Tag: Disney

Posted on in Television News

Kevin Feige Confirms Marvel’s ‘She-Hulk’ Has 10-Episodes

Another tidbit from Collider’s conversation with Marvel Studios president Kevin Feige gives us an episode count for their upcoming She-Hulk series, which will be given 10-episodes, however shorter than normal at 30-minutes. 

Some can be much longer than that. But She-Hulk, for instance, is being developed as 10 30-minute episodes.

She-Hulk is directed by Kat Coiro and Anu Valia, with Jessica Gao serving as head writer.

Canadian actress Tatiana Maslany will be playing superhero defense lawyer Jennifer Walters aka She-Hulk with Mark Rufflao reprising his role as Jennifer’s cousin Bruce Banner aka Hulk and the return of Incredible Hulk actor Tim Roth as villain Emil Blonsky aka The Abomination. 

We’ll likely see more actors from Incredible Hulk make a return just like Roth.

There is an assumption that William Hurt could be reprising Thunderbolt Ross in the show, the character becomes Red Hulk in the comics, something that was considered for Captain America: Civil War but was ultimately cut during development stages. Ross has also been part of the newer incarnation of the Thunderbolts team alongside Deadpool, The Punisher, and Elektra.

In the comics, Walters needs a lifesaving blood transfusion from Banner leading to her becoming a Hulk herself. How Marvel is going to tackle her origin in the MCU remains to be seen and if they’re going to mimic the comic books that closely. Jennifer is also sort of big crossover character which has already been teased by Kevin Feige during the Disney Investor Day presentation leading many to believe fellow Marvel lawyer Matt Murdock might show up. The heroine had at one time been a member of both Fantastic Four and The Avengers, I’ll be curious if she’ll have a role to play in Jon Watts‘ reboot of Marvel’s first family.

Production on She-Hulk under the working title Libra is said to begin this March in Altanta, Georgia. 

A release sometime in 2022 on Disney+ is expected given the amount of visual effects work needed to render multiple Hulks in the series, we’re thinking the release could skew late summer or fall of 2022.   

SOURCE: COLLIDER

Posted on in Television News

Kevin Feige Reveals Marvel’s ‘Moon Knight’ Series Will Be 6-Episodes

It looks like we finally know how long Marvel’s Moon Knight series will be. 

Moon Knight, aka Marc Spector, a mercenary who has numerous alter egos — cabbie Jake Lockley and millionaire playboy Steven Grant — in order to better fight the criminal underworld. But later he was established as being a conduit for the Egyptian moon god Khonshu. Most recently, the character was a consultant who dresses in all-white and goes by the name Mr. Knight. 

While speaking with Kevin Feige about various runtimes of the upcoming Disney+ shows, the Marvel Studios president mentions to Collider that Moon Knight will land six episodes but run a bit longer than something like She-Hulk, which is going to have 30-minute episodes. 

He also added that the upcoming Moon Knight will fall into the six, 40-50 minute episode category.

A similar episode run and length as 2021 shows such as Loki and The Falcon & The Winter Soldier. 

Star Wars and X-Men alumni Oscar Isaac had finally been confirmed for the main role of Marc Spector aka Moon Knight. The American actor had also recently attached himself to Sony’s Metal Gear Solid film based on the iconic action video game series playing Solid Snake. 

The directing team consists of Egyptian filmmaker Mohamed Diab along with the indie duo of Justin Benson and Aaron Moorhead. 

Production on Moon Knight is said to begin this March in Budapest, Hungary under the working title Good Faith, a location that was used for their feature film Black Widow. Other filming locations had once included London and the United States. 

How Marc Spector will fit into the greater Marvel Cinematic Universe is a little less known than some of the other characters given his supernatural and vigilante ways. Various characters getting their own solo series on Disney+ have a clearer path for crossovers, however, there has been speculation it could have some connection to Mahershala Ali‘s new Blade reboot but that yet to be confirmed in any substantial way.

We have been hearing that Disney+ hoped to have the series ready to begin airing sometime in the spring/summer of 2022. 

SOURCE: COLLIDER

Posted on in Television News

‘Trainspotting’s Danny Boyle Directing Sex Pistols Limited Series At FX – Toby Wallace & Maisie Williams To Star

Director Danny Boyle is returning to television with a 6-episode limited series for FX titled Pistol according to Deadline.

The project will focus on the British punk band The Sex Pistols, told from the perspective of guitarist Steve Jones and based on his memoir. Boyle, who will direct the limited series is best known for his break-out films Trainspotting and Oscar-winner Slumdog Millionaire.

Pistol is written/created by Moulin Rogue!’s Craig Pearce and is co-written by Frank Cottrell Boyce, the latter was responsible for the amazing British comedic biopic 24 Hour Party People. Let’s just say the combination of people working on the project should make any music fan excited to see what they come up with.

Australian actor Toby Wallace recently seen in Babyteeth will play Jones with Game of Thrones alumni Maisie Williams playing punk icon Pamela Rooke aka Jordan.

Here is the rest of the cast.

  • Anson Boon as John Lydon 
  • Louis Partridge as Sid Vicious
  • Jacob Slater as Paul Cook
  • Fabien Frankel as Glen Matlock
  • Dylan Llewellyn as Wally Nightingale 
  • Sydney Chandler as Chrissie Hynde
  • Emma Appleton as Nancy Spungen

Filming is said to begin on March 7th.

Danny Boyle previously worked with FX on the limited series Trust which was essentially the television version of Ridley Scott‘s All The Money In The World.

This wouldn’t be the first time the punk bank has been explored before as the Gary Oldman film Sid & Nancy attempted to cover volatile and drug addicted guitarist Sid Viscous and his girlfriend Nancy Spungen.

SOURCE: DEADLINE

Posted on in Film News

Disney Taps Ben Affleck To Direct ‘Keeper of The Lost Cities’

Ben Affleck has seemingly secured yet another directing project.

Deadline reports he’ll be adapting the novel Keeper of The Lost Cities written by Shannon Messenger for Disney as it’s director, producer, and co-writer with screenwriter Kate Gritmon.

A telepathic girl must figure out why she is the key to her brand-new world before the wrong person finds the answer first. When 12-year-old Sophie finally discovers where her secret telepathic ability comes from, she learns she’s actually not human but is from another world that exists side-by-side with ours.

Affleck has been a busy bee lately working on his erotic thriller Deep Water co-starring with now girlfriend Ana de Armas along with a small role in Ridley Scott‘s period drama The Last Duel and leading the crime thriller titled Hypnotic directed by Robert Rodriguez at Solstice Studios. There was talk of a sequel to The Accountant in the works but hasn’t fully materialized.

He is also attached to direct a WWII film titled Ghost Army for Universal Pictures with a script penned by True Detective‘s Nic Pizzolatto.

The film tells the true story of a squadron of recruits from art schools, ad agencies and other creative businesses who were tasked with fooling the Nazis into thinking the U.S. had larger troop numbers than it actually did. 

It’s unclear when they expect to begin shooting the Disney film or if he’ll make Ghost Army for Universal beforehand.

SOURCE: DEADLINE

Posted on in Film News

Kevin Feige Refuses To Comment On When Marvel’s Phase 4 Ends

People after San Diego Comic-Con 2019 started making theories on when Phase 4 would end that led to plenty of assumptions what would end up becoming Phase 5 projects, however, a brief comment from Kevin Feige is suggesting he’s not ready to say when Phase 4 is ending and when Phase 5 begins. Because of the pandemic Phase 4 will kick-off with WandaVision instead of Black Widow, which was originally set to be released in May 2020.

Murphy’s Multiverse asked Kevin Feige during a WandaVision press conference for clarification if the Marvel Studios president would reveal when in the release schedule we’ll see the end of Phase 4 and got a straight-up “no” in response.

We’ll just have to wait and see when they want to reveal that information publicly.

It’s worth mentioning that Phase 3 included 11 feature films starting with Captain America: Civil War and ended with Spider-Man: Far From Home. There is a good chance that Marvel might extend Phase 4 further than where they originally wanted.

I think the delays in release could also make things a little more complicated.

Something like James Gunn’s Guardians of The Galaxy 3 might be something that could end Phase 4 if they want to push the slate into 2023-2024.

WandaVision begins airing on Disney+ starting January 15th.

Here’s a reminder of the current MCU movies that are set for release and is still subject to change.

  • BLACK WIDOW – May 7th, 2021
  • SHANG-CHI – July 9th, 2021
  • ETERNALS – November 5th, 2021
  • SPIDER-MAN 3 – December 17th, 2021
  • DOCTOR STRANGE 2 – March 25th, 2022
  • THOR: LOVE & THUNDER – May 6th, 2022
  • BLACK PANTHER 2 – July 8th, 2022
  • CAPTAIN MARVEL 2 – November 11th, 2022
  • ANT-MAN 3 – TBA 2022
  • GUARDIANS OF THE GALAXY 3 – TBA 2023
  • BLADE – TBA
  • FANTASTIC FOUR – TBA
  • DEADPOOL 3 – TBA
  • X-MEN – TBA

SOURCE: MURPHY’S MULTIVERSE

Posted on in Film News

Robert Rodriguez Open To ‘Alita: Battle Angel’ Sequel Heading To Disney+ – “It’s Not A Bad Idea”

Fans of Alita: Battle Angel have been hoping that with Disney taking over 20th Century Studios they’d end up landing sequel given the built-in franchise potential of the sci-fi movie adapted from the Japanese manga. The James Cameron project had been always envisioned as a trilogy as the source material allowed for that to happen.

There had been some optimistic comments from producer Jon Landau about a sequel last year talking with CinemaBlend.

LANDAU: “Absolutely. … When Jim [Cameron] was going to direct us, which he was at point, in his mind he had plotted out two additional stories of where we would go very specifically.“

“Well, I won’t speak specifically about Alita. I would just tell you that I think Jim [Cameron] and I love the opportunities that streaming and these other avenues of distribution are offering people today. And you know, we would love to get into those playgrounds and play in them, no matter what the title is.“

Now while speaking with Forbes to promote his Netflix film We Can Be Heroes, director Robert Rodriguez revealed he’d be open to make a Alita: Battle Angel sequel even if it landed at Disney+ as Robert has an established with Disney/Disney+ via The Mandalorian and the upcoming series The Book of Boba Fett.

RODRIGUEZ: “I think anything is possible. Disney bought Fox, and they have Disney+, so that is worth the conversation. I know other people would love to see another, and I would love to do another one. As far as where it would go or how it would be made, I think streaming has opened up many opportunities such as sequels. It’s already a pre-sold concept, it’s already got a built-in audience that wants to see it, and then it’s delivered to them in a way that’s the easiest for them to consume. So, it’s not a bad idea.”

As far we know, there aren’t plans at Disney/20th Century to make any new Alita project but it’s worth mentioning that Rodriguez is busy with his Star Wars series The Book of Boba Fett currently shooting along with his Ben Affleck thriller Hypnotic on the horizon.

I personally enjoyed the film even in the final third act spent most of that time setting up a sequel instead having a standalone conclusion. Hopefully, something comes together eventually given the first installment ended on a cliffhanger and introducing Edward Norton‘s Nova as a main antagonist.

SOURCE: FORBES

Posted on in Television News

Jon Favreau Announces ‘The Book of Boba Fett’ Shoots Before ‘The Mandalorian’ Season 3 – Robert Rodriguez To Produce

The Mandalorian creator and producer Jon Favreau appeared on Good Morning America to make a special announcement.

At the end of the Season 2 finale of The Mandalorian, Lucasfilm announced that The Book of Boba Fett expected to star Temuera Morrison and Ming-Na Wen with it to begin airing on Disney+ in December 2021. We saw the pair arrive at Jabba’s Palace on Tatooine to assassinate an older Bib Fortuna with Boba Fett taking over the kingpin’s throne (a nod to Conan The Barbarian) suggesting that the series may explore the criminal syndicates of the Star Wars universe’s underworld, not just bounty hunting.

Jon revealing that The Book of Boba Fett will shoot first and then they’ll move into Season 3 of The Mandalorian. Also, Disney confirming Robert Rodriguez is involved on the producing team joining Jon Favreau and Dave Filoni.

Favreau also alluded to Pedro Pascal will return for Season 3 of The Mandalorian.

Deadline first reported that filming on the project has started weeks ago.

We’ve heard for over a week that Robert was being courted to lead his own Star Wars series and will be heavily involved with the show.

Only a matter of time before Danny Trejo is announced for a Star Wars role.

Other Disney+ projects set in the Star Wars universe on the horizon include Diego Luna’s Andor (currently filming in London), Deborah Chow’s Obi-Wan Kenobi starring Ewan McGregor and Hayden Christensen (set to begin shooting in March), Rangers of The New Republic, Rosario Dawson’s Ahsoka series, Leslye Headland’s High Republic show The Acolyte, and another show featuring the iconic character Lando.

Wonder Woman director Patty Jenkins is also directing the next Star Wars film Star Wars: Rogue Squadron coming to theaters on December 22, 2023.

Here is the press release for the project from Lucasfilm.

Boba Fett is back. And his story is just beginning.

As teased in a surprise end-credit sequence following the season finale of The Mandalorian, the legendary bounty hunter’s journey will continue in The Book of Boba Fett. Jon Favreau, executive producer of The Mandalorian, confirmed today on Good Morning America that the new series is currently in production and will arrive December 2021, only on Disney+.

The Book of Boba Fett will be set within the timeline of The Mandalorian and star Temuera Morrison as the titular bounty hunter, along with Ming-Na Wen as Fennec Shand. Robert Rodriguez — who directed Chapter 14 of The Mandalorian, a thrilling installment that reintroduced Boba Fett to the Star Wars galaxy — joins Favreau and Dave Filoni as executive producer.

Boba Fett made his big-screen debut in 1980’s Star Wars: The Empire Strikes Back, becoming an instant fan favorite thanks to his visually arresting armor and cool demeanor. Jeremy Bulloch, the original actor inside the armor, passed away last week — but his legacy, including all he brought to Boba Fett, goes on. The Book of Boba Fett will carry that legacy forward.

Season 3 of The Mandalorian will go into production next year.

SOURCE: GOOD MORNING AMERICA

Posted on in Television News

SPOILERS: ‘The Mandalorian’ Chapter 16 Recap – Where Does The Show Go Now?

WARNING SPOILERS AHEAD FOR THE SEASON 2 FINALE OF THE MANDALORIAN

The Season 2 finale titled The Rescue was directed by Peyton Reed (Ant-Man) and seemingly gives some closure to The Mandalorian‘s Season 1 narrative.

As I assumed, Mando seeks out help from Bo-Katan and Koska Reeves they agree to help as long as they get a shot at Moff Gideon and returning the Darksaber back to Mandalorians.

Things go south once they get on Gideon’s ship and Dark Troopers are activated, luckily, Mando sends them into space via the airlock and then has a duel with Moff Gideon.

Mando survives and with the Darksaber brings Moff Gideon to the bridge where everyone else is. Gideon informs Din Djain that he’s won the Darksaber and he cannot just hand it over to Bo-Katan it has to be won in combat.

The Dark Troopers return to the ship and start taking apart the blast doors at the bridge only for a lone X-Wing to arrive. A cloaked Luke Skywalker takes care of the Dark Trooper droids in what is likely the most action the character has seen in the entire franchise.

Mark Hamill reprises the role with the help of some uncanny valley CGI which I’m shocked Lucasfilm is still attempting to use after Tarkin and Princess Leia in Rogue One: A Star Wars Story was such a mess, the VFX is slightly improved but, in my opinion, they should have gone with an actor like Sebastian Stan instead.

Skywalker with R2-D2 at his side agrees to take Grogu and train him as Mando gives a tearful goodbye promises they’ll see each other again.

With Grogu in the hands of Luke Skywalker and The Jedi, Din Djarin may end up joining forces with Bo-Katan if she doesn’t kill him for the Darksaber to regain her power. Season 3 will likely see focus on the Mandalorians trying to restore things post-Empire.

The episode ends with a button scene teasing the upcoming Boba Fett and Fennec Shand project The Book of Boba Fett which is coming out in December 2021. We see the pair arrive on Tatooine and blast their way into Jabba’s Palace with Fett killing an older Bib Fortuna seemingly taking his spot as the head of the criminal syndicate. I have to assume the series will see Fett positioning himself to be a leader within the criminal underworld of Star Wars.

Rosario Dawson will be leading the spinoff Ahsoka.

However, we don’t know who will be leading the other spinoff series Rangers of The New Republic.

Posted on in Film News

‘Avatar 3’ Has Officially Wrapped Filming In New Zealand

Avatar franchise producer Jon Landau posted on Instagram that they’ve finally completed live-action photography on Avatar 3, after finishing up Avatar 2 months ago. This means they can move closer to finishing them while also moving on to Avatar 4 and Avatar 5.

The image looks to be from a wrap party. Just so people are aware that New Zealand is currently free from COVID-19 which explains why they’re interacting so closely in the photo below as the country has returned to normalcy.

LANDAU: “Celebrating the wrap of live action photography—with Jemaine Clement, Brendan Cowell and James Cameron.  Congrats to the entire crew in both New Zealand and Los Angeles. Incredible work!”

Avatar 2 has new release date of December 16th, 2022 and Avatar 3 is set for December 20th, 2024. 

SOURCE: JON LANDAU

Posted on in Television News

Pedro Pascal Hopeful To Appear In New Disney+ Shows Set In ‘The Mandalorian’ Timeline – Debunks Helmet Rumor

An unreliable rumor had made the rounds online that actor Pedro Pascal had a dust-up with producers over wearing the helmet on The Mandalorian and led to even more dubious claims that episodes would be reshot possibly with a new actor. All of this seems to have been debunked thanks to the episodes themselves but Pascal added his own two-cents while appearing on BBC’s The One Show to promote Wonder Woman 1984.

“That is not true, actually,” Pascal said. “It’s a really wonderful way of telling the story. It’s always been a very clear creed for the character, and the collaborative process of the whole thing has been, we’ve all been on the same page with this, I think. So I, you know, what I want is for them to make the best show possible, however they get that done.”

After the announcements from Lucasfilm that new Disney+ series Rangers of The New Republic and Rosario Dawson’s Ahsoka would be set within the timeline of The Mandalorian there had been assumptions that Pascal could do crossovers. A brief comment from the actor to Comic Book suggests he’s at least open to the idea.

“Man, fingers crossed. How could you not?,” Pedro says. “This is like, this is something that’s so much bigger than all of us, and we’re all a passenger to it in a great way. And so, I find out, as it is decided and shared.”

This Friday will see the final episode of Season 2 and could inform us what to expect in Season 3.

SOURCE: BBC THE ONE SHOW & COMIC BOOK