Tag: Chiwetel Ejiofor

Posted on in Film News

‘Doctor Strange 2’ Stunt Coordinator Team Includes ‘Overlord’s Jo McLaren & ‘Mission: Impossible – Fallout’s Liang Yang

Director Sam Raimi is returning to the world of Marvel Comics films with Doctor Strange In The Multiverse of Madness, which has wrapped filming at Longcross Studios in Surrey, England. Raimi’s Spider-Man movies alongside Blade and X-Men helped launch the popularity of the characters leading to the formation of the Marvel Cinematic Universe at Marvel Studios. 

One of the interesting elements of the production are the folks assembled to handle the action in the Doctor Strange sequel. The team of stunt coordinators consists of seasoned vets such as Jo McLaren and Brycen Counts, with Liang Yang taking the role of fight coordinator. Their combined knowledge and vast credits in the stunt community should give the sequel a bit of an elevated edge when it comes to action sequences. 

McLaren did stunt double work for Angelina Jolie in the original Tomb Raider movies before rising up the ranks working as a stunt coordinator on things like the J.J. Abrams-produced WWII horror film Overlord, Annihilation, Enola Holmes, The Favourite, Doctor Who, and the Alex Garland tech-thriller series Devs. 

In December 2019, McLaren confirmed her involvement with the sequel during an interview with FanSided. 

Brycen Counts has the most experience with Marvel Studios as he was the assistant stunt coordinator on Spider-Man: Homecoming, Spider-Man: Far From Home, Ant-Man & The Wasp, and did additional work on Black Panther. He was recently the stunt coordinator on Charlize Theron’s hit comic book film The Old Guard at Netflix. 

Yang (Morbius, Wonder Woman 1984) is likely more recognizable out of the trio thanks to his standout on-camera scene in Christopher McQuarrie’s Mission: Impossible – Fallout where he beats the stuffing out of both Tom Cruise and Henry Cavill during the big Paris bathroom fight scene. He also was Emily Blunt’s stunt double on Edge of Tomorrow alongside working on big action sequences for Rogue One: A Star Wars Story and Star Wars: The Last Jedi. 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=C3HMz25LvnY

Marvel has been hiring some impressive stunt people lately such as Olivier Schneider (No Time To Die, Taken, Spectre, Fast & Furious 6) for Oscar Isaac’s Moon Knight series, which is filming in Budapest.

Doctor Strange In The Multiverse of Madness will hit screens on March 25, 2022, and we’ll likely have the first trailer by the fall. 

Posted on in Film News

Antoine Fuqua’s Sci-Fi Thriller ‘Infinite’ Starring Mark Wahlberg & Chiwetel Ejiofor Heading To Paramount+ Next Month

Originally set for release in theaters on September 24, Paramount Pictures has decided to move their big sci-fi film Infinite to their streaming service Paramount+ for sometime in June. The project directed by Training Day’s Antoine Fuqua stars Mark Wahlberg, Chitwetel Ejiofor, Dylan O’Brien, Toby Jones, Rupert Friend, Jason Mantzoukas, Sophie Cookson, and Wallis Day.

It’s a feature adaptation of the D. Eric Maikranz novel The Reincarnationist Papers.

For Evan McCauley (Mark Wahlberg), skills he has never learned and memories of places he has never visited haunt his daily life. Self-medicated and on the brink of a mental breakdown, a secret group that call themselves ‘Infinites’ come to his rescue, revealing to him that his memories are real – but they are from multiple past lives. The Infinites bring Evan into their extraordinary world, where a gifted few are given the ability to be reborn with their memories and knowledge accumulated over centuries. With critical secrets buried in his past, Evan must work with the Infinites to unlock the answers in his memories in a race against time to save humanity from one of their own (Chiwetel Ejiofor) who seeks to destroy it.

Chiwetel Ejiofor was recently seen in the popular Netflix comic book film The Old Guard alongside Oscar-winner Charlize Theron and is expected to have wrapped filming on Sam Raimi’s Doctor Strange In The Multiverse of Madness for Marvel Studios. The latter project potentially seeing him finally becoming the big-bad version of his MCU character Baron Karl Mordo.

This could be a potential sign of other studios looking to dump their summer and fall releases on streaming services to avoid low audience turn-out to focus on adding new/original content to places like Paramount+, a streamer that is going to need an influx of new films and series if it’s going to become competitive.

I’ll be interested to see if Paramount+ ends up getting their hands on other big Paramount movies later in the year. Showtime’s high-profile series adaptation of the Halo video game franchise recently moved to the streaming service not too long ago.

SOURCE: DEADLINE

Posted on in Television News

Naomie Harris Nabs Lead Role Opposite Chiwetel Ejiofor In Showtime’s Sci-Fi Series ‘The Man Who Fell To Earth’

A series reboot of the David Bowie sci-fi film The Man Who Fell To Earth finally landed at Showtime after moving from Paramount+ and there is news of another high-profile casting addition. According to Deadline, Oscar-nominee Naomie Harris (Moonlight) is taking the role of Justin Falls opposite Chiwetel Ejiofor, a brilliant engineer and scientist.

Based on the Walter Tevis novel of the same name and the iconic film that starred David Bowie, The Man Who Fell to Earth will follow a new alien character (Ejiofor) who arrives on Earth at a turning point in human evolution and must confront his own past to determine our future.

Harris isn’t a stranger to genre projects playing Moneypenny in three Daniel Craig era Bond movies and Callisto in Disney’s Pirates of The Caribbean franchise.

Alex Kurtzman is co-writing/co-showrunning and will also direct multiple episodes. 

THE MAN WHO FELL TO EARTH – Thomas Jerome Newton (David Bowie) is an alien who has come to Earth in search of water to save his home planet. Aided by lawyer Oliver Farnsworth (Buck Henry), Thomas uses his knowledge of advanced technology to create profitable inventions. While developing a method to transport water, Thomas meets Mary-Lou (Candy Clark), a quiet hotel clerk, and begins to fall in love with her. Just as he is ready to leave Earth, Thomas is intercepted by the U.S. government, and his entire plan is threatened.

SOURCE: DEADLINE

Posted on in Film News

‘Doctor Strange 2’: Rachel McAdams Reportedly Reprising Christine Palmer Role

Despite previous reports that Rachel McAdams wouldn’t be back as Christine Palmer aka Night Nurse in Doctor Strange In The Multiverse of Madness, Deadline now claims she is returning after all.

The more perplexing information shared in their article is that they believe that filming won’t being until May, however, this seemingly contradicts recent statements made by Benedict Cumberbatch and Empire Magazine that production is currently underway in the United Kingdom.

Sam Raimi will be directing the sequel with crew members The Ronin has been able to confirm will include cinematographer John Mathieson (Logan, X-Men: First Class) and production designer Charles Wood (Doctor Strange, Black Widow, Avengers: Infinity Wars, Avengers: Endgame).

Doctor Strange In The Multiverse of Madness is currently set for release on March 25th, 2022.

SOURCE: DEADLINE

Posted on in Film News

‘Doctor Strange 2’: Production Designer Charles Wood Confirmed – Recently Worked On ‘Avengers: Endgame’ and ‘Black Widow’

Filming on Marvel’s Doctor Strange In The Multiverse of Madness (working title Stellar Vortex) has been underway at Longcross Studios in Surrey, England with Sam Raimi taking over the project after former director Scott Derrickson exited the film over “creative differences” with the studio.

The Ronin can now confirm that production designer Charles Wood is working on the Doctor Strange sequel. His credits are mostly Marvel Studios films such as the original Doctor Strange, Avengers: Age of Ultron, Thor: The Dark World, Guardians of The Galaxy, Avengers: Infinity War, Avengers: Endgame, and most recently with Scarlet Johansson’s Black Widow.

We previously reported that cinematographer John Mathieson (X-Men: First Class, Logan) is on the production team too.

The cast so far consists of Benedict Cumberbatch as Doctor Stephen Strange, Elizabeth Olsen as Wanda Maximoff aka Scarlet Witch, Benedict Wong as Wong, Chiwetel Ejiofor as Baron Mordo, and newcomer Xochitl Gomez.

It’s script was penned by Jade Halley Bartlett and Loki’s Michael Waldron.

As the title would suggest the film will explore the Multiverse with expected connections to WandaVision, Loki, and possibly even Spider-Man 3.

Disney has given Doctor Strange In The Multiverse of Madness a tentative release date of March 25th, 2022.