Tag: Amblin Entertainment

Posted on in Film News

‘Indiana Jones 5’: Set Video Confirms Indy Will Face Nazis Again & ‘Captain America’s Toby Jones Joins Cast

After years of delays, script revisions, and director Steven Spielberg exiting, Indiana Jones 5 has finally started filming over in the United Kingdom.

James Mangold is set to write and direct Indiana Jones 5 for Lucasfilm with a growing cast that already consists of Harrison Ford back as Henry Jones Jr. aka Indiana Jones, British actress Phoebe Waller-Bridge (Solo: A Star Wars Story, Fleabag), Danish actor Mads Mikkelsen (Fantastic Beasts 3, Casino Royale, Rogue One: A Star Wars Story, Another Round), German actor Thomas Kretschmann (King Kong, Valkyrie, Blade II).  Boyd Holbrook (The Predator, Narcos, Logan), and Shaunette Renée Wilson (The Resident).

There is a set video that was uploaded on YouTube (see below) that seems to show a Nazi train, which would back up recent plot details mentioned by The Illuminerdi that we’ll see the return of the franchise antagonists and the film being connected to Nazi scientists involved with the space race of the 1960s. The last time we saw Indy punching Nazis was all the way back in 1989’s Indiana Jones & The Last Crusade as the setting of Indiana Jones & The Kingdom of The Crystal Skull taking place post-WWII and it offhandedly mentioned that Jones served during the war between installments.

Well, these off-camera WWII adventures might make it into the fifth installment as Harrison Ford was spotted on set with new addition Toby Jones (Captain America: The First Avenger, Jurassic World: Fallen Kingdom, Captain America: The Winter Soldier) with visual effects dots on his face suggesting the sequence might be a flashback. The set photos were spotted on Reddit.

This wouldn’t be the first time this has happened in the franchise, as Indiana Jones & The Last Crusade opened with River Phoenix playing a young Indiana Jones sort of explaining the origin of his iconic hat and whip. Funny enough, that sequence involved a train too.

Confirmed crew members include legendary composer John Williams, production designer Adam Stockhausen (The French Dispatch, The Grand Budapest Hotel, Widows, Ready Player One), and cinematographer Phedon Papamichael (Ford v Ferrari, Walk The Line, 3: 10 To Yuma).

We previously mentioned Lucasfilm is considering to shoot scenes on the East Coast United States.

Disney has chosen to give Indiana Jones 5 a release date of July 29, 2022 and will go head-to-head against Dwayne Johnson’s DC Comics film Black Adam, until one of the two projects moves to another date.

Posted on in Film News

‘Indiana Jones 5’ Begins Filming Next Week At Pinewood Studios UK

James Mangold is set to write and direct Indiana Jones 5 for Lucasfilm with a growing cast that already consists of Harrison Ford back as Henry Jones Jr. aka Indiana Jones, British actress Phoebe Waller-Bridge (Solo: A Star Wars Story, Fleabag), Danish actor Mads Mikkelsen (Fantastic Beasts 3, Casino Royale, Rogue One: A Star Wars Story, Another Round), German actor Thomas Kretschmann (King Kong, Valkyrie, Blade II).  Boyd Holbrook (The Predator, Narcos, Logan), and Shaunette Renée Wilson (The Resident).

A new report from Deadline claims that production will begin next week at Pinewood Studios UK.

Steven Spielberg was originally attached to direct Indiana Jones 5, but exited due to script issues and pivoting to his a coming-of age drama inspired by his own childhood. The project stars Paul Dano (There Will Be Blood, Looper, The Batman), Michelle Williams (Venom, Manchester By The Sea), and Seth Rogen (Steve Jobs).

Confirmed crew members include legendary composer John Williams, production designer Adam Stockhausen (The French Dispatch, The Grand Budapest Hotel, Widows, Ready Player One), and cinematographer Phedon Papamichael (Ford v Ferrari, Walk The Line, 3: 10 To Yuma).

We previously mentioned Lucasfilm is considering to shoot scenes on the East Coast United States.

Disney has chosen to give Indiana Jones 5 a release date of July 29, 2022.

SOURCE: DEADLINE

Posted on in Television News

The Live-Action ‘Halo’ Series Moves From Showtime To Paramount+

Deadline has revealed that the Halo series has been moved from Showtime to streaming service Paramount+. The upcoming series is, of course, based on the beloved sci-fi shooter from Xbox and will be produced by Steven Spielberg’s Amblin Television.

Halo‘s long road to the small screen has taken one final turn. Showtime’s anticipated series based on the hugely popular Xbox video game franchise will migrate to Paramount+ and be available exclusively on ViacomCBS’ streamer. The announcement will be made during the ViacomCBS Streaming Event this afternoon.

We should get more information on the show’s move to Paramount+ later today.

UPDATE: The Halo series is officially debuting sometime in 2022 as revealed by Paramount+ yesterday.

An epic 26th-century conflict between humanity and an alien threat known as the Covenant. Halo will weave deeply drawn personal stories with action, adventure and a richly imagined vision of the future.

The series will include the iconic video game character Master Chief played by Pablo Schreiber. Filming had been taking place in Budapest, Hungry and Pablo has suggested on Instagram that they’re still making the show.

This isn’t a shocking development as we saw something similar happen when WarnerMedia moved Ridley Scott’s sci-fi series Raised By Wolves from TNT to HBO Max, that worked out well for Max as the company revealed Wolves became their most popular original content last year.

At one time, director Neill Blomkamp and producer Peter Jackson were developing Halo as a feature film for 20th Century Fox before the project was killed as Blomkamp and Jackson pivoting to make District 9 instead.

SOURCE: DEADLINE

Posted on in Film News

‘Last Voyage of The Demeter’: Amblin Taps ‘Kong: Skull Island’ Actor Corey Hawkins To Lead Dracula Flick

According to Deadline, Amblin has hired Corey Hawkins to lead their upcoming vampire movie Last Voyage of The Demeter, the Russian ship that transports Dracula to London as the vampire feeds on the crew members during the journey. The horrific trip was seen in films such as Bram Stoker’s Dracula directed by Francis Ford Coppola and the classic silent film Nosferatu.

Hawkins is no stranger to creature features appearing in Kong: Skull Island and The Walking Dead.

The film will detail the strange events that befell the doomed crew as they attempt to survive the ocean voyage, stalked each night by a terrifying presence onboard the ship. When it finally arrived near Whitby Harbor, it was a derelict. There was no trace of the crew. The initial script was written by Bragi Schut.

Andre Øvredal is directing from a script from Bullet Train screenwriter Zak Olkewicz.

The project has been kicking around for just under two decades with various directors attaching themselves and exiting before Amblin kicked things into gear with this incarnation.

When they plan to begin shooting wasn’t mentioned in the report.

SOURCE: DEADLINE

Posted on in Film News

‘Indiana Jones 5’: Producer Frank Marshall Confirms That Director James Mangold Is Still Writing A New Script

While we’re bound to get some sort of update concerning Indiana Jones 5 later today from Disney, producer Frank Marshall has spoken with Den of Geek and provided an early update on the fifth installment of the Indiana Jones franchise. Frank reiterates that Harrison Ford is indeed reprising the role something that Lucasfilm head Kathleen Kennedy said last year that the sequel would be a continuation, not a reboot or prequel which had been reported at one point.

He also confirmed that director James Mangold (Logan, The Wolverine, Ford v Ferrari) is still working on a new script for the film and hasn’t even seen/read the thing. This could suggest that development isn’t as far along as imagined when it was announced that Mangold would be directing.

MARSHALL: “Yeah, we are working on the script. There will only be one Indiana Jones and that’s Harrison Ford. What I’m excited about with Jim is a great story. I think you see that in his movies like Ford Vs Ferrari. It’s all about characters and telling a good story. So I’m excited to see what he comes up with. I haven’t seen (the script) yet so I don’t know what to tell you.”

James Mangold took over directing duties after Steven Spielberg dropped-out after headaches trying to get the script in a good place. Previous drafts had been penned by David Koepp (Jurassic Park, Mission: Impossible, Spider-Man) and Jonathan Kasdan (Solo: A Star Wars Story, Willow) before this new version from James. Lucasfilm is in a tricky spot with the franchise as Harrison Ford is pushing 80 years old and the last film Indiana Jones & The Kingdom of The Crystal Skulls was sort of ridiculed by audiences/critics. They’re really going to have to be very very careful not to repeat the mistakes of the last film part of this would be making sure the script is as strong as it possibly could be.

Mangold’s writing credits include Logan, Walk The Line, and his underrated cop drama Cop Land. Notably all character driven stories that run the gauntlet of genres.

I’m a little curious if this means they might not be able to hit the film’s targeted release date of July 29, 2022 or even begin shooting when they’re expected to later this year. Disney has changed the release date so many times I don’t think it even matters anymore.

SOURCE: DEN OF GEEK

Posted on in Film News

‘Jurassic World: Dominion’ Has Wrapped Filming After More Than 18 Months

Today, director and co-writer Colin Trevorrow has announced via Twitter that they’ve finally wrapped filming on Jurassic World: Dominion. The film’s impressive cast includes Chris Pratt, Bryce Dallas Howard, Sam Neill, Laura Dern, Jeff Goldblum, Daniella Pineda, Justice Smith, DeWanda Wise, Mamoudou Athie, Dichen Lachman, Scott Haze, Isabella Sermon, Jake Johnson, Omar Sy, and Campbell Scott.

TREVORROW: “Wrap on Jurassic World Dominion. All my gratitude to our extraordinary crew and cast. We made a family.”

Production took place at Pinewood Studios UK, Vancouver, and Malta.

Deadline adding some significant information on the shoot’s COVID-19 protocols.

Jurassic World: Dominion began pre-production more than 18 months ago when the world was a very different place. The $165M Universal blockbuster wrapped this morning at the UK’s Pinewood Studios after an unprecedented shoot, which required 40,000 COVID tests, millions of dollars spent on protocols, and for cast and key crew to isolate in a bubble for months.

Universal commissioned a private medical facility called Your Doctor to manage the entire production’s medical requirements. Testing was the backbone of the safety measures. Deadline can reveal that more than 40,000 COVID-19 tests were conducted, with .25% returning positive. That’s around 100 positive results. Some of these were false positives and some were returned prior to employment at Pinewood.

Universal Pictures recently announced a new release date of June 10th, 2022 a day before filming had to be paused due to COVID-19.

SOURCE: COLIN TREVORROW & DEADLINE

Posted on in Film News

Netflix Acquiring Domestic Rights To Aaron Sorkin Drama ‘The Trial of The Chicago 7’

Variety reports that Netflix is about to buy another high-profile awards contender with Aaron Sorkin’s The Trial of The Chicago Seven. The streaming service is negotiating to secure the domestic rights from Paramount Pictures and Cross Creek Productions.

The Chicago Seven, a group of seven activists who were charged by the federal government with conspiracy, inciting to riot and other charges stemming from anti-Vietnam War protests that broke out during the 1968 Democratic National Convention. It’s a hot-button story, one that is sure to resonate in a presidential election year and at a time when protests over racial injustice are breaking out across the country.

Aaron Sorkin previously made his directorial debut with the Jessica Chastain film Molly’s Game. His screenwriting credits includes A Few Good Men, Charlie Wilson’s War, The Social Network, Moneyball, and Steve Jobs.

The film’s impressive cast includes Sacha Baron Cohen, Eddie Redmayne, Jeremy Strong, Joseph Gordon-Levitt, Yahya Abdul-Mateen II, Frank Langella, William Hurt, Michael Keaton, and Mark Rylance. 

They had luckily wrapped production on The Chicago 7 before the pandemic hit and was originally set to be released on October 16th, 2020. It’s said to be aiming to get a release before the election in November.

SOURCE: VARIETY