Lucasfilm and director James Mangold has added Danish actor Mads Mikkelsen to the cast of Indiana Jones 5, according to Deadline. Mikkelsen joins Harrison Ford and Phoebe Waller-Bridge, who had been announced officially by the studio.
Making the trio of leads of Indiana Jones 5 all Star Wars alumni.
The nature of his role isn’t revealed in the report. Mads has played villains in films such as Casino Roayle and Doctor Strange but has taken supporting heroic roles in things like Clash of The Titans and Rogue One: A Star Wars Story. I wouldn’t be terribly shocked if Mikkelsen is playing a rival character to Indy that is also seeking the film’s object of interest aka McGuffin.
Henry Jones Jr. aka Indiana Jones is a professor that hunts down antiquities all over the world leading to various adventures. Given Ford’s age there is expectation his action scenes will be limited and I would imagine his role in the movie could be similar to Sean Connery in Indiana Jones & The Last Crusade.
James Mangold is also writing the film after previous attempts by Jonathan Kasdan (Solo: A Star Wars Story, Willow) and David Koepp, he’s teased on Twitter that it could end up with a 1960s setting. The filmmaker’s credits include Ford v. Ferrari, Cop Land, The Wolverine, Logan, and Walk The Line. Mangold stepped in after Steven Spielberg exited the project as it’s director and George Lucas is seemingly not involved creatively.
Indiana Jones & The Kingdom of The Crystal Skull saw Soviets replacing Nazis as the franchise baddies because the timeline has moved past WWII. Indy’s war service with the allies sadly happened off-screen between The Last Crusade and Crystal Skull. Given the Cold War setting, it would make sense to potentially see the Soviets make a return.
Lucasfilm confirmed back in December the fifth installment will be the final film starring Harrison Ford and studio head Kathy Kennedy previously stated it will be a continuation, not a reboot.
Filming is set to begin this summer with a release date of July 29, 2022.
Predator 5 aka Skulls has been previously confirmed for a shoot in Calgary, Alberta, Canada with 10 Cloverfield Lane director Dan Trachtenberg and cinematographer Jeff Cutter. It’ll be the first installment with the franchise under Disney ownership after the merger saw them take over 20th Century Fox, now re-branded as 20th Century Studios.
The Ronin has learned about some updated production dates as location scouting is underway in Alberta they are planning on a shoot that will kick-off on June 7 and wrap filming by August 20. This would be different from the dates mentioned by AVP Galaxy last month.
Shane Black’s The Predator was released back in 2018 and that one shot in Vancouver (used for Alien vs. Predator: Requiem). The film was a bit of a critical and commercial blunder for the studio earning a poultry $160.5 million globally on a budget of $88 million, it also underwent reshoots removing a sub-plot with the Emissary Predators.
Hopefully, Dan is able to make the version he wants to do without meddling from franchise producers during production or in post.
Predator 5 is without a release date or an official cast.
As production on 20th Century Studios’ Predator 5 aka Skulls is expected to kick-off in Calgary, Alberta, Canada. There seems to be an reunion of sorts on director Dan Trachtenberg’s production team.
10 Cloverfield Lane cinematographer Jeff Cutter has signed-up for the fifth Predator installment as he posted on his Instagram account a location scout in Alberta with Dan. The pair also worked together on the pilot episode of Amazon’s hit mature themed comic book series The Boys.
The last cinematographer to work on the franchise was Larry Fong (300, Kong: Skull Island, Watchmen) on Shane Black’s The Predator.
Disney is now the owners of the Alien and Predator franchises from the merger, it’ll be interesting to see what the new era will look like. While there was talk of Ridley Scott developing another film for 20th Century the next Alien project is a streaming series from Noah Hawley (Legion, Fargo). The next Predator installment will take place within the world of Native American culture and could bring it back to it’s roots of the 1987 original. Unlike the other Predator movies, we’re expected to see a female protagonist and likely will be a nod to the comic book character Machiko Noguchi.
Predator 5 is currently without an official cast or release date.
Finally, a new high-profile project has been announced at Disney’s 20th Century Studios.
Attack The Block’s Joe Cornish has been assigned to write and direct a feature film adaptation of Mark Millar’s comic book Starlight. The project seems to be influenced by sci-fi swashbucklers such as Flash Gordon, Buck Rogers, and John Carter.
The comic centers on a space hero who saved the universe 35 years ago but when he came back to Earth, no one believed his fantastic stories. He married, had kids and settled into old age, but then his old rocket ship shows up, and he is called back for one fantastic adventure.
It’s a little odd would attempt Starlight since 20th Century Studios has the rights to Flash Gordon with development on both animated and live-action movies over the last couple of years. Perhaps, the twist is appealing enough to purse this project alongside Flash?
Joe previously co-wrote the original Ant-Man script with Edgar Wright, the pair also worked on Steven Spielberg’s The Adventures of Tinin: The Secret of The Unicorn. He recently directed The Kid Who Would Be King and is set to helm the Lockwood series for Netflix.
Mark Millar is a comic book writer that is behind mature work such as Kingsman, Kick-Ass, Wanted, Empress, Superior, and Jupiter’s Legacy.The latter getting an upcoming Netflix series.
At one time, 20th Century Fox (pre-merger) was developing a film based on his Shazam!/Superman knock-off Superior with Matthew Vaughn (had been attached to direct a Flash Gordon remake). It’s unknown if the studio is going to move forward with that superhero project anytime soon.
It’s exciting that Marvel Studios has regained the film rights to Fantastic Four and Silver Silver, allowing them to finally use some of their most iconic and well-known characters in the Marvel Cinematic Universe either in films or series airing on Disney+. Norrin Radd aka The Silver Surfer, the herald of Galactus, was co-created by Jack Kirby and Stan Lee. The Marvel Comics character first appeared in the pages of Fantastic Four in 1966. Arguably one of the more popular cosmic characters that had been introduced from that era of comics and appeared in a handful of animated projects.
20th Century Fox attempted to develop a solo film in the 1990s and hired a large group of writers to tackle the script with various drafts. Those screenwriters working over the years included John Turman (Hulk, Fantastic Four: Rise of The Silver Surfer), Richard Jefferies (TRON: Legacy, Fantastic Four: Rise of The Silver Surfer), John Rice (Windtalkers, Blown Away), Rudy Gains (The Calling), Mike Finch (American Assassin, Predators, John Wick: Chapter 4, Hitman: Agent 47), John M. Bergmann, Bernd Eichinger (Downfall, Perfume: The Story of A Murderer, The Baader Meinhof Complex), and Andrew Kevin Walker (Se7en, The Wolfman, 8mm).
One of the big standouts was James Gunn (The Suicide Squad, Guardians of The Galaxy 1-3, Slither, Dawn of The Dead, Super), as the filmmaker revealed on Facebook that he was approached by the studio in 1999 to write an “extensive treatment” for Silver Surfer.
GUNN: “When I first moved to LA in 1999, one of the first people I met on a meeting was an exec at Fox. He told me they wanted to make a Silver Surfer movie, and I might be right for that, so I wrote an extensive treatment. It was a huge story, cosmic as hell, and featured the Silver Surfer turning on Galactus (but no Fantastic Four – this was before the first FF film).”
Eventually, 20th Century Fox got their Silver Surfer project with Fantastic Four: Rise of The Silver Surfer in 2007 with Doug Jones (Hellboy 1-2, The Shape of Water) playing the body and Laurence Fishburne (John Wick: Chapter 2, The Matrix Trilogy, Ant-Man & The Wasp) becoming Norrin Radd’s voice.
There had been plans of giving Silver Surfer a spinoff after the Fantastic Four sequel and they hired writer J. Michael Straczynski to tackle it in 2007. The seasoned screenwriter’s credits include Babylon 5, Thor, Sense8, Underworld: Awakening, Ninja Assassin, World War Z, Changeling, The Real Ghostbusters, Captain Power, He-Man & The Masters of The Universe, and She-Ra: Princess of Power.
Two years later, Straczynski mentioned in an interview that the sequel not meeting the studio’s expectations led Fox to question making a direct spinoff.
STRACZYNSKI: “What happened was when FF2 didn’t do as well as they hoped it would do, it caused them to call into question a Silver Surfer movie. The script that I wrote picked up right where FF2 left off. So if they do a Silver Surfer film down the road, it’ll have to be its own separate [thing].”
Director Alex Proyas (The Crow, Dark City) debunked a rumor he was going to direct the movie while speaking at San Diego Comic-Con 2008 via Slash Film.
PROYAS: “Unfortunately that is just a rumor. I don’t know where that came from. I do like Silver Surfer, but I’m not going to be doing it.”
In 2018, it was revealed by The Hollywood Reporter that comic book and television writer Brian K. Vaughn (The Great Machine, Y: The Last Man, Saga, Lost, M.A.S.K.) was developing a solo Silver Surfer movie before the merger with Disney in 2019 seemingly nixed those plans alongside a bulk of Marvel projects that Fox was developing at the time.
Marvel Studios now has control of the character and announced a new Fantastic Four movie in December that will be directed by Jon Watts, who helmed their Spider-Man trilogy.
Filmmaker Adam McKay (Vice, The Big Short, Ant-Man) stated he was interested in a Silver Surfer movie while speaking on the Happy Sad Confused podcast. In the chat, he cited The Wachowskis’ stylized Speed Racer movie as inspiration.
MCKAY: “Silver Surfer man, that’s the one I want to do. I would do anything to do Silver Surfer because visually….could do what the Wachowskis did with Speed Racer, with the Silver Surfer. At the same time, there’s a great emotional story in there man. Where a guy has to choose to save his planet. You know Norrin Radd has to save his planet…that, that would be the one.I think they’re kicking around a Nova idea.”
While speaking with MTV at the 2019 Gloden Globes, Adam suggested there was some “discussion” and Marvel’s Kevin Feige at the same event seemed open to the idea of meeting with him about the project.
MCKAY: “(Laughs) There actually has been some discussion about Silver Surfer. My agent certainly woke up. They were excited. We’re in the middle of, you know, backing Vice right now, but, who knows, in a couple of months it could pop up. I really am excited by that idea. So, we’ll see what happens.”
FEIGE: “I’ve not gotten a call yet, but I’ve seen Adam tonight and at a number of these awards, he is as everyone knows an incredibly smart guy he’s an honest to goodness fan and you know did a lot of behind the scenes work on the first Ant-Man film and have you seen Vice? A little cameo, a little Galatcus cameo in there that we helped him get. So I look forward to speaking to him more.”
We still don’t know if Norinn Radd will be part of Marvel’s new Fantastic Four franchise (expected) or if Adam McKay will get to make his solo film as Marvel Studios hasn’t officially announced any plans concerning Silver Surfer. However, there are plenty of casting ideas making the rounds online and figured I’d mention the people I think would be a good fit in the role that would likely be a mix of live-action and motion-capture.
LAKEITH STANFIELD (AGE 29): Get Out, Uncut Gems, Judas & The Black Messiah, Knives Out, Atlanta, The Girl In The Spider’s Web, War Machine, Dope, Short Term 12, and Straight Outta Compton.
RYAN GOSLING (AGE 40): The Nice Guys, Blade Runner 2049, Drive, Only God Forgives, Half Nelson, Remember The Titans, The Place Beyond The Pines, First Man, La La Land, and The Gray Man.
BRAD PITT (AGE 57): Fight Club, Snatch, Killing Them Softly, Inglourious Basterds, Se7en, Mr. & Mrs. Smith, Once Upon A Time In Hollywood, Moneyball, The Curious Case of Benjamin Button, Troy, Ocean’s Eleven, The Big Short, Interview With A Vampire, Fury, Legends of The Fall, True Romance, The Devil’s Own, and Bullet Train.
Disney and Lucasfilm has officially announced today that British actress Phoebe Waller-Bridge and composer John Williams have joined James Mangold’s untitled Indiana Jones 5. The news was first mentioned on the Indiana Jones Twitter account with a tweet that you can see below.
A new #IndianaJones adventure begins July 29, 2022. Phoebe Waller-Bridge joins the cast alongside Harrison Ford in the fifth installment of the iconic franchise. The inimitable John Williams will also return to score the film. pic.twitter.com/OrYJHNY6Ys
Phoebe is likely best known from her series Fleabag and was part of the main cast of Lucasfilm’s Solo: A Star Wars Story. She wrote on No Time To Die and is said to be also working on developing the story/script for the untitled Bond 26, the latter is expected to have a new actor in the role of James Bond. Another interesting project on the horizon is an Amazon Prime Video series reboot of Mr. & Mrs. Smith with Phoebe reuniting with Solo co-star Donald Glover, as the two will take on the roles previously played by Brad Pitt and Angelina in the Doug Liman film.
James Mangold is writing and directing Indiana Jones 5, having previously worked on the X-Men franchise with The Wolverine and Hugh Jackman’s final outing Logan. His other films such as Cop Land, Ford v Ferrari, and Walk The Line have been more grounded which would suggest he’s been brought in to help elevate the final film that will star Harrison Ford.
Details about the film or Phoebe’s role haven’t been shared by Disney. Although, director James Mangold has teased the film will take place the 1970’s.
Production is said to begin sometime this summer.
As stated in the tweet, Indiana Jones will be released on July 29, 2022 going head-to-head with Dwayne Johnson’s DC Comics film Black Adam.
With principle photography (live-action and motion-capture) completed on both Avatar 2 and Avatar 3 there should be some celebration involved as many people weren’t sure if James Cameron was going to be able to complete all four of his sequels. They still have to finish-up Avatar 4 and Avatar 5, but having two in the post-production phase should be a step in the right direction to delivering on his ambitious plan.
However, it sounds like things didn’t go terribly smoothly in the development process according to James Cameron. During a chat on The Marianne Williamson Podcast (via The Playlist) the filmmaker revealed that he had to threaten to fire screenwriters because they weren’t listening to his instructions about waiting until figuring out what worked in the first film before adding new ideas and stories. Despite the “threat of firing,” it doesn’t look like he followed through with it.
CAMERON: “When I sat down to write the sequels, I knew there were going to be three at the time, and eventually it turned into four, I put together a group of writers and said, ‘I don’t want to hear anybody’s new ideas or anyone’s pitches until we have spent some time figuring out what worked on the first film, what connected, and why it worked. They kept wanting to talk about the new stories. I said, ‘We aren’t doing that yet.’ Eventually, I had to threaten to fire them all because they were doing what writers do, which is to try and create new stories. I said, ‘We need to understand what the connection was and protect it, protect that ember and that flame.’”
The writing team on the first three Avatar sequels includes James Cameron, Rick Jaffa and Amanda Silver, Josh Friedman and Shane Salerno. They all share “story by” credit then divided-up the screenplays across Avatar 2 to Avatar 4. Shane Salerno co-writing the finale, Avatar 5, with James Cameron.
Cameron is known to be a complete control-freak on his productions and micromanaging the script development on four films is certainly something unsurprising given how much time he would be investing filming the movies and wanting to make sure he wasn’t wasting time/money pointless things. He’s also a writer himself and was closely working with them to execute his vision that would be told over five different films.
Jim also doesn’t suffer people working on his projects that don’t listen to him and has had to fire people even deep in production. Luckily, it doesn’t look like anyone was actually fired off the films.
Matthew Vaughn’s The King’s Man is yet another summer film be pushed to a later date.
Disney/20th Century Studios has moved the Kingsman prequel from August 20th to December 22nd.
The film’s cast includes Ralph Fiennes as Duke of Oxford, Harris Dickinson as Conrad, Gemma Arterton as Polly, Djimon Hounsou as Shola, Charles Dance as Arthur, Daniel Bruhl, Stanley Tucci, Matthew Goode as Tristan, Tom Hollander, Rhys Ifans as Rasputin, an Aaron Taylor-Johnson.
Marv, the studio behind the franchise has teased ambitious plans for 10 Kingsman films and multiple series.
THE KING’S MAN – As a collection of history’s worst tyrants and criminal masterminds gather to plot a war to wipe out millions, one man must race against time to stop them. Discover the origins of the very first independent intelligence agency in The King’s Man.
It looks like Mike Judge isn’t only aiming to bring back his classic MTV animated characters Beavis & Butt-Head.
While speaking on a Reddit AMA (via SlashFilm), King of The Hill executive producer and writer Brent Forrester revealed that Mike Judge and Greg Daniels are currently in negotiations to bring back the animated Texas family.
FORRESTER: “I am sure Greg Daniels and Mike Judge will murder me for sharing this but… HELL YES. They are in hot negotiations to bring back King of the Hill. The Trump administration made it suddenly very relevant again. The characters have all aged 15 years. The project is sooooo good. Okay I’ve said too much.”
King of The Hill originally aired between 1997-2009 on Fox, but it’s unclear where the revival would land given that Disney now owns the television division and could grab the series for Disney+.
Deadline is reporting that estimates from China’s box office has given Avatar enough money from the re-release to have surpassed Avengers: Endgame, giving the James Cameron sci-fi movie the box office title again making it the highest grossing film. That’s until Disney re-releases Avengers: Endgame and the record flips back to Marvel Studios at some point.
The China reissue of the 2009 3D sci-fi phenomenon had taken an estimated RMB 58M ($8.9M) through 5PM local time on Saturday after re-releasing on Friday in the market. This closes and surpasses what was a $7.82M gap between the two films prior to China’s resissue. Disney/Marvel’s Endgame previously snapped up the top global crown from Avatar in July 2019. The current (and fluid) Avatar global total is an estimated $2,798,579,794 versus Endgame‘s $2,797,501,328.
It’ll be interesting to see if the domestic or global box office will ever fully recover from the COVID-19 pandemic as many don’t believe we’ll see blockbuster movies surpassing $1-2 billion grosses any time soon. While certain international markets might be able to go back to “normal” sooner than places that were harder hit by the virus such as the United States.
The re-release comes at an important time as James Cameron is prepping to release four Avatar sequels and making sure Chinese audiences remember the franchise will be a key element of those films making top-dollar when they’re eventually released starting with Avatar 2 in December 2022. I’m extremely curious to see if Jim can replicate the success of the original film four more times.
Filming on the multiple sequels has been taking place in California for the motion-capture portion and the live-action scenes being shot at Stone Street Studios in Wellington, New Zealand. Hopefully, we’ll end up getting a teaser trailer for Avatar 2 before the end of the year from Disney/20th Century Studios.
THE RONIN 