Tag: Doctor Strange

Posted on in Film News, News

‘Train To Busan’ Remake Director Timo Tjahjanto Co-Wrote Secret Genre Movie With ‘Doctor Strange’s Scott Derrickson

Director Timo Tjahjanto (The Night Comes For Us) has announced on social media that he co-written a passion project of his with Doctor Strange screenwriters Scott Derrickson and C. Robert Cargill. Tjahjanto is attached to direct an English remake of the hit South Korean horror flick Train To Busan for producer James Wan and New Line Cinema.

He also confirmed that the Train To Busan remake will be made first.

“After nearly seven years of trying to get this passion project running. It had finally gained some amazingly “strange” traction. Humbled and honored to be working with two of these very talented filmmakers and writers. This one will happen after a train ride, and when it does…[multiple skull emojis],” Timo Tjahjanto stated in a post on Instagram alongside a brief synopsis of the project teasing a possible dystopian sci-fi angle.

The year is 20**, society is screwed. Crime and violence have risen steadily in all remaining regions of planet Earth. Most of Asia has been unified.

Scott Derrickson has been busy since exiting Doctor Strange In The Multiverse of Madness over creative differences with Marvel Studios. He’s attached to direct an adaptation of Joe Hill’s The Black Phone starring Ethan Hawke and is also making a sequel to Jim Henson’s beloved fantasy film Labyrinth.

TRAIN TO BUSAN – Life-or-death survival in train bound to Busan. A divorced man, Seok-woo is always caught up at work, leaving him no time to spare with his daughter Su-an. He offers to take her on the train to see her mother in Busan. As the train departs, an abnormal virus spreads from a girl who is infected, and people start to transform to zombies. Will Seok-woo and Su-an make it out alive? TRAIN TO BUSAN is director YEON Sang-ho’s debut feature film, who is loved by Cannes with his edgy animation.

Posted on in Film News

‘Doctor Strange’s Scott Adkins To Kick People To Death In ‘John Wick 4’

Production on John Wick 4 is officially underway in Germany and another action star is expected to join the film’s lineup. According to Deadline, British martial arts actor Scott Adkins (The Expendables, Doctor Strange, Zero Dark Thirty) is in negotiations with director Chad Stahelski and Lionsgate to take an undisclosed role.

Adkins is best known for his impressive kicks and acrobatics. It’ll be interesting to see if he’ll be playing a villain working on behalf of the High Table.

Others joining Keanu Reeves in the sequel include Japanese action star Horiyuki Sanada as Watanabe, Hong Kong action star Donnie Yen playing Wick’s old pal, Atomic Blonde’s Bill Skarsgard, Stowaway’s Shamier Anderson, and the film’s female lead played by Japanese-British singer Rina Sawayama. While it’s unknown if we’ll see Asia Kate Dillion, Common or Halle Berry return, franchise stars Laurence Fishburne and Ian McShane are set to reprise their roles.

John Wick: Chapter 3 – Parabellum ended with John Wick surviving the fall from the roof of The Continental hotel after Ian McShane’s Winston shot him. Winston’s motivations weren’t entirely clear as he didn’t seem shocked that Mr. Wick got away and could be giving The High Table a false sense of security. Wick eventually lands at the feet of Laurence Fishburne’s Bowery King, who had his organization taken away from him by The High Table and convinces John to go to war with him against the mysterious group of criminal syndicate puppet masters. 

The Ronin recently confirmed cinematographer Dan Laustsen would be back behind the camera.

John Wick 4 will hit the big screen on May 27, 2022 and Lionsgate had confirmed plans to make John Wick: Chapter 5, but will no longer shoot back-to-back with the next installment. Franchise creator and architect, Derek Kolstad, stated that he won’t be involved in the next two films and suggested John Wick 5 could be the final pic.

SOURCE: DEADLINE

Posted on in Film News

Kevin Feige Seemingly Regrets Casting Tilda Swinton As The Ancient One In ‘Doctor Strange’ Instead of Modernizing The Asian Mentor

Marvel has a limited amount of Asian superheroes and villains, so, it was sort of a one-two gut punch when the studio decided to avoid casting Asian actors with The Mandarin in Iron Man 3 and The Ancient One in Doctor Strange.

Luckily, Marvel Studios used Shang-Chi & The Legend of The Ten Rings to modernize the Mandarin as the father of Simu Liu’s Asian-American superhero taking the place of Dr. Fu Manchu, an even bigger Asian stereotype villain. This reworking was thanks in part to the film’s writing team of Dave Callaham, Destin Daniel Cretton, and Andrew Lanham.

In retrospect, it sounds like studio head Kevin Feige is owning up to that mistake concerning The Ancient One while speaking with Men’s Health (spotted by The Playlist) he admitted that could have done better reworking the character instead of simply hiring a white actor to avoid a stereotype landmine.

FEIGE: “We thought we were being so smart, and so cutting-edge. We’re not going to do the cliché of the wizened, old, wise Asian man. But it was a wake-up call to say, ‘Well, wait a minute, is there any other way to figure it out? Is there any other way to both not fall into the cliché and cast an Asian actor?’ And the answer to that, of course, is yes.”

Shang-Chi having a mostly Asian cast and the hiring of Gemma Chan as Sersi in Chloe Zhao’s Eternals when the major role could have gone to a white actor are signs the studio is committed to incremental change to give audiences stronger Asian characters in their superhero blockbusters. Hiring more Asian creatives is just as important as hiring more Asian talent to star in these projects.

SOURCE: MEN’S HEALTH

Posted on in Film News

Mads Mikkelsen Joins The Cast of James Mangold’s ‘Indiana Jones 5’

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.

SOURCE: DEADLINE

Posted on in Television News

Benedict Cumberbatch Not Terribly Interested In Playing The Live-Action Version of ‘Star Wars’ Villain Thrawn – “That’s A Straight No From Me”

In the last season of The Mandalorian, we saw Rosario Dawson’s Ahsoka Tano on a mission to find Grand Admiral Thrawn, a Legends villain that become part of Star Wars canon after appearing in Star Wars: Rebels. This leading many to assume that a live-action incarnation is likely coming in the very near future.

A big fan-cast contender has been Sherlock and Doctor Strange actor Benedict Cumberbatch, who has played villains in the past such as Star Trek’s Khan in the J.J. Abrams movies, The Hobbit’s Smaug The Dragon, and Marvel Comics supervillain Dormammu in Doctor Strange.

While speaking with Collider, Benedict was asked about his interest in the hypothetical role of Thrawn but seems to be turned-off to the idea of being in a makeup chair. A grueling makeup job could easily be a reason someone might want to avoid a role like Thrawn, while others might jump at the chance.

CUMBERBATCH: “That’s a straight no from me, right now. There’s no way I want to be turned blue. I turned the air blue, very recently. No no, seriously, I have precious time with my children and I think sitting in a makeup chair and being painted blue, and the amount of time it would take to do that and then take it off at the end of the day might just… it’s not the right time in my life for that.”

Despite the tease in The Mandalorian, we still don’t know when and where Thrawn could end up appearing officially. Benedict Cumberbatch is currently shooting Sam Raimi’s Doctor Strange In The Multiverse of Madness and is also attached to appear in Spider-Man: No Way Home as well.

SOURCE: COLLIDER

Posted on in Film News

Benedict Cumberbatch Talks Working With Director Sam Raimi On ‘Doctor Strange In The Multiverse of Madness’

Filming on Marvel’s Doctor Strange In The Multiverse of Madness has been underway in the United Kingdom since late last year and Collider was able to speak with it’s star Benedict Cumberbatch about working with director Sam Raimi.

CUMBERBATCH: “Sam, amazing. He’s so collaborative. God, he comes with the baggage of an icon. He’s an incredible force, especially in this genre. But he’s so humble, he’s so nice, he’s so appreciative, you really wanna serve him. And boy, when he’s happy, you know you’ve done something right. He’s so good at getting you there and getting it there. It’s been a very, very collaborative process, this one. Our origin stories, I guess, and obviously the beasts that were the Avengers films to be a part of were a thrill, but you’re kind of just along for the ride. You do the best with what you’ve already got given to do. The second time around, there’s a bit more of, ‘So, what do you want to do, and how do we go about solving this?’ So it feels very creative. Scarily so, sometimes.”

We know that the sequel will include The Multiverse and WandaVision ended with Elizabeth Olsen’s Wanda Maximoff becoming the Scarlet Witch along with getting her hands on the Darkhold, a dark magic spell book in Marvel Comics that could lead to multiple evil characters coming into their dimension.

Newcomer Xochitl Gomez will be playing Young Avengers member America Chavez aka Miss America as confirmed by Marvel back in December.

Doctor Strange In The Multiverse of Madness will be released on Mach 25th, 2022.

SOURCE: COLLIDER

Posted on in Television News

Kevin Feige Says No Current Plans For Season 2 of ‘WandaVision’ – Other Disney+ Shows Could Get Multiple Seasons

While speaking during Disney+’s virtual panel at TCA (via Deadline), Marvel’s Kevin Feige says the studio doesn’t have plans to give WandaVision a second season, despite it’s huge popularity. The idea was for the show to directly lead into Doctor Strange In The Multiverse of Madness, currently filming in London. However, Kevin doesn’t rule-out making a second season at some point.

FEIGE: “I’ve been at Marvel too long to say a definite ‘No’ to anything as far as a second season of WandaVision.”

“The fun of the MCU is obviously all the crossover we can do between series, between films. So it will vary based on the story. Sometimes it will go into a season 2, sometimes it will go into a feature and back into a series…Sometimes, and yet to be announced, we’re thinking of and planning second seasons for some of the upcoming series.”

The LLC for the Loki series hinted to the series getting multiple seasons and we already know that Michael Waldron will be back for Season 2. Other Disney+ shows such as Ms. Marvel and She-Hulk feel like shows that could also get multiple seasons.

SOURCE: DEADLINE

Posted on in Film News

‘Spider-Man 3’: Kevin Feige Says Some Rumors “Couldn’t Be More Off The Mark”

Spider-Man 3 officially started shooting back in November under the working title of The November Project with director Jon Watts behind the camera and there have been waves of rumors concerning the project. Those rumors include it essentially becoming a Spider-Verse story, The Sinister Six looking like big villains of the film, the return of former Peter Parker actors, She-Hulk potentially being Peter’s lawyer, and most recently the big rumbling was Daredevil actor Charlie Cox returning. 

Most of these rumors have yet to be confirmed in official circles or even by Marvel. While speaking with Comic Book, Marvel Studios president Kevin Feige stated that some of the Spider-Man 3 speculations aren’t very accurate, given the volume of them it shouldn’t be a surprise. 

FEIGE: “The fun thing about online speculation when it comes to our stuff is how sometimes it couldn’t be more off the mark and sometimes it’s shockingly close, and that’s held true for the last few years. But saying which is which would take all the fun out of everything.”

“The biggest clue is the title of the second Doctor Strange movie. That’s the biggest clue of where the Multiverse of Madness is taking us and how we’re exploring that.”

We can only further speculate which rumors Feige is talking about here.

Some things are officially known about the upcoming sequel as Kevin confirming that Sam Raimi’s Doctor Strange In The Multiverse of Madness is connected to it and this was signaled when Benedict Cumberbatch reportedly joined the character lineup. Both films shooting at the same time likely isn’t a coincidence. 

We’re also going to see Jamie Foxx as Electro and Alfred Molina as Doctor Octopus stoking those Sinister Six expectations. 

Spider-Man 3 will eventually get an official title and has been set for release on December 17th, 2021. 

SOURCE: COMIC BOOK 

Posted on in Film News

‘Doctor Strange 2’: Production Designer Charles Wood Confirmed – Recently Worked On ‘Avengers: Endgame’ and ‘Black Widow’

Filming on Marvel’s Doctor Strange In The Multiverse of Madness (working title Stellar Vortex) has been underway at Longcross Studios in Surrey, England with Sam Raimi taking over the project after former director Scott Derrickson exited the film over “creative differences” with the studio.

The Ronin can now confirm that production designer Charles Wood is working on the Doctor Strange sequel. His credits are mostly Marvel Studios films such as the original Doctor Strange, Avengers: Age of Ultron, Thor: The Dark World, Guardians of The Galaxy, Avengers: Infinity War, Avengers: Endgame, and most recently with Scarlet Johansson’s Black Widow.

We previously reported that cinematographer John Mathieson (X-Men: First Class, Logan) is on the production team too.

The cast so far consists of Benedict Cumberbatch as Doctor Stephen Strange, Elizabeth Olsen as Wanda Maximoff aka Scarlet Witch, Benedict Wong as Wong, Chiwetel Ejiofor as Baron Mordo, and newcomer Xochitl Gomez.

It’s script was penned by Jade Halley Bartlett and Loki’s Michael Waldron.

As the title would suggest the film will explore the Multiverse with expected connections to WandaVision, Loki, and possibly even Spider-Man 3.

Disney has given Doctor Strange In The Multiverse of Madness a tentative release date of March 25th, 2022.

Posted on in Film News

‘Spider-Man 3’ Officially Sees Return of Composer Michael Giacchino

Spider-Man 3 will officially see it’s score composed by Michael Giacchino!

The composer announced his return on his Twitter account yesterday and used the first official set photo that had been previously shared by franchise star Tom Holland. Michael will now secure scoring an entire Spider-Man trilogy.

We are hearing that there is an expectation that Giacchino will be back for Doctor Strange In The Multiverse of Madness after tackling the first film’s score. Both films are currently in production with Spider-Man 3 shooting in Atlanta under the working title The November Project and Doctor Strange 2 filming at Longcross Studios in Surrey, England.

Jon Watts is directing a cast that includes Tom Holland, Benedict Cumberbatch, Jamie Foxx, Zendaya, Jacob Batalon, Marisa Tomei, Tony Revolori, Angourie Rice, Jon Favreau, and J.K. Simmons.

There have been rumblings that we could learn the film’s title in the coming weeks/months. We do know the film is will follow the events of Spider-Man: Far From Home where Peter Parker is outed publicly by J. Jonah Jameson as Spider-Man along with being framed for the murder of Quentin Beck aka Mysterio. The extent of those consequences or Parker going on the run or being captured are currently a mystery.

Questions remain about the inclusion of Jamie Foxx’s Electro and if this will become an MCU incarnation of the Spidey villain rather than a resurrection of the same character from Amazing Spider-Man 2 via The Multiverse. J.K. Simmons’ reprisal of J. Jonah Jameson is clearly a new soft-reboot of the character for the franchise and is expected to cross into the other Sony/Marvel films like Morbius. The Jared Leto film has already had it’s connection to Spider-Man: Homecoming outed with it’s trailer including Michael Keaton’s Vulture.

The deal between Marvel Studios and Sony Pictures expires after one more Marvel film that most likely will be the Doctor Strange sequel given that Benedict is confirmed to appear in Spider-Man and could easily lead to Peter Parker showing up in Doctor Strange’s “solo” film as these installments are quickly become quasi Avengers movies because of the team-up nature of them.

I have to assume that Disney and Sony will eventually come back to the negotiating table to work together on more movies as it is an increasingly beneficial situation for both companies.

Olivia Wilde is reportedly directing a Spider-Woman film but it remains to be seen if Kevin Feige/Marvel Studios will be involved with that project. It’s been assumed they will be, as Marvel has access to Jessica Drew the alter ego that is traditionally known as Spider-Woman. The heroine debuting outside the Spider-Man comics and happens to be an agent of S.W.O.R.D. that is firmly set within the MCU via WandaVision along with other upcoming projects.

Sony Pictures has given Spider-Man 3 a release date of December 17th, 2021.

SOURCE: MICHAEL GIACCHINO