While we’re still waiting to get more concrete updates on “Star Wars” films from directors Sharmeen Obaid-Chinoy (“Ms. Marvel”) and Dave Filoni (“Ahsoka”), another big franchise tidbit has made it’s way online. Simon Kinberg, who co-created “Star Wars: Rebels” with Filoni, is reportedly being tasked to write and produce a new trilogy of “Star Wars” for the studio. The news hails from Deadline and others like THR are suggesting this won’t be a continuation of The Skywalker Saga (something Deadline is claiming), but rather something fresh expected to follow a string of new characters with the door being left open for established characters (although, that could change in the coming weeks and months).
Kinberg’s secretive “Star Wars” trilogy is part of a growing wave of projects Lucasfilm has put into play, we’ll see if this actually comes together. Another likely option akin to a lot of other would-be installments, this ends up in development limbo or gets quietly bumped off. One idea could be that Lucasfilm is finally ready to jump feet first into “The Old Republic” era of “Star Wars” that has been explored in Legends via comic books and video games, but not in hard canon live-action projects.
Why we’re not terribly thrilled with this news as James Mangold (“Logan”), Patty Jenkins (“Wonder Woman”), Rian Johnson (“Star Wars: The Last Jedi”), Taika Waititi (“Thor: Ragnarök”), and Shawn Levy (“Deadpool & Wolverine”) have already been announced to have their own “Star Wars” films in development but nothing of substance has really materialized other than some details on Mangold’s project, “Star Wars: Dawn of The Jedi,” seemingly being a Jedi origin film taking place thousands of years before the events of “The Old Republic.” There had also been talk from Stephen Glover that the “Lando” series with Donald Glover (“Solo: A Star Wars Story”) back in the titular role would be morphing into a feature film, however, it’s been a while since we’ve had an update on that one either.
His return to the “Star Wars” universe is certainly a mixed bag given Kinberg’s contribution to “Rebels” (a popular animated series that saw characters make the jump to live-action) but also having a wonky track record with his Marvel movies. You might be more familiar with Kinberg’s work at 20th Century Fox as he was heavily involved with their Marvel films including less-than-stellar projects like “Dark Phoenix” (Kinberg directed and was his second time adapting “The Dark Phoenix Saga”), the long forgotten “Fantastic Four” reboot, “X-Men: The Last Stand,” and “New Mutants.” At the same time, he helped on the “Deadpool” films, “X-Men: First Class,” X-Men: Days of Future Past,” and “Logan.”
We’ll keep our fingers crossed this isn’t Lucasfilm/Disney just adding another distraction announcement to the pile as something is being ready for the chopping block.
“Alien: Romulus” has turned out to be a huge shot in the arm for “Alien” franchise after being on life support when Ridley Scott’s “Alien: Covenant” failed to replicate the success of “Prometheus,” and put his third prequel movie “Alien: Awakening” (Scott had mapped out plans with screenwriter Michael Green for many more installments beyond that) into limbo for foreseeable future. The movie has a budget of $80 million (modest in comparison to other genre-focused studio tentpoles) and is set between the events of “Alien” and “Aliens,” now projected to earn an impressive $100 million-plus at the global box office and nabbing over $40 million domestically. This makes “Romulus” the second-biggest domestic opening (previously held by “Alien Vs. Predator“) for the franchise behind the $51 million “Prometheus” (Budget was $130 million) opening weekend in 2012.
Of course, this success certainly bodes well for more movies, including the potential for a “Romulus” sequel (without spoiling the film, it ends with the open-ended plausibility of a sequel). While on the red carpet promoting the film, director Fede Álvarez was asked by Deadline (See video below) about the potential for a new “Alien Vs. Predator” film project (the IP actually titled “Aliens Vs. Predator” for the video games, comic books, and other material).
Álvarez didn’t exactly reveal too many details on what he would do with the property, but he pitched the idea of co-directing the big-screen crossover with “Prey” director Dan Trachtenberg.
[Laughs] I don’t know, depends on how well [“Alien: Romulus”] does and if people still want to see that. I think [it’s] maybe something I have to co-direct with my buddy Dan [Tranchtenberg]. That could be something we could do…I direct one half, and he directs the other half,” the filmmaker told Deadline.
Álvarez also compared the idea to the collaborative working relationship between Quentin Tarantino and Robert Rodriguez on films like “From Dusk Till Dawn” (Fede misspoke as Tarantino wrote the script and Rodriguez helmed) and “Grindhouse” (their horror double-feature). They did co-direct together on “Sin City” and “Four Rooms.”
When we consider 20th Century Studios’ recent attentiveness to these franchises, it’s really only a matter of time before they attempt another “AVP” project.
For his part, Trachtenberg is overseeing the next two installments in the “Predator” franchise, with both “Badlands” (Elle Fanning reportedly is in the mix to potentially lead it) and an untitled follow-up to “Prey.” The latter will most likely feature Naru (Amber Midthunder) being invited into a predator clan, not unlike the “AVP” comic book character Machiko Noguchi, and potentially extending her lifespan via pred-tech, allowing Naru to potentially be still alive in a futuristic setting. Giving them plausible wiggle room to add Naru to a hypothetical “AVP” reboot that could connect to “Alien: Romulus” via the yet-to-be-explored planet of Yvaga.
“Alien Vs. Predator” was released back in 2004 and had director Paul W.S. Anderson take direct cues from things like the schlock sci-fi exploitation movie “Galaxy of Terror” (Roger Corman’s “Alien” knockoff that a young James Cameron worked on at New World Pictures) and H.P. Lovecraft’s “At The Mountains of Madness” (also takes place in ancient ruins hidden in Antarctica with unspeakable monsters awaken by explorers). The PG-13 movie ended up making the studio money but got ripped apart by fans and critics alike, leading to a smaller budget for the R-rated sequel “AVP: Requiem.” A sequel that felt worse than the previous film due to the small-town contemporary setting (used to save studio money on production costs) and weak/unforgettable characters.
Given the poor reception of those movies, don’t expect too much of a continuation or any direct links moving forward. Its been seen those movies take place outside of the main “Alien” franchise timeline/canon and a reason to simply reboot. A couple of integral elements were always missing from those movies, such as the return of the Colonial Marines (oddly enough, we haven’t seen them on the big screen since 1986 despite being a massive part of the “Alien” expanded universe) and a futuristic off-world setting (the Jackson’s Star Colony was a massive highlight from “Romulus”). Those might be more expensive additions but that would be sort of no-brainer if they’re going to take a third crack at this property.
While the bungled video game “Aliens: Colonial Marines” botched the single-player campaign and the game itself was buggy as hell, it did add creative variant types of Xenomorphs (just as “Aliens: Fireteam Elite” did), which really should be a huge part of a new “AVP” film. They could easily give audiences multiple different takes on the creatures, like Rhino, Burster, Spitter, Boiler, Prowler, Bull, Flying Queen, and the Alien King.
How they would get to those variants wouldn’t be all that hard, given an off-world colony would likely have established agriculture farms on the colonized planet, using a mix of animal life imported off-world (think the oxen and dog from “Alien 3”) alongside other inhabitants on an alien planet as their hosts instead of only humans. Another angle could be doing warring Xenomorph hives (A conflict between hives and red xenos introduced via the Dark Horse Comics run “Aliens: Genocide” from 1991-1992) are expansion elements that could be perfect fodder for these new movies, given the aim of each installment seems to be adding to lifecycle lore and creating different variants of the species.
In a perfect world, a new “AVP” installment could bring together “Alien: Romulus,” and whatever Trachtenberg is doing with his “Predator” movies. Instead of simply being it’s own standalone.
I also wouldn’t be terribly shocked if the ‘Alien: Romulus” box office success may boost the idea at the studio of revisiting never-made “Alien” projects like the aforementioned “Alien: Awakening” or even the twice-nixed “Alien 5” with Sigourney Weaver reprising the Ellen Ripley role. Although, the former seems a lot more realistic between the two, allowing for franchise stewards Ridey and Scott Free Productions to complete their planned prequel trilogy and potentially bring back the Engineers (Paradise wasn’t apparently their homeworld but possibly one of many of their terraformed/seeded planets inhabited by devoted humanoids that may have worshiped them as Gods) alongside Michael Fassbender’s David, Katherine Waterston’s Daniels, and Danny McBride’s Tennesse. At the end of the film, we see David now in complete control of the Covenant ship, the final two crew members, and the entire group of sleeping colonists.
20th Century Studios, FX/Hulu, and Scott Free are behind the new streaming series “Alien: Earth” from creator/showrunner Noah Hawley (“Fargo”) and could be another puzzle piece to getting the money folks at the studio to give Scott his wish to complete his David Saga trilogy. Raising the demand and profile of a franchise launched all the way back in 1979 will be key to finding a new generation of audiences to support it.
We’ll just have to be patient to see what the studio does next with these characters and if a crossover like “AVP” or “Alien: Awakening” will ever materialize.
Fede Álvarez reveals his pitch for ‘Alien vs. Predator’ : “Maybe something that I have to co-direct with my buddy Dan (Trachtenberg)” pic.twitter.com/HmhabAXN84
Before James Cameron got locked in for a heap of “Avatar” sequel films, he was trying to put together a remake of the 1966 body horror/sci-fi film “The Fantastic Voyage“ with producing partner Jon Landau, where he was originally planning to direct himself at 20th Century Fox and those reins would shift over to his pal Guillermo del Toro with a planned shoot in Toronto. Things fell apart, and everyone moved on to other things, suggesting “Fantastic Voyage” was thrown into limbo during the studio’s merger with Disney. There are now teases from Cameron that the remake is not only getting resurrected under Disney/20th Century Studios but could be happening in the near future.
Cameron has shared a brief update during a Q&A session at a new exhibition of his production artwork (Cameron is also an accomplished artist in his own right and goes back to his production design days) at Paris’ Cinematheque Française (via Variety), where he said their long-gestating remake of the 1966 film is about to go forward “very soon.”
“We’ve been developing it for a number of years, and we plan to go ahead with it very soon,” Cameron said at the Paris event. “Raquel Welch is not available, but we think we can make a pretty good movie.”
In order to save a scientist who has developed a blood clot in his brain, a team of Americans in a nuclear submarine is shrunk and injected into Benes’ body. They have a finite period of time to fix the clot and get out before the miniaturization wears off.
However, he didn’t exactly clarify who would be directing and if del Toro would still be involved as he’s busy shooting a “Frankenstein” adaptation for Netflix that stars Oscar Isaac, Jacob Elordi, Mia Goth, Christoph Waltz, Charles Dance, Lars Mikkelsen, Felix Kammerer, and David Bradley. Guillermo is also expected to follow-up with his stop-motion animation movie “The Buried Giant“ at the streamer too.
Cameron moving out of the way for an ambitious project to get made isn’t a new thing, as “Alita: Battle Angel” was a similar situation, where Robert Rodriguez was selected to complete Cameron’s vision for the cyberpunk anime/manga adaptation, and while being a massive creative force on “Terminator: Dark Fate” tapped Tim Miller (Deadpool”) to direct. Hypothetically, Cameron could decide to make it himself, but given his responsibility of completing “Avatar 3” and “Avatar 4,” with the studio’s schedule, it seems unlikely.
Next year is going to have some pretty big live-action Disney films coming to the big screen with “Captain America: Brave New World,” “Thunderbolts,” “Fantastic Four,” “Blade,” and “Avatar 3” all on the horizon. Another big project was just announced with “TRON: Ares,” aka “Tron 3” officially set to be out in 2025 as well. The legacy sequel hails from director Joachim Rønning
Disney has dropped a first-look image from the third installment on multiple social media accounts featuring Jared Leto‘s character Ares, red in previous films tended to represent the bad guys, and the film’s early synopsis seems to indicate he’s no good. Then again, it does say “Dillinger Systems” on his back a nod to the antagonist of the original film, and if you remember there was a cameo by current Oscar-nominee Cillian Murphy (“Oppenheimer”) as Dillinger’s son.
“The new film centers around a highly sophisticated Program, Ares, who is sent from the digital world into the real world on a dangerous mission, marking humankind’s first encounter with A.I. beings.”
You can view that first-look image of Ares and his costume that was practically made by the talent folks at Weta Workshop.
Other actors assembled for the film that is shooting in Vancouver until late April or early May include Greta Lee (“Past Lives”), Gillian Anderson (“Sex Education,” “The X-Files”), Cameron Monaghan (“Star Wars Jedi”), Evan Peters (“X-Men: Days of Future Past”), Jodie Turner-Smith (“Without Remorse”), and Sarah Desjardins (“Yellowjackets”). There really haven’t been any official indicators that we’ll see returning cast members from “TRON: Legacy.”
Speaking of “Legacy,” we are extremely curious about who Disney ends up hiring to score “Ares” after Daft Punk‘s previous score is considered a massive highlight of the last installment but their break-up would make it impossible for them to score the entire film as the former group. I was campaigning for fellow French electronic artist Kavinsky to fill those shoes earlier in the year.
Only way to properly replace Daft Punk on TRON 3 is getting one of their peers from the French electro scene to score the film like KAVINSKY. Hell, he's already using the film's color scheme in live shows. #TR3N#TRON3#TRONAres#TRONpic.twitter.com/shX8P99yaD
“TRON: Ares” is set to be released sometime in 2025, although, Disney hasn’t even the cyberpunk adventure film an official date as of yet. The open dates on Disney’s slate for next year that could be where “TRON: Ares” lands include April 11, May 9, July 2, and August 15, We’re most likely looking at a spring/summer release date and August 15 does feel like a good spot for the pic.
There have been some rather big updates concerning the “Star Wars” universe with small screen confirmations that “The Mandalorian” is still getting a fourth season despite a feature film on the way and Dave Filoni (Lucasfilm’s new Chief Creative Officer) is already working on getting “Ahsoka” season two in the bag before pivoting to his own “Star Wars” movie set during that television timeline allowing him to play with both original saga and his own animation characters. We now have an idea of when to expect the next TWO movies thanks to Disney.
During an earnings call yesterday, Disney’s Bob Iger confirmed that Jon Favreau‘s “The Mandalorian & Grogu,” a continuation of the Disney+ series, would be the first new “Star Wars” movie to be released in 2026. That comes after Disney updated their main release slate (via Fandango’s Erik Davis) to include two 2026 spots for “Star Wars” films including May 22, 2026, and December 18, 2026.
Seemingly, Iger was giving us the impression that the “Mando” movie is most likely heading toward that May spot and the new Rey Skywalker installment “Star Wars: New Jedi Order” (Given how far along development is) could be heading toward that December release with director Sharmeen Obaid-Chinoy (“Ms. Marvel”) attached alongside Daisy Ridley‘s return to the franchise. Considering the previous films in the Rey Skywalker saga took December spots, it’s not all that surprising to us that would end up landing the holiday spot.
There have been hints that both of the films could be ready to shoot as early as this summer/fall but we’ll have to wait for some casting news to know for sure when they’re gearing up for production.
Star Wars: Iger confirms that THE MANDALORIAN & GROGU will be the first of the new slate of Star Wars movies, likely to hit in 2026.
UPDATE: Disney has sent its updated theatrical schedule for 2024-2031. – UNTITLED ALIEN MOVIE is now ALIEN ROMULUS – 8/16/24 – MOANA 2 is 11/27/24 – ZOOTOPIA 2 is officially 11/26/25 – 2026 will feature two STAR WARS movies, so MANDO & GROGU can be either May or Dec pic.twitter.com/0rI4tQkc2A
Disney had been looking to bring a third installment of “TRON” with a cast that included Jared Leto, EvanPeters, Jodie Turner-Smith, Greta Lee, and Cameron Monaghan. The cyberpunk flicks focus on a digital world that sees human protagonists inserted where computer programs/game sprites are living humanoid beings. This next one is titled “TRON: Ares,” aka, “TRON 3” and had its shoot in Vancouver paused last summer but things are up and running again.
A new addition has joined the Disney sequel’s cast as Deadline reports veteran actress Gillian Anderson (“Sex Education,” “The Crown”) has taken a role. Anderson isn’t a stranger to productions in Vancouver as her acclaimed sci-fi series “The X-Files” was mainly shot in the Canadian province throughout its time on the airwaves.
Meanwhile, director Joachim Rønning took to Instagram over the weekend to announce that after delaying its original start last mid-August due to the Hollywood strikes, production on “TRON 3” has begun and teased the film’s new logo. We can confirm they hope to have the film all wrapped by the end of April. Disney has yet to give the film an official release date. You can view that post below.
The sad aspect of the third installment aside from not brining back “TRON: Legacy” director Joseph Kosinski after his billion-dollar hit “Top Gun: Maverick,” is that we saw the break-up of Parisian electro-duo Daft Punk, who had scored the last film. While Disney isn’t likely going to have them return (can’t rule out a solo score from one of them) one way to potentially replace them is hiring another French electro group, potentially one of their peers. I suggested over the weekend on Twitter that Disney take a serious look at Kavinsky, who has worked with The Weeknd and even featured in the opening of Nicolas Winding Refn’s neon-soaked modern noir, “Drive.”
Only way to properly replace Daft Punk on TRON 3 is getting one of their peers from the French electro scene to score the film like KAVINSKY. Hell, he's already using the film's color scheme in live shows. #TR3N#TRON3#TRONAres#TRONpic.twitter.com/shX8P99yaD
In 2023, studios across the board had a good amount of their blockbusters tank or have underwhelming results at the global box office. At this point, the phrase “franchise fatigue” is maybe the more accurate term we should start using here over “superhero fatigue.” Mainly, because it’s not just comic book movies that are struggling to make an impact at the box office, earn as much as the last installment, or turn a profit. In this piece, we’re going to spotlight many of these box office hiccups from last year.
Disney saw a massive ding to their 2023 slate with “Indiana Jones & The Dial of Destiny,” with a $300 million budget and the fifth installment of the “Indiana Jones” franchise, which didn’t click with audiences in the way that Lucasfilm/Disney had hoped earning a less than stellar $383.9 million. Speaking of Lucasfilm, a studio built on the juggernaut “Star Wars” franchise hasn’t shot a feature film since 2019 with “Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker.” Their pause on the feature division comes after “Solo: A Star Wars Story” had a weak box office take that scared Lucasfilm from pursuing other spinoff films and pivoted to focusing on their streaming series division at Disney+ instead. There have been endless promises of new films by Lucasfilm from filmmakers such as Sharmeen Obaid-Chinoy, Taika Waititi, Dave Filoni, James Mangold, Shawn Levy, and a mystery trilogy from Rian Johnson. However, we’ll believe all these “Star Wars” movies are happening when the trailers drop considering how many films were turned into series or never happened at all like “Star Wars: Rogue Squadron” that had a release date of December 22,2023 and then the Patty Jenkins-directed pic just vanished.
It’s not just Disney and Warner Bros. undergoing a stress test other studios saw some of their popular franchises taking dings in 2023. Paramount’s “Transformers: Rise of The Beasts” had a somewhat difficult time attracting audiences to the point that it made even less than 2018’s “Bumblebee” with $438.9 million and $166.5 million less than “Transformers: The Last Knight.” Another big stumble for Paramount was “Mission: Impossible – Dead Reckoning Part One” and one nobody really saw coming after “Mission: Impossible – Fallout” earned Paramount a whopping $791.6 million back in 2018. The most recent outing led by Tom Cruise only managed to make $395.4 million over the summer which is nearly half of what “Fallout” did. The studio is now abandoning the “Dead Reckoning Part Two” title for “Mission: Impossible 8” entirely.
While I think folks at Lionsgate are happy that their “Hunger Games” prequel has made $322.6 million, yet, that would still be a drop of $338.8 million from “The Hunger Games: Mockingjay – Part 2.” The fourth installment of “The Expendables” distributed by Lionsgate ended up putting up some of the worst numbers with an embarrassing $21.2 million compared to the last pic’s $214.6 million. “Expendables 4” wasn’t the only disappointing Jason Statham film either as Ben Wheatley’s “Meg 2: The Trench” dropped down by $134.3 million.
Universal has many plans for expanding its Universal Monsters franchise with various features tackling different horror characters. However, in 2023 the studio struggled to get folks to watch either of their high-profile Dracula films with both the comedy “Renfield” ($26.4 million global earnings vs $65 million budget) and the grittier “The Last Voyage of The Demeter” ($21.7 million global earnings vs $45 million budget) which took decades to make it to the big screen failed to scare up an audience outside of the Halloween season. Some of the few horror films that struggled.
Meanwhile, on the superhero front, there were indeed signs of audience apathy. Both “The Marvels” ($46.1 million domestic opening weekend) and “Aquaman & The Lost Kingdom” ($27.7 million domestic opening weekend) were follow-ups to billion-dollar successes that failed to make a big splash by not covering their production/marketing costs.
Of course, the headaches that Marvel Studios experienced in 2023 are obvious with “The Marvels” dipping a massive $925.8 million compared to “Captain Marvel” and “Ant-Man 3” saw a significant drop of $146.6 million in contrast to “Ant-Man & The Wasp.” Although, it wasn’t all bad for the MCU since “Guardians of The Galaxy Vol.3” topped the superhero releases at $845.5 million with a minor slip of $18.2 million.
The final installment of the DCEU, “Aquaman & The Last Kingdom,” had a soft opening weekend as mentioned above, and has only mustered $258.2 million which is another colossal hiccup. A difference of $893.8 million when put up against the original. Ultimately, the “Shazam!” sequel ended up with one of the worst turnouts for major superhero blockbusters. At $133.8 million (Made a fraction of what the original did when it earned $367.7 million in 2019) and given its hefty budget of $300 million, “The Flash” was another catastrophe for WB at $270.6 million. With the DCU set for a big reboot in July 2025, starting with “Superman: Legacy,” there are some expectations that the reset could help with the studio’s rebranding post-Snyderverse. Then again, “Blue Beetle” (Not technically a sequel/follow-up) was retroactively added to the DCU by DC Studios around its release despite a weak $129.2 million at the box office.
Then again, it’s not all bad since there were a handful of upticks in 2023, and some of these include “Spider-Man: Across The Spider-Verse” hitting $690.5 million, a big jump from the Oscar-winning first installment’s global box office of $384.2 million from 2018. “Creed III” saw a $61 million boost which sounds good for the prospect of a fourth film. When it comes to more mature franchises, “John Wick: Chapter 4” also handed Lionsgate their best numbers over four feature films at $440.1 million. “Saw X” and “Scream VI” did well compared to their last installments too.
Every movie is as different as the reasons for them not becoming massive earners.
We can’t really expect studios to pump the breaks completely on the superhero movies given that it’s still a lucrative venture. There is an overload of sequels on the horizon at Marvel with “Deadpool 3,” “Captain America: Brave New World,” and director Destin Daniel Cretton exiting “Avengers 5” to focus on “Shangi-Chi 2.” “Deadpool 3,” an R-rated sequel, is expected to be the only MCU feature film released this year and gives the studios a bit of a cooling-off period.
While these pics haven’t been given official release dates or announced by Marvel themselves, there is an expectation that we’ll be getting “Spider-Man 4,” “Doctor Strange 3,” “Thor 5,” “Captain America 5,” and possibly “Eternals 2.” There are also a bunch of reboots on the way with things like “Fantastic Four,” “Blade,” “X-Men,” James Gunn’s “Superman: Legacy” shooting in 2024, and a new Batman film with “The Brave & The Bold.”
Sony’s adjacent Marvel films in 2024 include “Madame Web,” “Kraven The Hunter,” and the final solo outing for Tom Hardy’s Eddie Brock in “Venom 3.” We don’t know how much appetite audiences have for these movies without Tom Holland’s involvement and a disaster like “Morbius” harkening back to the era of the 2000s when studios were rushing half-cooked superhero films into theaters to meet the demand.
A bunch of non-comic book blockbusters or follow-up installments coming later this year include “Dune: Part Two,” “Ghostbusters: Frozen Empire,” “Gladiator 2,” “Furiosa: A Mad Max Saga,” “Kung Fu Panda 4,” “Inside Out 2,” “Kingdom of The Planet of The Apes,” “Alien: Romulus,” “Godzilla x Kong: The New Empire,” “Mufasa: The King King,” “Sonic The Hedgehog 3,” “The Lord of The Rings: The War of The Rohirrim,” ‘Smile 2,” “Saw XI,” “Transformers One,” “Beetlejuice 2,” “Wolf Man,” “A Quiet Place: Day One,” “Despicable Me 4,” “Bad Boys 4,” “Ballerina,” “The Strangers: Chapter 1,” and Radio Silence’s Universal Monsters film. Hopefully, these do a lot better with audiences.
Solutions? Well, spending $200-300 million a pop for these films is simply going to be unsustainable, and trying to market every blockbuster as an event continues to be difficult for studios when their slate is mostly these kinds of films in an oversaturated market. Studios would likely benefit from seeking out filmmakers who can deliver genre films at lower costs and potentially scaling back the overreliance on VFX. An adjusted expectation for these movies could be closer to a cume of $300-500 million and studios would be smart to think about going back to budgets closer to/under $80-100 million. The bigger the movie the pricier reshoots and overhauls will be to fix hiccups in the editing/post process which has contributed to a lot of these bloated budgets making it tougher for studios to recoup their overall costs.
Some other factors include that COVID is still ongoing with people avoiding crowded theaters/malls and a lot of audiences don’t have to wait long for releases to drop on streaming services they’re already subscribing to. The latter seems a lot more damaging because the shortened theatrical windows mean studios have to deal with not only folks waiting out to get movies for “free” on streaming via subs and diminishes the importance of the theatrical experience. Warner Bros. during the early days of the pandemic attempted to do day-and-date releases which was detrimental to their film division it led AT&T’s John Stankey to bail on the company by handing over the reins to David Zaslav/Discovery (His tax write-off scheme leading to the erasure of films and shows is equally imbecilic).
A good example of this was Disney, who dumped three straight Pixar films “Soul,” “Luca,” and “Turning Red” on Disney+ and seemingly did large brand damage as they’re trying to fix in retrospect by releasing them all in theaters in 2024 (See teaser trailer above). This comes ahead of the release of “Inside Out 2” in June, a follow-up to a $858.8 million hit, that may aim to curb some of the weak box office that “Toy Story” semi-spinoff “Lightyear” saw in 2022.
It’s worth mentioning that things like “Barbie,” “Oppenheimer,” and “Super Mario Bros.” surprised us all with their massive earnings as when these movies were first announced they weren’t slamdunks to the point we were expecting them to be the Top 3 films of 2023. Their theatrical windows gave those pics plenty of time to accumulate a bunch of cash. Also, doesn’t hurt that both “Barbie” and “Oppenheimer” (Still playing at my local theater in December) came from visionary filmmakers, Greta Gerwig and Christopher Nolan respectively. Selecting creatives that can contribute to the script or elevate the material to make something appealing to an audience when a lot of genre projects can blend together or seem generic might help. Nolan and Denis Villeneuve have been extremely vocal on the importance of theatrical windows.
We shouldn’t be all doom-and-gloom about the situation. I’m mostly optimistic since there were plenty of good box office stories in 2023 and studios aren’t suddenly going to stop making these movies. Yet, potentially trimming the volume of releases, not trying to manufacture event status for all films, and using their abundant resources more carefully should be a good start. Marvel/Disney have already signaled they’re looking to pivot and make constructive changes. We’ll see if other studios make similar adjustments with their own franchises that are seeing dwindling interest.
Here is a rundown of franchise releases in 2023 to give you an idea of how lopsided the box office of 2023 actually was:
GUARDIANS OF THE GALAXY VOL. 3 ($845.5 million)
FAST X ($704.8 million)
SPIDER-MAN: ACROSS THE SPIDER-VERSE ($690.5 million)
MISSION: IMPOSSIBLE – DEAD RECKONING PART ONE ($567.5 million)
ANT-MAN & THE WASP: QUANTUMANIA ($476 million)
TRANSFORMERS: RISE OF THE BEASTS ($438.9 million)
THE HUNGER GAMES: THE BALLAD OF SONGBIRDS & SNAKES ($322.6 million)
If you weren’t already aware, 20th Century Studios and Disney are looking to reenergize the “Alien” franchise with not only a brand new mystery film called “Alien: Romulus” from director Fede Alvarez (“Evil Dead”) but also Noah Hawley (“Fargo”) behind an Earthbound streaming series at FX/Hulu as well that takes place before the events of the original film. It looks like things are chugging along with Fede’s film as he recently completed a director’s cut or potentially an assembly cut of the film.
Guillermo del Toro spoke with the filmmaker at The Directors Guild of America’s Latino Summit 2023 where he revealed the pressure-cooker moment when franchise producer Ridley Scott sat in a room alone to watch the director’s cut before anyone else and shared his promising impressions with Alvarez.
“I finished the director’s cut a week ago and go through the incredibly intense process of sending it Ridley Scott, who is my producer. He’s the producer of the movie. I wanted him to see it before anybody and everybody gave me the heads up that ‘Ridley’s really tough and particularly if you have something to do with his movie.’ He was really tough on ‘Blade Runner,’ which I saw as a masterpiece…He walks into the room and he did say ‘Fede what I can say? It’s fucking great.’ My family knows it was the best moments of my life to have a master like him, which I admire so much, even to watch a movie I made. The best compliment he gave was ‘The dialogue is great, you’re the writer?'”
The young cast assembled for the sci-fi horror pic includes Caliee Spaeny, Isabela Merced, Archie Renaux, David Jonsson, Aileen Wu, and Spike Fearn. While the film is in the post-production stage we still haven’t got our hands on an official plot synopsis for the new “Alien” film other than previous hints that it could involve an off-world colony facility
Alvarez isn’t understating Scott’s hyper-critical persona. Director Neill Blomkamp’s takeaway from his experience developing “Alien 5” only for it to go away was that Scott had likely soured on him after watching “Chappie” and potentially had the movie killed. Although, it sounds like Alvarez’s experience was very much different with his new “Alien” installment.
Interestingly enough, ILM is working on the film’s visual effects alongside Weta Workshop, which is said to be working on weapons and vehicles. The Gillis team returning to do creature effects as well.
Thankfully for fans, the sequel will be heading to theaters on August 16, 2024, after it had been previously set to become another Hulu exclusive like their well-done “Predator” prequel, “Prey.” Given that they have a director’s cut this early less than a year away from release there is some hope the studio could start releasing first-look images and even a teaser trailer in the near future.
You can watch the full conversation between del Toro and Alvarez right here.
It has been a moment since filmmaker Gareth Edwards tackled an original project after helping to launch the lucrative Monsterverse franchise for Legendary with his “Godzilla” reboot and helped usher in the modern era of “Star Wars” thanks to “Rogue One: A Star Wars Story.” The last film Edwards worked on his own thing was “Monsters” back in 2010. Well, he’s coming back with a vengeance in his upcoming film “The Creator,” which he compares to a Vietnam War film with a glossy sci-fi paint-job.
During a recent Q&A (See videos below) session where they showcased some new IMAX footage from the film, the director explained to Deadline how the film’s lead, John David Washington, first met with Gareth and had to come clean about being a massive “Star Wars” fan even to the point he was mulling over not wearing his “Star Wars” mask to the pandemic-era meeting as not to offend but said it “wouldn’t be true to himself” as he had been wearing that mask consistently in that time.
He also talked about the other lead of the film. Madeleine Yuna Voyles is the youngster that was cast in the role of Alfie, the new artificial intelligence “threat” that Joshua aims to protect from human hands and Edwards explains how he came around to filling that key role. He was a bit worried that during her audition the actor was being too well prepped before doing an emotional scene that made them all cry, but ultimately ended up doing it again and realizing that she was indeed the actor they needed to play Alfie.
“I don’t know what we would have done if we hadn’t found the right kid, we got really lucky but the version of this movie where we didn’t find Madeleine…I’m glad I live in the universe where that happened. I hate movies with little kids because they can be so annoying, that was my biggest fear making this movie…so it’s the biggest relief when she’s beyond her years it’s like she’s reincarnated or something,” Edwards said of discovering his co-lead that would make or break his movie.
The film focuses on the military threat of A.I. after it started dropping bombs and while the film’s setting is 2070, Edwards jokingly thinks he might have gone too far into the future.
“I have a trick with A.I. is to get the timing as a sweet spot window where it’s before the apocalypse and not after, which I think is in November — maybe December — and so, I think we got really lucky. The joke would be that when you write a film, especially a science fiction film, I try to avoid putting a date … at some point, you have to so, I picked 2070. Now I feel like an idiot because I should’ve gone for 2023 ’cause everything that’s been unfolding in the last few months is kind of scary and weird.”
It’s also a war movie where Edwards describes the pic as a mix between Ridley Scott’s “Blade Runner” and Francis Ford Coppola’s Vietnam War pic “Apocolypse Now,” the latter is fitting since they shot on location in Vietnam. One of “80 locations” Edwards claims to have been used in the making of the film.
I have to gush a little bit about the potential of “The Creator.” Honestly, we don’t often see an original film of this scale get major backing from a major studio like 20th Century Studios/Disney after being originally developed at New Regency. I can’t express how important it is for original blockbusters to wiggle their way into the marketplace this didn’t used to be as uncommon as it is now in the era of cinematic universes/reboots. I don’t know how studios expect to get to the next “Star Wars” or “Avatar” without taking risks with original projects from visionary directors and screenwriters.
It also doesn’t hurt that there is some “Dune” and “Star Wars” lineage mixed in here with Hans Zimmer composing the film’s score and Oscar-winning cinematographer Greig Fraser having contributed to the film’s visuals as well.
As much as still enjoy the work of director Neill Blomkamp (“The Creator” certainly feels like it shares DNA with his work) after becoming such a creative voice within the sci-fi genre with “District 9,” “Elysium,” and to a lesser extent his visually brilliant pic “Chappie” (I still think most of the production design on the film is top-tier). It feels like he sort of has fizzled out after attaching himself to high-profile franchise sequels like “Alien 5” and “RoboCop Returns” potentially getting drained creatively trying to work within a frustrating studio system while developing his own video game and shooting a bunch of various short films on his own dime. However, he recently ended up with his first number one at the box office in a long time with his sports drama “Gran Turismo.”Rooting for more genre-focused material from Blomkamp, but I’m still grateful that folks like Edwards can pick up the slack and that studios like New Regency are still willing to make such fantastic-looking sci-fi that isn’t based on existing material when other studios/executives repelled by spending big bucks on original ideas (“The Creator” is said to have cost something in the neighborhood of $86 million).
We’ve already seen this summer what audience-friendly originals can look like at the box office with Christopher Nolan’s “Oppenheimer” out-earning “Inception” and Greta Gerwig’s “Barbie” (Not a sequel/reboot/remake) inching closer to becoming Warners’ highest-grossing film. It’s worth mentioning that 20th Century is indeed investing more than expected on various IP-focused sci-fi projects such as new feature film installments in both the “Alien” and “Predator” franchises in the shadow of something as massive as the “Avatar” films.
Amidst a future war between the human race and the forces of artificial intelligence, Joshua (Washington), a hardened ex-special forces agent grieving the disappearance of his wife (Chan), is recruited to hunt down and kill the Creator, the elusive architect of advanced AI who has developed a mysterious weapon with the power to end the war… and mankind itself. Joshua and his team of elite operatives journey across enemy lines, into the dark heart of AI-occupied territory… only to discover the world-ending weapon he’s been instructed to destroy is an AI in the form of a young child.
“The Creator” will be heading to theaters on September 29 and you can watch a neat featurette about the sci-fi pic below.
Gareth Edwards mentions Francis Ford Coppola and Ridley Scott as influences of his as he notes #TheCreator is “a mix of ‘Blade Runner’ meets ‘Apocalypse Now’” pic.twitter.com/QcXAaJCpFt
Gareth Edwards on the timing of #TheCreator, which follows a future war between the human race and artificial intelligence, being aligned with the WGA and SAG-AFTRA strikes this year pic.twitter.com/9UM5zCc6N6
Disney is looking to release a new horror-themed film “Haunted Mansion,” which is loosely based on the popular theme park attraction. That’s isn’t the only project on the horizon that is connected to the parks as there had been plans on making a “Tower of Terror” movie and there seems to be confirmations of sorts that it’s still in some sort of development at the studio.
In a recent profile of actress Scarlett Johansson, Variety briefly supports a previous report from The DisInsider that Waititi is attached to direct the horror pic for Disney as the two worked together on the WWII movie “Jojo Rabbit.” But Variety failed to give any new concrete details of when that is exactly going to happen. The ride is directly connected to the “Twilight Zone” series and would certainly be a neat way for Disney to keep making horror films.
Step uneasily inside the infamous Hollywood Tower Hotel and find a dusty lobby frozen in time. Even the subdued hotel staff seems strangely out of another era. Suddenly a television set springs to life and Rod Serling welcomes you on a journey into the Twilight Zone. He reveals that on a gloomy Halloween night in 1939, some hotel patrons were riding the elevator when a violent storm struck the building… and they were never seen again. The hotel closed down and has stood empty ever since.
There had been some assumptions that after the actress’ legal headaches with Disney over money tied to Marvel’s “Black Widow” that something like “Tower of Terror” might have soured on her. However, given that Waititi is attached it could delay things even further given how busy the filmmaker is these days with multiple films he’s already attached to including a “Star Wars” film, a remake of “Flash Gordon,” and a new sci-fi pic “Klara & The Sun.”
THE RONIN 
