Tag: Disney+

Posted on in Film News, Television News

MONDAY MARVEL ROUNDUP: ‘Eternals’, ‘Spider-Man 3’, ‘Guardians of The Galaxy’, ‘Loki’, and More

This week’s roundup is mostly female-centric and some interesting characters might be heading to the MCU. 

Salma Hayek Teasing Reshoots On The Way For ‘Eternals’

Eternals actress Salma Hayek, who plays the team’s leader Ajak, has seemingly revealed on Instagram that the film is returning for reshoots very shortly. 

HAYEK: “In anticipation for reshoots, I finally had to do my roots.”

The film had been mainly shooting at Pinewood Studios UK under the working title Sack Lunch and will be getting pick-ups/reshoots like with every other MCU movie. Where the Eternals reshoots will take place is a little unclear as Georgia and California tend to be where reshoots normally happen, which might be tough considering the United States is seeing a steep rise in new coronavirus cases. 

However, the United Kingdom reportedly will be reopening productions next month starting with Universal’s Jurassic World: Dominion at Pinewood. 

Eternals recently saw it’s release date bumped from November 6th to February 12th, 2021. Hopefully, it’s able to stick to that date and it isn’t further delayed. 

J.K. Simmons Confirms He Filmed His Next Appearance As J. Jonah Jameson and Expects To Do Another One Soon

As Spider-Man 3’s production start is a bit of a question mark, actor J.K. Simmons has revealed he has filmed his next appearance as the Spider-Man character during an interview on SirusXM. 

SIMMONS: “There is one more JJJ apparence in the can and from what I’m hearing there is a plan for yet another one. Hopefully, JJJ will continue now and forever.” 

This would suggest he’s either showing up in Morbius or Venom 2 aka Venom: Let There Be Carnage, there had been some teases that this would be happening and Jameson might be the glue that connects all the Sony/Marvel films. The latter part would likely mean he’s coming back for Spider-Man 3, which has been assumed since the cliffhanger ending of Spider-Man: Far From Home. 

When Spider-Man 3 will begin shoot isn’t concrete at the moment as it originally was going to shoot over the summer once Tom Holland wrapped on Sony’s Uncharted film.

Amanda Seyfried Passed On Gamora Role In ‘Guardians of The Galaxy’ Over The Extensive Makeup 

While speaking with Comic Book, actress Amanda Seyfried revealed that the makeup was a huge reason why she passed on the Gamora role in James Gunn’s Guardians of The Galaxy, citing Jennifer Lawrence’s experience playing Mystique in X-Men: First Class. 

SEYFRIED: “I think about it often [laughs]. I’m not really a Marvel movie watcher, which is, I think, why I was just like, ‘Ah, I don’t wanna be green. It’s just so much work.’ I remember Jennifer Lawrence talking about once, how long it took her to get blue. And I was like, ‘That seems like hell on earth,’ because then you get to set and you’re only there for a couple hours, and then you have to take everything off. And that was literally the reason.”

Zoe Saldana ended up in the role and is expected to reprise Gamora once again in Guardians of The Galaxy 3. 

‘Loki’ Actress Gugu Mbatha-Raw Comments On The Disney+ Series

British actress Gugu Mbatha-Raw took some time to speak with Variety on their podcast The Big Ticket and gave some interesting insight to both director Kate Herron and co-star Tom Hiddleston. 

MBATHA-RAW: “I feel like even though you’re dealing with this big universe, [Kate Herron] still makes it feel very intimate. She just brings it back down to character and moments and emotions.” 

“Obviously, it’s a big part of our culture, so I had a huge awareness of it and it’s funny because I actually went to drama school at the same time as Tom Hiddleston. Ten years ago when I first came out here to do a TV pilot, ‘Under Covers,’ he was shooting the first ‘Thor’ at the same time. I remember him telling me about this experience of this new movie that he was doing.”

Loki paused production months back in Atlanta, Georgia when the pandemic forced the shutdown. There has been speculation that filming might resume next month but that has yet to be made official and might not be ready to begin airing on Disney+ until sometime in 2021. 

Marvel Rumored To Be Considering Adding Echo, Firestar, and Lucia Von Bardas To The MCU

A handful of rumors concerning a trio of female characters that Marvel Studios wants to introduce to the Marvel Cinematic Universe had been making the rounds over the last week. As with all rumors take these a pinch of salt since where these ladies might show up isn’t being mentioned. 

  • MARIA LOPEZ AKA ECHO (via Murphy’s Multiverse): Charles Murphy is making an excellent assumption based on a recent casting call from casting director Sarah Finn. However, admittedly wasn’t able to say definitely where she might show up and even mentioned this may be a casting call related to a Star Wars series as Finn is also tackling that franchise. 
  • ANGELICA JONES AKA FIRESTAR (via Daniel Richtman): While the character is best known from the animated series Spider-Man & His Amazing Friends, the character being a mutant means she is secured under the Marvel Studios rights umbrella and not Sony. There are already rumblings that mutant Takeshi Matsuya aka Whiz Kid (a fellow mutant) could be showing up in Shang-Chi. Daniel is unsure where Jones might show up despite her connections to Spider-Man. 
  • LUCIA VON BARDAS (via MCU Cosmic): This one implies that Marvel is already working on introducing Latveria as Lucia von Bardas is from the fictional nation that is led by Fantastic Four supervillain Doctor Doom, she becomes the Prime Minister of Latveria. While there had been rumblings in the past that a new Fantastic Four film was in development stages and on the cusp of an announcement, that seemed to be premature or simply false. Noah Hawley had been recently speaking with Marvel about his solo Doctor Doom movie that he was originally developing for 20th Century Fox before the merger. As with the other two rumors, Jeremy isn’t ready to proclaim or even guess where Lucia will first appear. 
Posted on in Television News

Bryce Dallas Howard Confirms Return For ‘The Mandalorian’ Season 2 and ‘Extraction’s Sam Hargrave Tackling Second Unit Directing

 Another director has confirmed their involvement with the upcoming Season 2 of The Mandalorian. While speaking to Collider in a recent interview, Bryce Dallas Howard has confirmed that she indeed has directed an episode of The Mandalorian for Season 2. Bryce having previously helmed the episode titled Sanctuary in Season 1.  

She joins a directing group that includes Robert Rodriguez (confirmed by myself at HN Entertainment), Jon Favreau, Carl Weathers, Peyton Reed (first revealed by Charles Murphy), and a returning Dave Filoni. 

It remains to be seen if others will be confirmed as James Mangold debunked a rumor that he was involved with Season 2. Bryce had also been previously rumored for a return but this is the first official confirmation. 

Also, Collider was able to speak with Extraction director Sam Hargrave earlier in the month, who confirmed to them he handled the second unit directing on the series. 

HARGRAVE: “They actually came to me. It’s crazy. I was in the middle of post [-production on Extraction] and I’m editing my movie and I got a call from my buddy Colin Wilson, one of the line producers, who said, ‘Jon [Favreau] and the people over here are looking for someone to bring into the team or add to the family who has experience with action.’ The team that was there did a great job in the first season and it was just all fun. But they wanted to build on that and bring a new perspective and take it to another level for the next season. So, I was like, ‘That sounds like a fun challenge.'”

“I like the people over there — Favreau’s great — so I went over and it was a really fascinating adventure. They have a crazy way of shooting. Some of the stuff is traditionally shot, with the live-action and blue screen on the backlot, but they’ve also got this technology called ‘The Volume’ where it’s just, like, the inside of a live game engine. It’s quite insane what technology nowadays is available to filmmakers. It was really eye-opening, the potential of this technology that Jon and they guys had been working on. It was a really fun learning experience.”

Sam is best known as a stuntman/stunt coordinator but recently had his directorial debut with the Netflix action film Extraction starring Chris Hemsworth that had a script penned by Avengers: Endgame co-director Joe Russo. 

Hargrave’s previous second unit work includes films such as Avengers: Infinity War, Avengers: Endgame, Deadpool 2, Atomic Blonde, and The Accountant.

Photography on the Star Wars series luckily wrapped up back in March before the pandemic essentially shut down most of the film and television industry. According to recent comments from Jon Favreau, post-production is moving smoothly and they’ll likely hit their targeted release date in October on Disney+. 

Season 3 of The Mandalorian is said to be already in development stages with Jon Favreau returning. 

SOURCE: COLLIDER

Posted on in Television News

Ewan McGregor Confirms ‘Kenobi’ Series Will Employ StageCraft VFX Used By ‘The Mandalorian’

Ewan McGregor earlier in the year revealed on the Birds of Prey red carpet that the Kenobi series would be pushing it’s start date from the summer to January 2021. This was due to script issues and Lucasfilm ended up hiring Joby Harold (King Arthur: Legend of The Sword, Army of The Dead) to do rewrites for the Star Wars series that will be directed by Deborah Chow.

Ace Universe was able to speak with Ewan McGregor, where he revealed that they’re expected to be using the StageCraft visual effects on the untitled Kenobi series that were employed in Season 1-2 of The Mandalorian.

MCGREGOR: “[The prequels] were all blue screen and green screen and it was hard to imagine, but nowadays I think things have moved on so much, and I think a lot of what you see is gonna be what we see on the set. I don’t know if you’ve seen the behind-the-scenes of The Mandalorian series, but they employ that incredible screen…it’s pretty amazing. It makes you feel like you’re in the place, it’s going to feel realer for us, as actors. And I think we’ll be using some of that technology on our show.”

You can check out the entire interview conducted by ACE host Angélique Roché below.

Hopefully, they’ll be able to be able to begin shooting in January as planned and if that happens there is a good chance that we’ll end up seeing the Kenobi series ready to air on Disney+ sometime between late 2021 and early/mid-2022.

SOURCE: ACE UNIVERSE

Posted on in Film News, Television News

MONDAY MARVEL ROUNDUP: ‘WandaVision’, ‘Spider-Man 3’, ‘Hawkeye’, ‘Captain America’, ‘Fantastic Four’, ‘Shang-Chi’, and ‘X-Men’

Here is is a collection of some interesting news, tidbits, and rumors concerning the world of live-action Marvel projects from the last couple of weeks. 

Chris Evans Isn’t Interested In Reprising ‘Captain America’

While addressing if he is truly done with the Captain America role, Chris Evans said the following on The Graham Norton Show (via Digitial Spy). 

EVANS: “Yes, I think it is. It was a great run and we went out on such a high note that it would be risky to revisit it in my opinion. It was such a good experience and I think it’s better left that way.”

Despite establishing that Old Man Rogers is alive at the end of Avengers: Endgame, Chris Evans tells that he isn’t eager to return to the Captain America role anytime soon. This isn’t shocking given that the mantle is being passed on to Anthony Mackie’s Sam Wilson with the transition taking place in The Falcon & The Winter Soldier. 

J.K. Simmons Says He’s Signed On For Multiple ‘Spider-Man’ Movie

In Spider-Man: Far From Home, it was revealed that J.K. Simmons would be reprising the role of Spider-Man’s media nemesis J. Jonah Jameson after playing the character in Sam Raimi’s Spider-Man trilogy. The character is the one to reveal to the public that Tom Holland’s Peter Parker is Spider-Man and attempts to frame him for the murder of Quentin Beck.

Simmons has briefly mentioned to PeopleTV (via Entertainment Weekly) that he is signed-on for sequels but the studio isn’t exactly obligated to have him return. 

SIMMONS: “I don’t know if I would use the word expect. It’s great to have the opportunity, as these things evolve, to be one of the holdovers from the previous version.”

This could mean that he’ll be returning for Spider-Man 3 but likely hasn’t been told if he is or not. An assumption I think we all made after the cliffhanger ending of the last film that could allow him to play a much larger role in future films. It might also support previous online rumblings pointing towards J. Jonah potentially showing up in films like Morbius and Venom 2, given that Sony Pictures seems keen on establishing their Spider-Man Cinematic Universe. 

Josh Trank Says 20th Century Fox Blocked Him From Casting A Black Actress To Play Sue Storm In ‘Fantastic Four’ 

While speaking with Geeks of Color recently to promote his Tom Hardy gangster film Capone, Fantastic Four director Josh Trank revealed that he was pushing for a black actress to portray the role of Sue Storm in Fantastic Four. 

Josh indicates that 20th Century Fox was behind that not happening, despite allowing him to cast Michael B. Jordan as her brother Johnny Storm aka The Human Torch. 

TRANK: “There were a lot of controversial conversations that were had behind-the-scenes on that. I was mostly interested in a black Sue Storm, a black Johnny Storm, and a black Franklin Storm. But when you’re dealing with a studio on a massive movie like that, everybody wants to keep an open mind to who the big stars are going to be.”

“When it came down to it, I found a lot of pretty heavy pushback on casting a black woman in that role.”

Studios being fearful of women of color in leading roles isn’t shocking or new. However, superhero diversity is something I think we can all rally around given and we’ll be curious to see how Marvel Studios ultimately recasts both their Fantastic Four and X-Men reboots. 

Trank also mentioned on Twitter (before deleting/deactivating his account) that he isn’t interested in releasing a director’s cut of Fantastic Four. 

Rumored Working Title of ‘Hawkeye’ Series Is ‘Anchor Point’ 

Our pal Charles Murphy over at Murphy’s Multiverse is claiming that the working title for Marvel Studios’ upcoming Hawkeye series will be Anchor Point. Working titles are normally used strictly during pre-production and the shooting of projects.

However, when that show might begin shooting is a little unclear at the moment with a handful of other Disney+ shows that haven’t fully completed their filming and there is some uncertainly concerning when new stuff like Hawkeye, She-Hulk, Ms. Marvel, and Moon Knight that hasn’t even started will begin production given the backlog they’re undergoing at the moment due to the Coronavirus pandemic. 

If filming is indeed going to move forward this fall in Atlanta, Georiga on Hawkeye, we’re likely to get some official casting news concerning the Kate Bishop role in the not too distant future. 

Evan Peters Rumored For Mystery Role In ‘WandaVision’ 

Another cool story coming from Charles Murphy suggests the possible casting of X-Men and American Horror Story actor Evan Peters in a mysterious key role for Marvel’s WandaVision. 

However, the report clearly is under the impression that Peters is playing a new character and is unlikely standing in for Aaron Johnson’s Pietro Maximoff aka Quicksilver. 

Despite blog and fan speculation that this could mean the Singerverse is carrying over to the Marvel Cinematic Universe if Peters is indeed playing a character other than Quicksilver, this would finally cement that Marvel is rebooting the main X-Men franchise (excluding Ryan Reynolds’ Deadpool) and going to recast all of the roles, not just Wolverine. 

‘WandaVision’ Might Resume Filming This July In Los Angeles 

Speaking of other Marvel shows that haven’t completed their productions, Paul Bettany has seemingly revealed to the Tampa Bay Comic Convention that he cannot attend their convention this summer because the resumed filming of WandaVision is taking place next month. 

Here is what the event posted on their Facebook page. 

“We finally received word from Paul Bettany’s representation, and unfortunately Paul had to cancel his appearance at TBCC this year due being called back by Disney for WandaVision filming in July, in Los Angeles. We’re working on guest additions!“

However, it’s hardly confirmation as Marvel/Disney hasn’t made any official statements concerning the resuming of any of their projects. It’s worth considering Disney could be asking principal actors in their major projects to be on stand-by for the summer, just in case they do want to resume production sooner rather than later. 

There have been indications that WandaVision is much further along than both The Falcon & The Winter Solider and Loki, so the filming needed to be done might be limited or potentially additional footage. 

Will ‘Shang-Chi’ Resume Production In Australia Soon?

On the live-action front, Australia and New Zealand seem to be in much better shape to resume feature film productions sooner than the United States and possibly the United Kingdom. 

Avatar 2 could very well resume production by the end of the month or sometime in July after director James Cameron and producer Jon Landau arrived in New Zealand last week. 

We can theorize that Australian projects like Shang-Chi might be some of the first to resume even before major projects in other countries. 

Shang-Chi unlikely projects like Doctor Strange In The Multiverse of Madness and Spider-Man 3 was shooting when Coronavirus outbreaks in the country led to the government telling studios to put a pause on filming. 

When stuff like the Spider-Man and Doctor Strange sequels will be able to begin shooting is less clear given that Tom Holland is expected to shoot Uncharted first and if that production is delayed beyond the summer likely means Spider-Man 3 won’t begin shooting until 2021. 

Doctor Strange 2 was undergoing new rewrites from Loki’s Michael with new director Sam Raimi jumping in for Scott Derrickson. While the UK government is keen for filming to resume in the country it might not be safe to resume this early, the same could be said about shoots in the United States as well. 

Shang-Chi was also going to shoot in San Francisco (Agent of Atlas connection?) and Los Angeles which could likely happen later in the year. However, what is a bit unknown is if they’ll be able to shoot exterior stuff in the various Asian locations they wanted to use before the pandemic. 

Has Actress Fala Chen Joined The Cast of ‘Shang-Chi’?

Some social media detective work from Murphy’s Multiverse writer Lizzie Hill suggests that newcomer Fala Chen might have joined the cast of Shang-Chi & The Legend of The Ten Rings. 

They also recently figured out that Solo: A Star Wars Story actress Erin Kellyman is expected to have an unnamed role in The Falcon & The Winter Soldier. 

Simon Kinberg Open To Directing Another ‘X-Men’ Film For Marvel Studios 

Lastly, Dark Phoenix writer/director Simon Kinberg suggested to IGN that he’d be open to the possibility of returning to the X-Men franchise under the new management of Marvel Studios. 

After Dark Phoenix losing 20th Century Studios (owned by Disney at the time of release) around $100-130 million, I find it hard to believe that Marvel would consider having Kinberg anywhere near their new X-Men franchise. Having new creatives involved isn’t the worst idea and it’s about time to have more passionate people tackling these characters. 

Posted on in Television News

‘The Mandalorian’ Season 2 Post-Production On Schedule For October Release According To Jon Favreau

Jon Favreau recently spoke to Vanity Fair’s Anthony Breznican, who was moderating the virtual panel for the ATX Television Festival (via The Hollywood Reporter) where Favreau gave a brief update on the status of The Mandalorian Season 2. 

It sounds like things in the post-production phase are indeed moving along nicely and they’ll be able to hit that targeted drop date in October. 

FAVREAU: “We were lucky enough to have finished photography before the lockdown. Thanks to how technology-forward Lucasfilm and ILM are, we have been able to do all of our visual effects and editing and post-production remotely through systems that had been set up by those companies for us.”

Luckily for The Mandalorian, they wrapped photography back in March giving them a slight edge over their fellow Disney+ shows from Marvel Studios that still need to finish filming. 

Directing episodes in Season 2 include Jon, Carl Weathers, Dave Filoni, Alita: Battle Angel’s Robert Rodriguez, and Ant-Man’s Peyton Reed. 

The new additions to the upcoming second season reportedly include Rosario Dawson, Timothy Olyphant, Temuera Morrison, and Michael Biehn. There is a good chance we could see these Season 2 characters getting a spinoff series as previously telegraphed by Bob Iger not too long ago. 

We already know that Season 3 of The Mandalorian is in the works with Diego Luna’s Cassian Andor and Ewan McGregor’s Kenobi series expected to begin shooting by next year. 

I’m slightly curious when Lucasfilm and Disney will announce plans for future live-action shows. 

SOURCE: ATX TELEVISION FESTIVAL