jackson’s films, in the Second Age of Middle-Earth.

Season 1 is expected to take place before the rise of The Dark Lord Sauron and Mordor, focusing on multiple ancient kingdoms that eventually fell before the events of The Hobbit/Lord of The Rings. One of the most anticipated elements will be the exploration of the ancient island kingdom of Númeno, J.R.R. Tolkien’s take on the Atlantis myth, a sect of men that would be twisted by Sauron leading to the island to sink into the water.

The new epic drama brings to screens for the very first time J.R.R. Tolkien’s fabled Second Age of Middle-earth’s history. Beginning in a time of relative peace, thousands of years before the events of J.R.R. Tolkien’s The Hobbit and The Lord of the Rings books, the series follows an ensemble cast of characters, both familiar and new, as they confront the long-feared re-emergence of evil to Middle-earth.

Amazon has announced today that Season 1 has wrapped filming in New Zealand and will start airing weekly episodes on September 2, 2022. So we’ll have quite the wait before we get to watch these episodes.

The highly anticipated, yet-to-be titled Amazon Original The Lord of the Rings television series will premiere Friday, September 2, 2022 on Prime Video in more than 240 countries and territories worldwide, with new episodes available weekly. Filming of Season One completed today in New Zealand.

It’s cast consists of Cynthia Addai-Robinson, Robert Aramayo, Owain Arthur, Maxim Baldry, Nazanin Boniadi, Morfydd Clark, Ismael Cruz Córdova, Charles Edwards, Trystan Gravelle, Sir Lenny Henry, Ema Horvath, Markella Kavenagh, Joseph Mawle, Tyroe Muhafidin, Sophia Nomvete, Lloyd Owen, Megan Richards, Dylan Smith, Charlie Vickers, Leon Wadham, Benjamin Walker, Daniel Weyman, and Sara Zwangobani.

https://twitter.com/LOTRonPrime?ref_src=twsrc%5Egoogle%7Ctwcamp%5Eserp%7Ctwgr%5Eauthor

SOURCE: AMAZON

Posted on in News, Television News

‘Wheel Of Time’: Amazon Announces Fantasy Series Will Debut In November

Finally, Amazon has announced that their series adaptation of Robert Jordan’s fantasy novels The Wheel of Time will be heading to Prime Video on November.

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.   

Adapted for television by executive producer/showrunner Rafe Judkins (Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D., Hemlock Grove). Larry Mondragon and Rick Selvage of Red Eagle Entertainment (Winter Dragon), Ted Field and Mike Weber of Radar Pictures (Jumanji: Welcome to the Jungle, Winter Dragon), Darren Lemke (Shazam!, Goosebumps, Winter Dragon), Marigo Kehoe and Uta Briesewitz will also serve as executive producers, with Briesewitz set to direct the first two episodes. Rosamund Pike will serve as Producer and Harriet McDougal and Brandon Sanderson as consulting producers. The Wheel of Time is co-produced by Amazon Studios and Sony Pictures Television.

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 project is such a priority for Amazon as they’ve already started filming Season 2 this week and Radar Films (Amazon’s partner on the show) is also developing a trilogy of feature films. Amazon must be seeing something with the dailies or Season 1 episodes that they believe enough in the show to move forward with Season 2 even though audiences haven’t seen a trailer for the first season.

SOURCE: AMAZON

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 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

‘Jack Ryan’ Season 3 Adds ‘Dunkirk & ‘The Dark Knight’ Stunt Coordinator Tom Struthers

John Krasinski is having a pretty good week as his second feature film as a director made a mint at the domestic box office this past Memorial Day long weekend, with A Quiet Place Part II taking in around $57 million surpassing both the original film and Godzilla Vs. Kong’s pandemic record breaking domestic opening. Krasinski is also the main lead of the Amazon spy series Jack Ryan, of course, based on the Tom Clancy series of novels that spawned five studio movies previously led by actors such as Alec Baldwin, Harrison Ford, Ben Affleck, and Chris Pine.

The Ronin can confirm that veteran stunt coordinator Tom Struthers has joined the production team of the Amazon Prime Video series. Something that should get action fans like myself hyped about the third season taking steps to elevate the show’s action sequences.

The stunt coordinator isn’t a stranger to the Jack Ryan franchise as he worked on Chris Pine’s Jack Ryan: Shadow Recruit. Struthers’ other credits include The Dark Knight, Dunkirk, Inception, The Dark Knight Rises, John Carter, Terminator Salvation, and X-Men: First Class. He most recently worked on Denis Villeneuve’s first Dune installment and the Paramount+ streaming series Halo starring Pablo Schreiber as Master Chief, both sci-fi projects had been primarily shot in Budapest, Hungary.

Filming is reportedly still underway as Deadline says they added Betty Gabriel (Get Out) to the cast last month and mentioned the plot synopsis of the next season. She joins Krasinski alongside others such as Wendell Pierce, Mark Kelly, James Cosmo, Peter Guinness, Nina Hoss, and Alexej Manvelov.

Season 3 of Tom Clancy’s Jack Ryan finds Jack Ryan (Krasinski) on the run and in a race against time. Jack is wrongly implicated in a larger conspiracy and suddenly finds himself a fugitive out in the cold. Now, wanted by both the CIA and an international rogue faction that he has uncovered, Jack is forced underground, crisscrossing Europe, trying to stay alive and prevent a massive global conflict.

Season 3 is said to debut sometime this year.

Posted on in Film News

Amazon-MGM Deal Likely Won’t End James Bond Franchise’s Theatrical Run

Today, it was announced that Amazon is going to purchase MGM Studios for an impressive $8.45 billion, which includes co-ownership of the James Bond franchise alongside EON Productions. However, as mentioned by The Hollywood Reporter, this won’t impact the release of No Time To Die’s October release and might not overturn the franchise’s box office dominance or future theatrical release.

As they point out, the deal likely won’t close and the distribution for No Time To Die will most likely stand as is.

On the theatrical front, it’s unlikely that MGM and United Artists Releasing would change plans for their remaining 2021 theatrical releases — including the James Bond pic No Time to Die — particularly since the deal is likely to take months to close. UAR is a subsidiary of MGM and handles domestic distribution duties for MGM titles (Universal has international on No Time to Die).

They also highlight that EON wouldn’t be terribly keen to pull James Bond from theaters for streaming only as the franchise is best known for a big screen presence and given Amazon won’t have full ownership they’ll have to play nice. Given the amount of money Amazon would be giving up to make Bond a streaming property wouldn’t make a lot of sense from a business standpoint, as it could be just as lucrative to make Prime Video being the streaming home for the franchise.

The Bond franchise has always been a marquee theatrical franchise that’s well known around the globe. And Bond producers Barbara Broccoli and Michael Wilson, whose U.K. production company EON is 007’s home, are especially keen on the big-screen experience. (EON and MGM share rights via a holding company.)

Daniel Craig is expected to retire from the Bond role, allowing a new unnamed actor to step in for the untitled Bond 26, which is said to be developed by No Time To Die screenwriter Phoebe Waller-Bridge.

No Time To Die will hit theaters on October 8.

The cast will include Daniel Craig as James Bond, Lea Seydoux as Madeleine Swann, Rami Malek (Bohemian Rapsody) as a new villain named Safin (Dr. No?), Jeffrey Wright (Westworld) as Felix Leiter, Ralph Fiennes (The King’s Man) as M, Christoph Waltz returning as Spectre’s Blofeld, Naomie Harris as Moneypenny, Lashana Lynch (Captain Marvel) as Nomi aka the new Agent 007, Ana de Armas (Blade Runner 2049) as Paloma, Ben Whishaw as Q, Billy Magnussen, Rory Kinnear as Bill Tanner, David Dencik, and Dali Benssalah.

NO TIME TO DIE – Bond has left active service and is enjoying a tranquil life in Jamaica. His peace is short-lived when his old friend Felix Leiter from the CIA turns up asking for help. The mission to rescue a kidnapped scientist turns out to be far more treacherous than expected, leading Bond onto the trail of a mysterious villain armed with dangerous new technology. 

SOURCE: THE HOLLYWOOD REPORTER