Tag: Deadpool 3

Posted on in News

Disney To Prioritize Content For Their Streaming Services From Sports, Television, and Film Arms – Adds New Division Called Media & Entertainment Distribution

Yesterday, the Walt Disney Company announced a new initiative to get more content going for its streaming services such as Disney+, ESPN+, and Hulu from its sports, television, and film divisions. The new division will be called The Media & Entertainment Distribution group led by Kareem Daniel. 

It sounds like they’ll be dedicating a lot more resources and money than they have previously as means to compete with competitors like Netflix and Amazon. However, this announcement says nothing about them throwing their 2021 theatrical slate on Disney+ and never mention a thing about ending theatrical releases altogether only pushing to place more content on their streaming services. 

We will get more details on these plans on December 10th. 

During an interview with CNBC, Disney’s new CEO Bob Chapek was quick to point out that they aren’t looking to stop the theatrical experience and would be announcing further details. 

Also, specifically downplayed COVID-19’s role in the decision. 

CHAPEK: “I would not characterize it as a response to Covid. I would say Covid accelerated the rate at which we made this transition, but this transition was going to happen anyway. Because essentially what we want to do is separate out folks who make our wonderful content based on tremendous franchises from the decision making in terms of prioritization is on how it gets commercialized into the marketplace. And what we want to do is leave it to a group of folks you can really see objectively across all of the constituents we have and various considerations we’ve got and make the optimal decision for the company as opposed to having it predetermined that a movie is destined to theaters or that a TV show is destined for ABC. So what we really want to do is provide some level of objectivity and really make it a decision that benefits the overall company and its shareholders.”

When pressed on Disney’s commitment to the theatrical model Bob said the following that gives the impression they’re not giving up on the theatrical model just yet. 

CHAPEK: “We’ve benefited from a tremendous relationship with theatrical exhibition for many many many years as dynamics change in the marketplace though we want to make sure that we are giving consumers who want to go to theaters to experience everything that a theatrical release can give them, we want to continue to give them that option but at the same time there are a lot of consumers that want to experience a movie in the safety, comfort, and convenience of their own home for whatever reasons they do.”

To me, it sounds like either they are going to pursue a shorter theatrical window or a mixed model of day-and-date which obviously the theater industry wouldn’t be terribly pleased about on either front. 

Here is the official press release from the Walt Disney Company website that gets a little more into the weeds about what all this means.  

In light of the tremendous success achieved to date in the Company’s direct-to-consumer business and to further accelerate its DTC strategy, The Walt Disney Company (NYSE: DIS) today announced a strategic reorganization of its media and entertainment businesses. Under the new structure, Disney’s world-class creative engines will focus on developing and producing original content for the Company’s streaming services, as well as for legacy platforms, while distribution and commercialization activities will be centralized into a single, global Media and Entertainment Distribution organization. The new Media and Entertainment Distribution group will be responsible for all monetization of content—both distribution and ad sales—and will oversee operations of the Company’s streaming services. It will also have sole P&L accountability for Disney’s media and entertainment businesses.

The creation of content will be managed in three distinct groups—Studios, General Entertainment, and Sports—headed by current leaders Alan F. Horn and Alan Bergman, Peter Rice, and James Pitaro. The Media and Entertainment Distribution group will be headed by Kareem Daniel, formerly President, Consumer Products, Games and Publishing. All five leaders will report directly to Bob Chapek, Chief Executive Officer, The Walt Disney Company. Disney Parks, Experiences and Products will continue to operate under its existing structure, led by Josh D’Amaro, Chairman, Disney Parks, Experiences and Products, who continues to report to Mr. Chapek. Rebecca Campbell will serve as Chairman, International Operations and Direct-to-Consumer. Bob Iger, in his role as Executive Chairman, will continue to direct the Company’s creative endeavors.

“Given the incredible success of Disney+ and our plans to accelerate our direct-to-consumer business, we are strategically positioning our Company to more effectively support our growth strategy and increase shareholder value,” Mr. Chapek said. “Managing content creation distinct from distribution will allow us to be more effective and nimble in making the content consumers want most, delivered in the way they prefer to consume it. Our creative teams will concentrate on what they do best—making world-class, franchise-based content—while our newly centralized global distribution team will focus on delivering and monetizing that content in the most optimal way across all platforms, including Disney+, Hulu, ESPN+ and the coming Star international streaming service.”

Under the new structure, the Company’s three content groups will be responsible and accountable for producing and delivering content for theatrical, linear and streaming, with the primary focus being the Company’s streaming services:

  • STUDIOS: Messrs. Horn and Bergman will serve as Chairmen, Studios Content, which will focus on creating branded theatrical and episodic content based on the Company’s powerhouse franchises for theatrical exhibition, Disney+ and the Company’s other streaming services. The group will include the content engines of The Walt Disney Studios, including Disney live action and Walt Disney Animation Studios, Pixar Animation Studios, Marvel Studios, Lucasfilm, 20th Century Studios and Searchlight Pictures.
  • GENERAL ENTERTAINMENT: Mr. Rice will serve as Chairman, General Entertainment Content, which will focus on creating general entertainment episodic and original long-form content for the Company’s streaming platforms and its cable and broadcast networks. The group will include the content engines of 20th Television, ABC Signature and Touchstone Television; ABC News; Disney Channels; Freeform; FX; and National Geographic.
  • SPORTS: Mr. Pitaro will serve as Chairman, ESPN and Sports Content, which will focus on ESPN’s live sports programming, as well as sports news and original and non-scripted sports-related content, for the cable channels, ESPN+, and ABC.

The Media and Entertainment Distribution group, led by Mr. Daniel, will be responsible for the P&L management and all distribution, operations, sales, advertising, data and technology functions worldwide for all of the Company’s content engines, and it will also manage operations of the Company’s streaming services and domestic television networks. The group will work in close collaboration with the content creation teams on programming and marketing.

It’ll be interesting to see if Disney+ will start mining IP from the 20th Century Studios side of things soon as Disney+ series and limited series focused on properties like Avatar and Planet of The Apes could be extremely successful. In the press release they suggest that they could end up making episodic projects based on 20th Century properties.

A live-action Flash Gordon series stands out as a property that Disney really could do justice with on Disney+ and be a counter of sorts to their Star Wars shows as it could be way more swashbuckling than the Lucasfilm property that was inspired by it. Taika Waititi (Thor: Ragnarok, Thor: Love & Thunder, Jojo Rabbit) is attached to direct an animated Flash Gordon film and at one time 20th Century was developing a live-action feature as well from directors Matthew Vaughn (X-Men: First Class, Stardust, Layer Cake) and Julius Avery (Overlord) involved at different points.

I wouldn’t even put it past Disney to reboot John Carter eventually given the Volume/StageCraft would allow them to make a series more cost effective that world like Flash Gordon is different enough from Star Wars it would be worth pursuing.

Of course, this could mean a major influx of more shows from Marvel, Star Wars, and Pixar universes but might also see Hulu getting a bump of adult content as well with franchises like Alien (Noah Hawley pitched an Alien series to FX) and Predator just collecting dust while they could be helpful to get more eyeballs on Hulu. HBO Max had recently crowed about Ridley Scott’s sci-fi series Raised By Wolves being the most popular original on their service when announcing they were moving forward with a Season 2 order. 

Matthew Vaughn has also been talking up the idea of a Kingsman spinoff series that could fit nicely at Hulu.

Disney certainly has a massive gap in the adult market and places like Canada don’t have access to Hulu and that really needs to change if they want to compete with Netflix/Amazon on an international level as those services offer content to both kids and adults alike. Cornering the kid market just won’t be enough for Disney if they want to grow their streaming presence. 

I guess we’ll have to wait for December 10th to get more concrete answers about what all this actually means for content that is already in the can or is about to begin filming. 

SOURCE: CNBC & DISNEY

Posted on in Film News

Josh Brolin Says Playing Cable In ‘Deadpool 2’ Was A “Business Transaction” Compared To Working With The Russo Brothers

While we’re still waiting on an official announcement concerning the fate of Deadpool 3 at Marvel Studios, Cabble actor Josh Brolin spoke to cinematographer Roger Deakins on his podcast Team Deakins (spotted by The Playlist) about the differences between working on Deadpool 2 in juxtapose to working with Marvel/The Russo Brothers on Avengers Infinity War and Avengers: Endgame.

BROLIN: “Deadpool was hard. Even though it was funny, it was harder. That was more of a business transaction, it was more, ‘We need to make this like this,’ which I didn’t feel that way with Avengers.”

“[The Russo Brothers] would constantly go back and reference Scarface or Dog Day Afternoon. Whether or not it was a manipulation, they knew what to throw out there to bring it back into something inspired.”

Josh’s comments here are terribly off-base as the Deadpool sequel underwent specific reshoots because producers/studio felt certain scenes didn’t test well and it’s possible that set had less of a creative environment than with The Russo Brothers.

There have been rumblings of Marvel considering a return for Brolin’s Thanos but that remains only rumor at this point. It’ll be interesting if they do end up moving forward with new Deadpool movies that if they’ll keep Brolin in the Nathan Summers aka Cable role as the only official carry-over from the Fox era is Ryan Reynolds as Wade Wilson.

Before the merger, the plan at 20th Century was to tackle an X-Force movie from writer/director Drew Goddard before a third solo installment.

Ryan confirmed back in December 2019 that Deadpool 3 was indeed in development at Marvel Studios but we really haven’t a solid update since.

SOURCE: TEAM DEAKINS

Posted on in News

MONDAY MARVEL ROUNDUP: ‘Secret Wars’, ‘X-Men’, ‘Hawkeye’, and ‘Spider-Man 3’

Russo Brothers Tease ‘Secret Wars’ Could Be Bigger Than ‘The Infinity Saga’

The Bro Bible was able to speak with The Russo Brothers about what could coax them to return to the Marvel Cinematic Universe, such as with another massive event like Secret Wars. Something they have teased in the past they would be interested in tackling while on the press tour for Avengers: Endgame. 

 JOE RUSSO: “You know, I read that when I was 10 or 11, and it was the scale of getting all of the heroes together. It was one of the first major books to do that — that was really event-storytelling to me at its finest. And what happens when you put all of those personalities together. I also like the idea of villains having to team up with heroes. Anth and I like complicated relationships between heroes and villains, we like villains who believe they’re heroes in their own stories, so it’s all sort of built into this notion of Secret Wars. To execute something on the scale of Infinity War was directly related to the dream of Secret Wars, which is even larger in scale.”

ANTHONY RUSSO: “It would be the biggest movie you could possibly imagine, so that’s what really excites us about the story — the ambition of it is even bigger than the ambition of the Infinity Saga.”

It has yet to be made official that the Russo Brothers are even coming back and Secret Wars isn’t one of the announced projects in development, so it’s hard to say if the pair will get their chance to make it anytime soon. Marvel is already busy trying to finish Phase 4 projects and getting other things ready like their Blade, X-Men, and Fantastic Four reboots. 

‘Logan’ Actress Dafne Keen Open To Reprising X-23 In The MCU

When asked by Comic Book if Dafne Keen would like to reprise the role of Laura aka X-23 in the Marvel Cinematic Universe, the Logan actress replied “definitely”. 

At one point, James Mangold had been mulling over developing a solo spinoff film focusing on Dafne’s Laura before 20th Century Fox folded into Disney with the merger. 

I think the likelihood of Keen returning is extremely slim just like Famke Janssen reprising the Jean Grey role in the MCU as everything points towards Marvel giving the main franchise a hard-reboot. However, there is a shot that Keen could reprise the X-23 role in something more mature like Deadpool 3 or X-Force. 

Keen is currently 15 and would be around 19-20 when Marvel is expected to relaunch their version of the X-Men. 

Tom Holland Suggests ‘Spider-Man 3’ Could Wrap Filming In February 2021

Actor Tom Holland has begun filming Uncharted in Germany and a quote was making the rounds from a family interview on Patreon (spotted by MCU Direct) where he hoped to have completed production on Spider-Man 3 by February 2021. 

However, he may have either misspoke or is potentially going by outdated studio information concerning the film’s production schedule. Considering that Spider-Man 3 is expected to shoot in places like Atlanta, New York City, and Los Angeles it is increasingly unlikely that will happen anytime soon given the state of COVID-19 in the United States alongside Uncharted‘s shoot just starting. that they’ll be able to begin in the fall. 

Marvel Studios Still Seeking An Actress To Play ‘Hawkeye’s Kate Bishop Or Will They Land On Hailee Steinfeld?

After recent news from the Hollywood Reporter that Marvel Studios has hired three directors for their upcoming Hawkeye series starring Jeremy Renner, there still seems to be a search to find an actress to play Barton’s protege Kate Bishop. 

Oscar-nominee Hailee Steinfeld (Bumblebee, Edge of Seventeen, True Grit) had been previously linked for talks by Variety and this is what The Hollywood Reporter had to say recently in their report about Hailee’s involvement with the Disney+ series. 

One of the arcs of the series is Barton’s mentoring of a new generation of archer, Kate Bishop. Hailee Steinfeld was previously in negotiations for the part but it is unclear if her deal has closed. Marvel had no comment.

If Hailee ultimately doesn’t land the role it could be due to her contract with Apple TV+ for the drama series Dickinson. 

Comic Book Artist Rob Liefeld Hopeful For A ‘Cable’ Movie

While speaking with Collider, comic book artist Rob Liefeld and co-creator of X-Men characters such as Deadpool and Cable, revealed he’s still very much interested in seeing a Cable movie coming together in the future. 

LIEFELD: “Cable should have his own movie series. He can exist independent of Deadpool in a heartbeat. He has for years. If Deadpool’s been in like 330 comics, Cable’s been in about 520. Yes, I’ve counted…. In between Deadpool 2 wrapping and opening, I got really close with Josh. And he was very excited about exploring Cable in the subsequent sequels. The X-Force standalone movie that was, in his own words, Cable-centric.”

Rob has been extremely vocal over the years about Nathan Summers aka Cable being able to handle his own film franchise. 

While Marvel Studios is seemingly set to have Ryan Reynolds carry-overs from the Fox films as Wade Wilson aka Deadpool, it remains to be seen if Josh Brolin will reprise the Cable role in future films. Ryan had confirmed back in December that Deadpool 3 is in actively development at Marvel Studios after moving from 20th Century after the merger.