Tag: Black Widow

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Kevin Feige Reveals Scarlett Johansson Reteaming For “Top Secret Marvel Studios Project”

During an event where actress Scarlett Johansson received the American Cinematheque Award, Marvel Studios head Kevin Feige has revealed that the studio will reunite with Johansson for a top-secret project that won’t involve her character Natasha Romanoff, aka, Black Widow (via Deadline).

Johansson will also produce too after being an executive producer on Black Widow.

Among those in attendance to pay tribute to the two-time Oscar nominee was Marvel Studios President Kevin Feige, who praised her for her “talent,” “vision”, intelligence and savvy, both as an actress and a producer, also teasing a “top secret Marvel Studios project” on which the studio is reteaming with the actress, which he said has nothing to do with her Black Widow character, Natasha Romanoff. Feige noted that Johansson, who became the first Marvel actor to exec produce one of the studio’s movies with Black Widow, will also serve on the upcoming project as a producer.

This comes after Johansson attempted to sue Disney after the company dismissed her calls for renegotiations when they dumped Black Widow on Disney+’s Priemer Access (streaming VOD option), which she believed would ding her bonus potential connected to box office returns by $50 million. Disney aggressively countered leading to a PR nightmare with a sexist response to the lawsuit but was ultimately resolved with a settlement.

It’ll be interesting to see what the mysterious project will be and what she’ll be doing on it outside of producing.

SOURCE: DEADLINE

Posted on in Film News, News

‘Shang-Chi’ Surpasses ‘Black Widow’ At Domestic Box Office Nabbing Pandemic Record

The pandemic hasn’t led to many wins at the box office, however, there is some good news concerning Destin Daniel Cretton’s Shang-Chi & The Legend of The Ten Rings. A new superhero film that gives Marvel Studios their first leading Asian-American superhero character and the latest addition to the growing ranks of The Avengers.

Shang-Chi has now slid past Cate Shortland’s Black Widow to nab the pandemic record at the box office earning an impressive $196 million, the estimated weekend numbers coming from Deadline. This comes alongside solid global numbers as well $342+ million, as the comic book flick is zeroing in on crossing $400 million.

It’s only a matter of time before Marvel announces a Shang-Chi sequel, as Cretton and co-writer Dave Callaham have previously teased ideas for Shang-Chi 2 having a connection to the origin of the ten rings themselves.

We’re curious to see where Shang-Chi where appear next as cameos/crossovers continue to be an important element of the Marvel Cinematic Universe and the television division expanding as well with multiple unannounced Disney+ shows on horizon.

November will see the next big feature film with Chloe Zhao’s Eternals and the Hawkeye series that focuses on holiday adventure in NYC as Clint Barton mentors Kate Bishop.

SHANG-CHI & THE LEGEND OF THE TEN RINGS – Marvel Studios’ “Shang-Chi and The Legend of The Ten Rings” stars Simu Liu as Shang-Chi, who must confront the past he thought he left behind when he is drawn into the web of the mysterious Ten Rings organization.

Joining Simu Liu in the Marvel cast includes Tony Leung as Wenwu, Awkwafina as Shang-Chi’s friend Katy, and Michelle Yeoh as Jiang Nan, as well as Fala Chen, Meng’er Zhang, Florian Munteanu, and Ronny Chieng. Shang-Chi and The Legend of The Ten Rings is directed by Destin Daniel Cretton and produced by Kevin Feige and Jonathan Schwartz, with Louis D’Esposito, Victoria Alonso, and Charles Newirth serving as executive producers. David Callaham & Destin Daniel Cretton & Andrew Lanham wrote the screenplay for the film.

SOURCE: DEADLINE

Posted on in Film News, News

Marvel & Russo Brothers Were In Negotiations For Mystery Movie Before Scarlett Johansson Lawsuit Stalled Talks

We’ve been excited about the potential return of the Russo Brothers to the Marvel Cinematic Universe after giving us Captain America: The Winter Soldier, Captain America: Civil War, Avengers: Infinity War, and Avengers: Endgame.

There is now an update of sorts from the Wall Street Journal, as they point out the sibling directing team was indeed in talks with Marvel Studios to return to the MCU for a mystery film but talks apparently have stalled.

The reasoning is being linked to Scarlett Johansson’s Black Widow lawsuit against Marvel/Disney, as the Russo Brothers are concerned by the issues raised by the actress including the potential release of the unnamed pic and if their contract for payment will ultimately be upheld by Disney.

This is the first real instance of fallout from the lawsuit since it was filed.

We don’t know what exactly that mystery film could be, but considering they’ve talked up a desire to tackle X-Men’s Wolverine and a hard-reboot is on the horizon. Marvel Studios could look to the Russo Brothers to help with the reboot as they did with seasoned MCU director Jon Watts for Fantastic Four. Watts being behind Marvel’s Spider-Man trilogy before landing the reboot.

However, this is simply my own speculation given the director’s comments in the past about being able to get their hands on mutants.

Here is what Joe Russo said about Wolverine back in February.

“Wolverine has always been such a special character for me. To realize him on screen, it’s very hard because Hugh Jackman‘s performance is definitive. It’s like Batman; you have to really think of a way to, you have to really find the right actor to come in and give a really different take to that character. But I would really love to see him on screen.”

I think the best thing is to take a break, without question. You need a [palate cleanser], you need to rinse the towel a little bit, let everyone enjoy what was, and then come up with something new. But I’d love to take a crack at Wolverine at some point.”

The Russo Brothers would be perfect to handle the scale and volume of characters as they’ve proven multiple times being able juggle a large roster of superheroes. Despite fans potentially wanting someone brand new to direct a reboot, Marvel might be more comfortable from their existing group of filmmakers given the importance of these MCU reboots.

Secret Wars is something they’ve also talked-up but we don’t have concrete information that is happening in the near future.

Another potential contender could be Anthony Mackie’s Captain America 4, given that doesn’t have a director attached. We had been hearing that the studio wanted a POC director for that one, but having Russo Brothers making a third Captain America movie wouldn’t be that shocking either.

SOURCE: THE WALL STREET JOURNAL

Posted on in Film News, News

‘Guardians Of The Galaxy Vol.3’ Enlists ‘Hawkeye’ Stunt Coordinator Heidi Moneymaker

Production on James Gunn’s Guardians of The Galaxy Vol.3 is said to be finally happening this November and will wrap in April, according to star Chris Pratt.

We’ve been waiting longer than usual for the sequel because Disney fired and then rehired the filmmaker over tasteless tweets. In the meantime, James Gunn was hired by Warner Bros. to write and direct The Suicide Squad, that released last month. Leading to extensive delays but prep is underway with it’s looming fall production start.

There are some crew updates we can now share.

The Ronin has been able to confirm that Stephane Ceretti is indeed working on Guardians of The Galaxy Vol.3. Ceretti has worked on other MCU films such as Guardians of The Galaxy, Doctor Strange, Ant-Man & The Wasp, and the upcoming Chloe Zhao pic Eternals.

We’re also hearing that Heidi Moneymaker will be the film’s stunt coordinator.

You might be familiar with Moneymaker as she was Scarlett Johansson’s longtime stunt double from Iron Man 2 to Black Widow. She was a stunt coordinator on the upcoming Hawkeye series (her sister Renae Moneymaker doubling for Hailee Steinfeld), fight coordinator on Disney’s live-action Mulan along with other other stunt work on Avatar 2, John Wick: Chapter 2, and Hobbs & Shaw.

UPDATE: James Gunn has confirmed our reporting on Twitter.

https://twitter.com/JamesGunn/status/1452330987669663756

Moneymaker confirmed her role as stunt coordinator on Hawkeye to Looper back in July.

“I was just the boss on this one. I did a couple of [pre-visualizations] before we had our full team, and when we didn’t have all of our doubles and stuff. So, I did a couple of pre-vises with my sis. And my sister was on the show as well, and some of the guys. But I didn’t actually do any on-camera. Too busy. It was a busy, busy show.”

Fellow Marvel Studios stuntwoman Monique Ganderton was the stunt coordinator on Avengers: Endgame, Loki, and She-Hulk. So, the studio promoting these stunt folks to coordinators isn’t that terribly strange.

The returning cast is assumed to include Chris Pratt as Peter Quill aka Star-Lord, Karen Gillan as Nebula, Dave Bautista as Drax, Zoe Saldana as Gamora, Pom Klementieff as Mantis, Sean Gunn as Kraglin, Bradley Cooper as the voice of Rocket Raccoon, and Vin Diesel as the voice of Groot. 

Filming is all but confirmed to be taking place in Atlanta, Georgia and may shoot some sequences in the United Kingdom.

Production designer Beth Mickle (Drive, Only God Forgives) has been attached for the Guardians sequel for ages and ended up making The Suicide Squad with Gunn.

Previous cinematographers Ben Davis or Henry Branham (The Flash, The Suicide Squad) might be unavailable as they’re currently involved with other film projects. However, we could speculate that someone like Michael Bonvillain (Zombieland, Cloverfield) might be a good candidate to shoot the third movie, after recently being the director of photography on Gunn’s Peacemaker series at HBO Max.

Guardians of The Galaxy Vol.3 has a release date of May 5, 2023

Posted on in News, Television News

‘Hawkeye’: Marvel Announces November 24 Debut On Disney+ & Shares First Look Image

Marvel Studios has announced that one of their upcoming live-action series, Hawkeye, will officially debut on Disney+ on November 24 (subsequent episodes airing on Wednesdays) alongside sharing a first look still from the show via Entertainment Weekly.

It’s only a matter of time before Marvel releases a teaser trailer for Hawkeye.

The show’s cast consists of Jeremy Renner as Clint Barton Ronin/Hawkeye, Hailee Steinfield as Kate Bishop, Vera Farmiga, Fra Fee, Tony Dalton, Zahn McClarnon, and newcomer Alaqua Cox as Maya Lopez aka Echo. We’ll also see Florence Pugh return to the Yelena Belova role from Black Widow as teased at the end of the film.

Marvel Studios seems impressed enough with the show to already be moving forward with a spinoff show featuring the deaf Native-American character Maya Lopez aka Echo played by Alaqua Cox with Etan Cohen and Emily Cohen overseeing it. Echo first appeared in the Daredevil comic books and also took on the persona of Ronin, just like Clint Barton.

Daredevil actor Vincent D’Onofrio has seemingly hinted on social media to his return to the Kingpin role in the show, but this has yet to be made official.

Other live-action shows coming include Ms. Marvel, She-Hulk, Moon Knight, Secret Invasion, Ironheart, Armor Wars, a Wakanda series from Ryan Coogler, and the aforementioned Echo spinoff.

Fans seem a bit nervous that Marvel hasn’t announced a spot for Ms. Marvel, but we shouldn’t be shocked if it lands a debut in September-October. Officially Loki and What If…? are landing Season 2 orders. Our own information points towards Ms. Marvel is getting a Season 2 at Disney+ as well.

We’re expecting a big MCU lineup reveal in the near future as there are wave of LLCs being established for unannounced projects. With D23 happening in November, there is a good chance Kevin Feige could reveal more series and films on the horizon.

SOURCE: ENTERTAINMENT WEEKLY/MARVEL

Posted on in Film News, News

‘Black Widow’: Longtime MCU Actress Scarlett Johansson Suing Disney Over Breach Of Contract

Yesterday, Scarlett Johansson made big waves after the Wall Street Journal reported that the actress has filed a lawsuit against Disney claiming that the company breached their contract when pivoting Black Widow from a traditional theatrical window to a hybrid release placing the film on Disney+ (via Premier Access) without adjusting the existing contract after multiple requests from the Johansson’s reps were allegedly ignored.

The outlet reporting that moving Black Widow to Disney+ could end up seeing Johansson lose a hefty $50 million in bonuses.

Disney has responded to the lawsuit with the following statement:

“There is no merit whatsoever to this filing. The lawsuit is especially sad and distressing in its callous disregard for the horrific and prolonged global effects of the COVID-19 pandemic. Disney has fully complied with Ms. Johansson’s contract and furthermore, the release of Black Widow on Disney+ with Premier Access has significantly enhanced her ability to earn additional compensation on top of the $20M she has received to date.”

“It’s no secret that Disney is releasing films like Black Widow directly onto Disney+ to increase subscribers and thereby boost the company’s stock price – and that it’s hiding behind Covid-19 as a pretext to do so. But ignoring the contracts of the artists responsible for the success of its films in furtherance of this short-sighted strategy violates their rights and we look forward to proving as much in court,” John Berlinksi, Johansson’s attorney, told Business Insider.

Interestingly enough, while the statement says the suit doesn’t have “merit” they’re not willing to say they didn’t breach the contract. This is likely because that could be used against them if this goes to court as a public statement would be used as evidence. It’s worth mentioning that only a judge would be the one to gauge if this lawsuit has merit, not Disney’s fleet of lawyers that are likely looking to avoid paying out Johansson the millions she believes she is owed for as long as possible.

Scarlett’s contractual bonus/back-end deal with Marvel/Disney isn’t a new thing as other actors such as Robert Downey Jr. has had similar deals as an incentive to stick around beyond their original lengthy contract. When Johansson originally signed on to work with Marvel, she was low-balled during the Phase One era spearheaded by Ike Perlmutter having to commit to 6-9 films while other actors made much much more for the same level of work. The idea was that bonuses were established to reward legacy actors for future/past contributes to the Marvel franchise. In the case of Black Widow, she was a producer and helped shape the film.

It’s notable that while Disney is attempting to shame Johansson to filing a lawsuit during the pandemic, the company is extremely comfortable laying off over 32,000 employees along with earning money from their theme parks and in-person theatrical releases as the Delta variant has been an increasing danger to the American public for months now.

During the opening weekend of Black Widow’s domestic release, Disney felt the need to gloat about earning a solid $80 million at the box office alongside another $60 million from Premier Access earnings as they issued a press release highlighting the money they made. Seemingly bragging they were able to get a large amount of people they were able to coax to theaters.

They’re also releasing Jungle Cruise this weekend as the CDC has revealed the Delta variant is as infectious as chicken pox and an indoor location is the perfect way that the virus could be transmitted to the unvaccinated.

Both NATO and IMAX have pointed to the Premier Access release for Black Widow’s huge drops between weekends that was directly connected to mass online piracy. A regular theatrical window would normally protect the studio from piracy tanking box office until the film hit VOD or home video. As most people wouldn’t be as interested in downloading a blurry cam version recorded on someone’s phone compared to an HD version ripped from the streaming source provided by Disney+.

SOURCE: WALL STREET JOURNAL

Posted on in Film News, News

Anthony Mackie & David Harbour To Star In Netflix’s ‘We Have A Ghost’ From ‘Freaky’ Director Christopher Landon; Filming Has Started

Freaky director Christopher Landon has secured a high-profile project at Netflix with We Have a Ghost, which is based on the short story Ernest from Geoff Manaugh.

We Have A Ghost follows Kevin and his family, who find a ghost named Ernest haunting their new home and get turned into overnight social media sensations. But when Kevin and Ernest go rogue to investigate the mystery of Ernest’s past, they become a target of the CIA.

The news coming from The Hollywood Reporter adds that the fantastic cast consists of Anthony Mackie (Outside The Wire, The Falcon & The Winter Soldier), David Harbour (Stranger Things, Black Widow), Tig Nataro (Army of The Dead, Star Trek: Discovery), Jennifer Coolidge (Legally Blonde), Erica Ash (Survivor’s Remorse, Uncle Drew), Isabella Russo (School of Rock the Musical, Crashing), Niles Fitch (This Is Us), Faith Ford (Murphy Brown, Hope & Faith) and Steve Coulter (Shotgun Wedding, The Conjuring).

It’s not mentioned in the report, but Landon’s previous work has skewed more comedic/tongue-in-cheek and I guess we’ll have to assume that is the case with We Have A Ghost, given that Harbour and Mackie have done humorous roles in the past.

Christopher Landon took to Twitter to announced that film had officially started on Monday and confirmed that cinematographer Marc Spicer (Escape Room, Escape Room 2) will be behind the camera. Spicer has a wonderful eye and those Escape Room movies have an extremely slick look which should mean that We Have A Ghost will really have a strong visual edge to it.

The pairing of Mackie and Harbour is interesting as Marvel Studios head Kevin Feige suggested on Twitter (during a Black Widow watch party) recently he’d like to see Sam Wilson’s Captain America and Alexei’s Red Guardian come to blows at some point. It’ll be interesting if the two actors could reunite for an MCU project like Captain America 4.

SOURCE: THE HOLLYWOOD REPORTER

Posted on in Film News

‘Black Widow’ Drops 67% In Second Weekend & Theater Owners Blame Hybrid Release For Underperformance

Last week, Marvel Studios and Disney had a lot to celebrate as they ended up with a solid domestic weekend opening of $80.3 million after delayed Black Widow over a year due tot he pandemic making it’s unfathomable to release a massive Marvel last year.

Well, in it’s second weekend there is less to be happy about after Space Jame: A New Legacy toppled the MCU film from the top spot earning a decent, but not great, $32 million. Black Widow on the other hand is estimated to have earned $26.3 million, a steep 67% drop from opening weekend and with more new releases coming in July-August it would suggest that that number will only continue to dwindle.

This makes it the biggest second weekend drop in modern MCU history.

While the pandemic is still very much a thing going on in the United States, you really wouldn’t know it looking at the last couple of weekends at the box office as people are still risking their lives and others by watching these movies in person as variant cases grow and vaccination rates have stalled.

There are a lot of factors here such as mostly front-loaded opening weekend numbers have become the norm during the pandemic and added competition could mean people are less likely to give repeat in-theater business. Another big issue is releasing the film on Disney+ via Premier Access at the same time as theaters, this means people can watch endlessly at home after paying their purchase fee and because it hit a streaming service HD/HDR versions of the film have hit torrenting sites, meaning there is now an option for people to simply download a perfect without paying (morally wrong but also socially acceptable among younger demographics).

Disney was finally eager to reveal their Premier Access numbers last weekend at $60 million, hoping that would lessen the sting that it “looked like” film underperformed compared to their other recent solo films such as Black Panther and Captain Marvel, both eventually earning a billion-plus at the global box office (Black Widow isn’t likely going to make anything close to that). It even made less opening weekend than Doctor Strange’s $85 million from 2016. Sadly, those Premier Access earnings can’t be applied to real box office totals and were really only window dressing. Studios take final box office totals real seriously and it looks like their hybrid release could end deflating the film’s global cume by at least $100 million, if not more.

This doesn’t mean Black Widow is going to be a flop, by any means, but it’s not great and the studio is likely looking towards the overseas market to help push the film into the profit zone with a release in China on the horizon.

Theatrical windows have always been buffers to online piracy and might be why Disney stated they will returning to a 45-day window for Shang-Chi & The Legend of The Ten Rings. I don’t think Disney is ready to go all-in on a hybrid model of Black Widow’s second weekend numbers are any indication.

The importance of a theatrical widow is something that the National Association of Theater Owners just echoed in a press release hammering Disney’s hybrid release model. Suggesting that the company attempted to maximize profits (Disney doesn’t have to share Disney+ earnings with theaters) by damaging the theatrical earning potential and referred to this weekend’s box office drop as “a stunning second weekend collapse in theatrical revenues.”

“Black Widow should have opened to anywhere from $92-$100 million. Based on preview
revenue, compared to the same titles, Black Widow could have opened to
anywhere from $97 to $130 million,” NATO added in their press release.

They also mention out that films such as F9: The Fast Saga and A Quiet Place Part II seemed to have healthy subsequent weekend earnings because they weren’t easily pirated like the HBO Max releases and now Black Widow. The long-established buffer for piracy simply vanished.

Posted on in Film News

Kevin Feige Says Melina & Red Guardian’s Return “A Safe Bet” As ‘Black Widow’ Crosses $200M At Global Box Office

Black Widow has officially crossed $200 million internationally at the box office, after an impressive $80.3 million domestic opening last weekend. Sadly, the box office totals for Black Widow won’t include the $60 million Disney claims they earned or future earnings from Premier Access, which will likely deflate the total run once the dust settles. A risk Disney knew they would be facing with a hybrid release strategy.

However, the film is on the path to turn a decent profit and we’ll likely get plenty of sequels/spinoffs.

There does seem to be some hope that not only David Harbour’s Alexei Shostakov aka Red Guardian might be making a comeback soon, but while speaking with the D23 Inside podcast (via The Direct), Marvel’s Kevin Feige suggested that Rachel Weisz’s Melina Vostokoff aka Iron Maiden could also be poised for a return as well.

“It is always the intention that when characters come in, and great great actors come in to the universe, if we have a great time with them, the audience did, that you always want to see them again. I think it’s a safe bet that we definitely want that to happen,” Feige told D23 Inside concerning the possibility of Melina and Alexei making their return to the MCU in the future.

We never actually saw Melina’s Iron Maiden incarnation, so that could be something fun to explore in the future.

Director Cate Shortland has teased a desire to return for Black Widow 2, there seems to be some inference that Yelena Belova (Florence Pugh) will appear in both the Hawkeye series and potentially a Thunderbolts project, and finally David Harbour has teased early talks with Marvel about Red Guardian’s return being open to either a film or Disney+ series (Winter Guard project feels like the smart move).

We’re also assuming that Taskmaster will be back at some point too.

BLACK WIDOW – In Black Widow, Natasha Romanoff confronts the darker parts of her ledger when a dangerous conspiracy with ties to her past arises. Pursued by a force that will stop at nothing to bring her down, Natasha must deal with her history as a spy and the broken relationships left in her wake long before she became an Avenger. Directed by Cate Shortland and produced by Kevin Feige, the movie stars Scarlett Johansson reprising her role as Natasha Romanoff. Florence Pugh stars as Yelena Belova, David Harbour as Alexei Shostakov aka Red Guardian, and Rachel Weisz as Melina Vostokoff.

SOURCE: D23 INSIDE PODCAST

Posted on in Film News

‘Black Widow’ Screenwriter Eric Pearson Explains Reason For The MCU Revamp Of Taskmaster

***WARNING SPOILERS AHEAD FOR BLACK WIDOW***

Marvel’s Black Widow finally released over the weekend, ending the journey of Scarlett Johansson’s Natasha Romanoff and allows Florence Pugh to continue in sequels/spinoffs as she is set to reprise the Yelena Belova role in the Hawkeye series.

While I had my own gripes with the action sequences not meeting the hype from Johansson comparing the pic to projects like Terminator 2: Judgement Day, one of the things I did enjoy was the reworking of Taskmaster. Screenwriter Eric Pearson spoke with Comic Book and explained the switch-up from the comic book counterpart, Anthony Masters.

“Well, there was a previous draft where it was a Tony Masters character, but it did… It was hard because we had certain things that we knew certain constants. One of the constants was we were right after Captain America: Civil War and before Avengers: Infinity War which meant our great threat, the Red Room… One of the bigger kind of complications was figuring out a villain plot that could succeed and go unnoticed, which ultimately, I think kind of works out for a spy thriller film and also for Dreykov as an ultimate villain because he is a bit of a cowardly man who wields power from the shadows, but spends most of his time isolated, like a weird Howard Hughes, just talking about how big he is to himself because he’s too scared to actually kind of like get out there in the world,” the screenwriter told Comic Book.

Pearson adding their reasons for pivoting from Masters to Dreykov’s daughter, “Tony Masters didn’t seem to really fit into that. And meanwhile, we had this mystery of ‘What happened to Dreykov’s daughter?’ And I don’t know it seemed like because Natasha Romanoff’s story is always going to be more grounded, but you still want some Marvel fun, fantastic in it. The idea of an accident going wrong and we’ve already got this facility now in the Red Room that is constantly with working on and the idea of mind control and rebuilding and controlling the human brain, the idea of an accident going wrong with a loved one and using the technology to reconstruct that person’s mind finding something new, finding the photographic reflexes in rebuilding that mind that felt like a good Marvel comic book addition to an otherwise more grounded spy thriller thing.”

One of the biggest theories early on was that Mason (played by O-T Fagbenle) was going to be Anthony Masters or a version of him. That would also explain Fagbenle’s large credit on the posters only for him to ultimately appear in three minor scenes.

Adding to this idea that the gender swap happened much later on, British stuntman Andy Lister posted an image on Instagram of himself in the Taskmaster costume during the third act scenes (when Taskmaster’s identity is revealed to Natasha) and potentially confirms that they changed the villain’s identity/gender later on in the production.

SOURCE: COMIC BOOK