Tag: Apple Studios

Posted on in Film News, News

‘Two For The Money’: Charlize Theron & Daniel Craig To Play Thieves In Justin Lin’s High-Profile Heist Thriller At Apple

Filmmaker Justin Lin (“Star Trek Beyond”) has rebounded after exiting “Fast X” over creative issues and has secured two extremely high-profile leading actors for his upcoming heist thriller at Apple. The Hollywood Reporter has revealed that Lin has cast Oscar-winner Charlize Theron (“Atomic Blonde”) and former James Bond actor Daniel Craig (“No Time To Die”) as the leads of his new movie “Two For The Money.” Details on the film are scarce but the pic will see Theron and Craig play seasoned thieves while their relationship evolves over three big heists.

“Two For The Money” landed at Apple after a multiple studio bidding war and has a script penned by Dan Mazeau (“Damsel”) after working with Lin to co-write the script for “Fast X.”

Theron, of course, has worked with Lin previously on the “Fast & Furious” franchise directing her case Cipher in “F9: The Fast Saga.” The South African actress has some other action projects on the horizon including “The Old Guard 2,” a long-gestating sequel to “Atomic Blonde” at Netflix as well, and a potential return to the Furiosa role if a third pic connected to George Miller‘s “Mad Max: Fury Road” comes together as planned.

Craig is coming off his tenure playing the iconic British spy James Bond and is still expected to reunite with Rian Johnson for a third untitled Benoit Blanc film at Netflix after the success of “Knives Out,” and “Glass Onion.” His most recent role is playing Lee in Luca Guadagnino‘s adaptation of the William S. Burroughs novel, “Queer.”

It’s unclear when “Two For The Money” will go in front of cameras.

SOURCE: THE HOLLYWOOD REPORTER

Posted on in Film News, News, Trailers

‘Argylle’ Trailer: Matthew Vaughn Returns This February With A Twisted Star-Studded Take On The Spy Genre

It looks like the cat is finally out of the bag. The writer Elly Conway is indeed a fictional character and didn’t actually write the new spy film “Argylle” from director Matthew Vaughn (“Layer Cake”) as Universal Pictures and Apple Studios have released the first-look trailer for the upcoming action-comedy revealing the film’s main twist. What Conway (played by Bryce Dallas Howard) writes in her series of spy novels has an odd way of actually happening in the real world which has now caught the attention of various good and bad folks within the spy community including Sam Rockwell‘s Aiden.

Also revealed in the trailer is that the characters played by Henry Cavill and John Cena are actually from her books, and remains to be seen if they’ll ultimately be making the jump to reality. Changes are good though. “Argylle” seems to mix adventure, supernatural, and comedic elements something alien to Vaughn’s second film, “Stardust.” But with a bit of “Romancing The Stone” and “Knight & Day” thrown into the blender.

Another wild tidbit is that the new film hilariously features the real-life cat of Vaughn’s supermodel wife, Claudia Schiffer.

Here is the official logline of the film via Universal:

The greater the spy, the bigger the lie. From the twisted mind of Matthew Vaughn (“Kingsman” franchise, “Kick-Ass”) comes “Argylle” a razor-witted, reality-bending, globe-encircling spy thriller. Bryce Dallas Howard (“Jurassic World” franchise) is Elly Conway, the reclusive author of a series of best-selling espionage novels, whose idea of bliss is a night at home with her computer and her cat, Alfie. But when the plots of Elly’s fictional books—which center on secret agent Argylle and his mission to unravel a global spy syndicate—begin to mirror the covert actions of a real-life spy organization, quiet evenings at home become a thing of the past. Accompanied by Aiden (Oscar® winner Sam Rockwell), a cat-allergic spy, Elly (carrying Alfie in her backpack) races across the world to stay one step ahead of the killers as the line between Elly’s fictional world and her real one begins to blur. The top-flight ensemble cast features Henry Cavill (“The Witcher”), John Cena (“Fast X”), Oscar® winner Ariana DeBose (“West Side Story”), Grammy-winning pop superstar Dua Lipa (“Barbie”), Emmy winner and Oscar® nominee Bryan Cranston (“Breaking Bad”), Emmy winner and comedy icon Catherine O’Hara (“Schitt’s Creek”), Sofia Boutella (“Kingsman: The Secret Service”), and the legendary Samuel L. Jackson. Alfie is played by Chip, the real-life cat of supermodel Claudia Vaughn (née Schiffer). Argylle is directed and produced by Matthew Vaughn, from a screenplay by Jason Fuchs (“Wonder Woman”).

There’s been chatter about the film potentially becoming a franchise starter for Apple and could lead to multiple installments given the main crux of the film is that Elly can predict various missions and their outcomes. Also, the staggering $200 million Apple reportedly paid to secure the film. Perhaps, she ends up choosing a side or an organization by the end of the film.

“Argylle” will be heading to theaters on February 2 and you can watch that new trailer below.

SOURCE: UNIVERSAL/APPLE

Posted on in Film News, News

Ridley Scott Hypes “Fantastic” Four-Hour-Plus Cut Of ‘Napoleon’ & Hopes Apple Will Release It

Ridley Scott and period films go together like peanut butter and jelly. The British filmmaker originally got attention for his breakout film “The Duelist” before making his landmark sci-fi horror film “Alien,” which essentially established Scott as one of the more creative filmmakers of his generation as he’s continued to pump out releases on a consistent basis, sometimes multiple films in a single year.

So, it wasn’t that shocking when Scott was interested in exploring the life and downfall of France’s Napoleon Bonaparte. Given that Ridley has always been drawn to dramatizing/fictionalizing historical events with a certain level of flare. Bonaparte was once a subject that captured the interest of legendary director Stanley Kubrick with a never-made project that is expected to be resurrected one day by producer Steven Spielberg.

The film is expected to debut in theaters on November 22, then will be streaming exclusively on Apple TV+, and there is a new blurb in Empire Magazine (via World of Reel) that Scott is keen on Apple releasing a rather long extended cut, four and a half hours to be exact. For some context, the theatrical version we’re expected to get this fall is said to be nearly three hours as it stands currently.

This much longer cut would add more scenes with Vanessa Kirby’s Joséphine and would suggest that Scott is happy with her performance.

‘Napoleon’ is almost three hours long, although Scott has a “fantastic” near four-and-a-half-hour cut, which features more of Joséphine’s life before she meets Napoleon. He’d love Apple (who funded the film) to eventually screen it. But what they have now is hardly slight. “It’s an astonishing story,” Phoenix says of Napoleon’s life. “Hopefully we captured some of the most interesting moments.” Even without the piles.

Of course, this isn’t a new concept from Scott as most of his films have seen “extended versions” released down the line in some form. And a handful of those ended up somewhat superior to their theatrical cuts.

Examples of those include “Blade Runner: The Final Cut” which removes the horrible half-assed original voiceover from Harrison Ford and the extended cut of “Kingdom of Heaven” places the Orlando Bloom film in a better light as well. It’s unclear if Apple or Sony Pictures is actually going to take Scott up on the idea, but I don’t think this is a huge ask of them and it could potentially nudge audiences to watch the film a second time out of curiosity.

After the release of “Napoleon,” Scott will be returning to his love of the Roman epic with a sequel to his Oscar-winning period action film, “Gladiator.” The sequel had been shooting until the strikes paused production and there is an assumption it would only resume once those contracts have been resolved.

Napoleon is a spectacle-filled action epic that details the checkered rise and fall of the iconic French Emperor Napoleon Bonaparte, played by Oscar®-winner Joaquin Phoenix. Against a stunning backdrop of large-scale filmmaking orchestrated by legendary director Ridley Scott, the film captures Bonaparte’s relentless journey to power through the prism of his addictive, volatile relationship with his one true love, Josephine, showcasing his visionary military and political tactics against some of the most dynamic practical battle sequences ever filmed.

SOURCE: EMPIRE MAGAZINE

Posted on in Film News, News

‘The Wager’: Martin Scorsese & Leonardo DiCaprio Will Next Reunite For Shipwreck Thriller At Apple, Their Seventh Film Together

We’re all excited to see how Martin Scorsese‘s “Killers of The Flower Moon” does with global audiences and critics. It’s a film about a string of murders plagued by the oil-rich indigenous group, The Osage Nation, in the 1920s and based on real-life events that eventually drew the attention of the FBI. While the filmmaker has been circling and developing multiple future projects over the years, it looks like we have a better idea of what exactly is coming next and will have a connection to that upcoming release.

During an interview with French outlet Telerama, “Killers of The Flower Moon” author David Grann revealed that the next Scorsese film will be a feature adaption of his 1700s-set high-seas novel, “The Wager: A Story of Shipwreck, Mutiny & Murder.” And as we’d all assume, the director’s muse and Oscar-winner Leonardo DiCaprio is said to be taking the lead of the period drama. “The Wager” would mark the duo’s seventh film together and it had been previously reported to have landed financing from Apple back in 2022, where Scorsese recently made “Killers of The Flower Moon.” Other players involved include Imperative Entertainment, Sieklia Productions, and Appian Way Productions.

That aforementioned novel’s synopsis reads as follows:

Set in the 1740s, Wager’s story is set in motion when a patched-together boat with 30 emaciated men landed on the coast of Brazil. The men were the surviving crew of a British ship that was chasing a Spanish vessel and had crashed onto an island in South America’s Patagonia region. Their tales of surviving the seas and elements made them heroes. However, six months later another vessel, even more beat up than the first one, ended up on the coat of Chile, this one with three men. These new sailors charged that the other men were actually mutineers.

Given the project is going to feature multiple sailors, it is assumed we should end up seeing a bunch of actors from recent Scorsese films landing supporting roles alongside DiCaprio. I would be extremely shocked if English actors Stephen Graham (“The Irishman,” “Gangs of New York”), Andrew Garfield (“Silence”), and Jack Huston (“The Irishman,” “Boardwalk Empire”) didn’t show up in the pic or were approached during the casting process. “Oppenheimer” breakout Cillian Murphy might also be an actor Scorsese pursues, given the obvious awards chatter already surrounding the actor for the atomic bomb biopic and his previous work on “Dunkirk” and “In The Heart of The Sea” would mean he would already have experience with the film’s setting after making his own fair share of boat dramas.

However, given the ongoing strikes in Hollywood, it’s unclear when filming on “The Wager” is expected to take place given that prep and pre-production likely won’t be happening anytime soon. Other Scorsese projects that had been in the works include a biopic on Grateful Dead’s Jerry Garcia that had Jonah Hill (“The Wolf of Wall Street”) attached to star as the frontman and another long-gestating film about President Teddy Roosevelt that would star DiCaprio in that role.

SOURCE: DAVID GRANN VIA TELERAMA

Posted on in Film News, News

Apple Studios Lands Director Jon Watts’ Thriller Starring Brad Pitt & George Clooney

Director Jon Watts has been spending a good chunk of the last ten years working on a Spider-Man trilogy for Marvel Studios, after making waves with his thriller Cop Car. He’s currently putting the finishing touches on Spider-Man: No Way Home and during that post-production process has been shopping around a massive package deal that has almost every studio/streamer in the Hollywood drooling.

Watts will write and direct an untitled thriller starring Brad Pitt and George Clooney as two lone wolf fixers given the same assignment.

Deadline reports after a large bidding war, Apple Studios has surfaced as victorious, however, not mentioning how much the deal is worth. The film will get a theatrical release which is not as common when streamers get their mitts on original projects.

The group vying for the film include Sony Pictures, Lionsgate, Annapurna, MGM Studios, Universal Pictures, Warner Bros., Apple, Netflix, and Amazon.

It’ll be interesting to see when the thriller begins shooting as Watts has been attached to direct Marvel’s Fantastic Four reboot since last December, but is one of the few MCU films still waiting on an official release date.

At this point, we shouldn’t expect Fantastic Four to begin shooting before 2023.

Watts’ film Cop Car is very much recommended if you’ve only seen his work at Marvel.

COP CAR – When two rebellious young boys stumble across an abandoned cop car hidden in a secluded glade they decide to take it for a joyride. When the small town sheriff (Kevin Bacon) goes looking for his missing car, the boys find themselves in the center of a deadly game of cat and mouse and the only way out is to go as fast as their cop car can take them.

SOURCE: DEADLINE

Posted on in Film News

EXCLUSIVE: Henry Cavill Spy Flick ‘Argylle’ Using Working Title ‘Tartan’ & Hires ‘Mission: Impossible – Fallout’ VFX Supervisor

Matthew Vaughn’s next feature film made some big headlines over the summer when it was revealed, Argylle, had been reportedly picked-up by Apple for hefty $200 million.

Not only that, but the spy flick’s impressive cast would include Henry Cavill (The Witcher, Man of Steel), Sam Rockwell (Iron Man 2, Moon, Seven Psychopaths, Three Billboards), Bryce Dallas Howard (Black Mirror, Jurassic World, Jurassic World: Dominion), Bryan Cranston (Godzilla, Breaking Bad), Catherine O’Hara (Home Alone, SCTV, Schitt’s Creek), John Cena (Bumblebee, F9: The Fast Saga, Peacemaker, The Suicide Squad), Samuel L. Jackson (Pulp Fiction, The Hateful Eight, Django Unchained, Secret Invasion, The Marvels), and singer Dua Lipa making her acting debut.

The Ronin can update with some exclusive production updates such as the working title being Tartan during the film’s London area shoot and that they’ve added visual effects supervisor Jody Johnson (Mission: Impossible – Fallout, Rush, In The Heart of The Sea) to the massive action flick’s production team.

Previously, we first revealed the film’s title along with multiple reports confirming key crew members such as cinematographer George Richmond (Fantastic Beasts 3, Kingsman: The Secret Service, Kingsman: The Golden Circle, Rocketman, Eddie The Eagle), production designer Daniel Taylor (Tetris), and costume designer Stephanie Collie (Layer Cake, Silent Night, Hellboy, Peaky Blinders).

Argylle is based on the upcoming novel by Ellie Conway with a script from Jason Fuchs (Wonder Woman, Pan).

It’s expected to debut sometime in 2022 as suggested in official teaser posters.

Apple is also behind the big Napoleon Bonaparte historical epic Kitbag from director Ridley Scott film with a cast already consisting of Oscar-winner Joaquin Phoenix and Jodie Comer. They’re working with director Martin Scorsese on his upcoming thriller Killers of The Flower Moon (said to have wrapped production), which will likely help Apple become a strong awards contender.

The next film from Matthew Vaughn will be the Kingsman franchise prequel The King’s Man that will hit theaters on December 22, which explores the origins of the secretive British spy agency.

THE KING’S MAN – As a collection of history’s worst tyrants and criminal masterminds gather to plot a war to wipe out millions, one man must race against time to stop them. Discover the origins of the very first independent intelligence agency in The King’s Man.

Posted on in Film News, News

‘Argylle’: Apple Buying Matthew Vaughn’s New Spy Movie Starring Henry Cavill For $200M

A while back, Netflix made headlines when they spent an obscene amount of money to secure the global rights to Rian Johnson’s next two Knives Out sequels starring Daniel Craig. Well, it looks like Apple is jumping into the blockbuster game themselves as Deadline reports that they’ve spent $200 million to land Matthew Vaughn’s new spy project Argylle.

Argylle is based on the upcoming novel by Ellie Conway with a script from Jason Fuchs (Wonder Woman, Pan).

It will star Henry Cavill (The Witcher, Man of Steel), Sam Rockwell (Iron Man 2, Moon, Seven Psychopaths, Three Billboards), Bryce Dallas Howard (Black Mirror, Jurassic World, Jurassic World: Dominion), Bryan Cranston (Godzilla, Breaking Bad), Catherine O’Hara (Home Alone, SCTV, Schitt’s Creek, John Cena (Bumblebee, F9: The Fast Saga), Samuel L. Jackson (Pulp Fiction, The Hateful Eight, Django Unchained), and singer Dua Lipa making her acting debut.

While Apple is reportedly only buying the single installment, it’s been said that Vaughn expects the movie to be expanded into a trilogy.

In theory, Argylle could give Apple their own spy franchise as their director competitor Amazon is looking to acquire Bond production partner MGM Studios and will likely attempt to expand that franchise for streaming projects beyond the feature films.

The Ronin first revealed that the title for Matthew Vaughn’s next flick would be titled Argylle (originally we thought it was a working title) along with confirmations that the film’s production team would consist of cinematographer George Richmond (Fantastic Beasts 3, Kingsman: The Secret Service, Kingsman: The Golden Circle, Rocketman, Eddie The Eagle), production designer Daniel Taylor (Tetris), and costume designer Stephanie Collie (Layer Cake, Silent Night, Hellboy, Peaky Blinders).

Argylle is expected to be released sometime in 2022, but it’s unknown if Apple will pursue a traditional theatrical release or keep it as simply a Apple TV+ exclusive. The latter is assumed though.

Apple is also behind the big Napoleon Bonaparte historical epic Kitbag from director Ridley Scott film with a cast to include Oscar-winner Joaquin Phoenix and Jodie Comer. They’re working with Martin Scorsese on his upcoming thriller Killers of The Flower Moon, which will likely give Apple a strong awards contender.

SOURCE: DEADLINE

Posted on in Film News

Zac Efron, Russell Crowe & Bill Murray In Talks For Peter Farrelly’s Vietnam War Pic ‘The Greatest Beer Run Ever’ – Eyes Production Start In August

Director Peter Farrelly is going to follow-up his Oscar-winning film Green Book with an adaptation of the novel The Greatest Beer Run Ever by Chick Donahue and J.T. Molloy.

The filmmaker is now assembling his cast as Deadline reports that actors such as Zac Efron, Russell Crowe, and Bill Murray are in talks. The first two being eyed for lead roles and Bill being wanted for a supporting role. Efron could end up playing Chick Donahue, the story’s main character that thought it was a bright idea to search a war zone for his buddies to have a couple beers.

Beer Run tells Donohue’s story of leaving New York in 1967 to bring beer to his childhood buddies in the Army — while they are fighting in Vietnam. Donohue took a good idea to the extreme, hitching a ride on a Merchant Marine ship, then carrying the beer through the jungle as he tried to track down his three friends. Dressed in shorts and Hawaiian shirts, he was mistaken for CIA, which made his effort a bit easier. Finally, when he completed his beer run, the Tet Offensive happened.

They add that filming is eyeing a start this August possibly in Australia or New Zealand.

SOURCE: DEADLINE

Posted on in Film News

Jodie Comer Reuniting With Ridley Scott For Napoleon Film ‘Kitbag’ Starring Joaquin Phoenix – Will Play Josephine

Deadline reports that Jodie Comer has been selected by director Ridley Scott for the role of Josephine in his upcoming Napoleon feature film Kitbag, starring Oscar-winner Joaquin Phoenix. Comer recently worked with Scott on his period drama The Last Duel, that sees Jodie co-starring with Matt Damon and Adam Driver.

However, the actress is only in early talks for the key role in the new film.

Filming is expected to begin in early 2022.

The film is an original and personal look at Napoleon’s origins and his swift, ruthless climb to emperor, viewed through the prism of his addictive and often volatile relationship with his wife and one true love, Josephine. The intention of the film is to capture Napoleon’s famous battles, relentless ambition and astounding strategic mind as an extraordinary military leader and war visionary.

Ridley and Phoenix previously worked together on Gladiator.

SOURCE: DEADLINE

Posted on in Television News

‘Band of Brothers’ Follow-Up WWII Series ‘Masters of The Air’ Casts Austin Butler & Callum Turner

Tom Hanks and Steven Spielberg previously were behind HBO’s WWII series Band of Brothers and The Pacific about American soldiers that fought in European and Pacific campaigns. They’re currently working on a new show, Masters of The Air, that HBO passed on and landed at Apple TV+. An adaption of the novel from Donald L. Miller that focuses on bomber pilots aka bomber boys, which will be written by John Orloff and Graham Yost.

The Hollywood Reporter has revealed that Once Upon A Time In Hollywood’s Austin Bulter and Fantastic Beasts 2 actor Callum Turner. They have landed the roles of Maj. Gale Cleven and Maj. John Egan.

Masters of the Air is the deeply personal story of the American bomber boys in World War II who brought the war to Hitler’s doorstep. With the narrative power of fiction, Donald Miller takes you on a harrowing ride through the fire-filled skies over Berlin, Hanover, and Dresden and describes the terrible cost of bombing for the German people. Fighting at 25,000 feet in thin, freezing air that no warriors had ever encountered before, bomber crews battled new kinds of assaults on body and mind. Air combat was deadly but intermittent: periods of inactivity and anxiety were followed by short bursts of fire and fear. Unlike infantrymen, bomber boys slept on clean sheets, drank beer in local pubs, and danced to the swing music of Glenn Miller’s Air Force band, which toured US air bases in England. But they had a much greater chance of dying than ground soldiers. Masters of the Air is a story of life in wartime England and in the German prison camps, where tens of thousands of airmen spent part of the war. It ends with a vivid description of the grisly hunger marches captured airmen were forced to make near the end of the war through the country their bombs destroyed.

According to a report from Deadline from October, No Time To Die director Cary Joji Fukunaga is attached to tackle episodes. Also, I can confirm that Alien: Covenant and Raised By Wolves production designer Chris Seagers is going to be working on the series.

SOURCE: THE HOLLYWOOD STUDIOS