Tag: Fantastic Beasts 3

Posted on in Film News

WarnerMedia CEO Jason Kilar Suggests Blockbusters Will Return Exclusively To Theaters In 2022 Before Landing On HBO Max

As Godzilla Vs. Kong ended up having a better than expected international and domestic debut at the box office, it sounds like WarnerMedia won’t be carrying over the day-and-date model into 2022 at the same level.

WarnerMedia CEO Jason Kilar spoke with Vox on their podcast Recode Media, revealing that 2022 is expected to see blockbusters return to more traditional release windows with a theatrical run and landing on HBO Max later on.

KILAR: “I think it’s very fair to say that a big, you know, let’s say a big DC movie … it’s very fair to say that that would go exclusively to theaters first and then go to somewhere like an HBO Max after it’s in theaters.”

Their 2022 lineup includes The Batman on March 4, Fantastic Beasts 3 on July 15, Black Adam on July 29, The Flash on November 4, and Aquaman 2 on December 16.

However, only specifically mentioning the bigger movies might mean that movies like Judas & The Black Messiah won’t get the same theatrical exclusivity as the the massive blockbusters that would still need a large box office return to turn a profit.

This comes after AT&T CEO John Stankey had been quoted last year suggesting the day-and-day model would be something they’d considering continuing beyond the pandemic as the standard release window, something that had been controversial at the time.

We still don’t know if a film like Legendary’s Dune will even land on HBO Max later this year, as a deal has yet to be made official and director Denis Villeneuve has argued that it could seriously damage the sci-fi films’ franchise chances. It’s worth noting that Dune is only part one of a two-part story as they’ve split the first Dune book into two planned films, the 2021 release will end on a cliffhanger. Denis hasn’t even shot the second film and could screw-up Legendary’s plans for future installments (there are six original novels from author Frank Herbert).

SOURCE: VOX

Posted on in Film News

‘Fantastic Beasts 3’ Pauses Production Due To Positive COVID-19 Test

Early this morning, it was announced by Warner Bros. via The Hollywood Reporter that they’ve paused filming on Fantastic Beasts 3 due to COVID-19, production was taking place at Warner Bros. Studios Leavesden in Watford, England. An undisclosed person working on the film has tested positive (likely because of the extra contagiousness of the UK variant) and are halting production for the time being. Their timeline for the small shutdown wasn’t given but we’ve seen similar shoots in the UK pause for two weeks (14-days) after positive tests.

“A team member from Fantastic Beasts 3 has tested positive for COVID-19,” Warner Bros. told The Hollywood Reporter in a statement, without confirming the team member’s identity. “The diagnosis was confirmed as a result of required and ongoing testing that all production employees receive, and the team member is currently in isolation. Out of an abundance of caution, Fantastic Beasts 3 paused production and will be back up in accordance with safety guidelines.”

Using the term “team member” is likely to prevent people from knowing if the person in question is part of the cast or on the crew.

The UK government has decided that while the new contagious strain of the virus is dangerous it’s apparently still a good idea to keep having large groups of people working on film and television sets. I wouldn’t be terribly shocked if we end up seeing more of these pauses in the coming months and into the summer.

Production on Fantastic Beasts 3 started in September after the pandemic delayed it’s early 2020 shoot, they also replaced Johnny Depp with Mads Mikkelsen as the franchise’s villain, Gallert Grindelwald. Last year, during the shoot for The Batman, Robert Pattinson tested positive for COVID-19 leading to that production being paused until it was safe for the actor to return to work. Jurassic World: Dominion also had to pause filming as well.

Two more Fantastic Beasts sequels are in development stages.

The studio recently bumped the release date to July 15th, 2022 allowing them some wiggle-room for future production delays like this.

SOURCE: THE HOLLYWOOD REPORTER

Posted on in Television News

Live-Action ‘Harry Potter’ Series In Early Development At HBO Max

The Hollywood Reporter has revealed that WarnerMedia is in early development on a Harry Potter/Potterverse series for HBO Max. Plot details aren’t mentioned, where it will take place in the franchise timeline, characters it will focus on or who will work on the series.

Essentially, it sounds like the series hasn’t exactly come together just yet and there is a chance it doesn’t even happen if these “exploratory meetings” don’t go anywhere.

A Harry Potter live-action TV series is in early development at HBO Max. Sources tell The Hollywood Reporter that executives at the WarnerMedia-backed streamer have engaged in multiple conversations with potential writers exploring various ideas that would bring the beloved property to television. Sources say broad ideas have been discussed as part of the early-stage exploratory meetings.

Filming is currently underway on Fantastic Beasts 3 in Watford, England, as the studio replaced Johnny Depp with Mads Mikkelsen for the role of villain Gellert Grindelwald. There are also two more Fantastic Beasts sequels also in the works at the studio.

It would be interesting if they’ll attempt another prequel series potentially set even before Fantastic Beasts or will attempt something more contemporary with new characters.

HBO Max has been looking to mine a bunch of film spinoff series including James Gunn’s Peacemaker, The Batman series focusing on Gotham PD, Dune: The Sisterhood, Overlook, and heap of other DC Comics projects.

We’ll keep our fingers crossed they’ll eventually announce other off-shoot shows such as one set in Godzilla vs. Kong‘s Monsterverse or taking place in the worlds of The Matrix and Mad Max. I’d personally would love to see a Matrix origin series that takes place during the war between humans and the machines.

It’s unknown how much involvement that J.K. Rowling will have on the untitled series, considering the franchise creator has been doubling-down on multiple anti-trans comments and endorsements. Making Rowling increasingly toxic to have attached to future projects.

SOURCE: THE HOLLYWOOD REPORTER

Posted on in Film News

Mads Mikkelsen Officially Playing Franchise Villain Grindelwald In ‘Fantastic Beasts 3’ and Beyond

In an official press release from Warner Bros., they have confirmed that Danish actor Mads Mikkelsen (Rogue One: A Star Wars Story, Casino Royale, Hannibal, Doctor Strange) has replaced Johnny Depp as the Fantastic Beasts franchise villain Gellert Grindelwald. Depp announced his forced resignation of the role on social media and this led to a Deadline report that placed Mads as director David Yates’ top contender to fill the part.

Filming is already underway on Fantastic Beasts 3 at Warner Bros. Studios Leavesden in Watford, England.

He joins fellow cast members Eddie Redmayne, Katherine Waterston, Dan Fogler, Alison Sudol, Ezra Miller, Callum Turner, William Nadylam, Poppy Corby-Tuech, Jessica Williams, Victoria Yeates, and Jude Law.

The studio is also developing Fantastic Beasts 4 and Fantastic Beasts 5. We have to assume that Mikkelsen will be playing the role in those films as well.

Fantastic Beasts 3 will be released on July 15th, 2022.

SOURCE: WARNER BROS.

Posted on in Film News

‘Doctor Strange’ Actor Mads Mikkelsen In Talks To Replace Johnny Depp As The Villain of ‘Fantastic Beasts 3’

Deadline reports that Danish actor Mads Mikkelsen (Doctor Strange, Casino Royale) in talks with Warner Bros. to take the role of Grindelwald in Fantastic Beasts 3, replacing Johnny Depp. Mads being director David Yate’s choice to take the role.

Put Mads Mikkelsen atop the list of actors being considered to replace Johnny Depp in the David Yates-directed Fantastic Beast 3, the third installment of the Harry Potter spinoff based on the JK Rowling fantasy franchise. Sources said he is Yates’ choice to play Grindelwald and he is in early talks.

Mikkelsen is no stranger to playing villains including the iconic Hannibal Lecter in the series Hannibal and feels like an organic casting choice for The Potterverse. It’ll be interesting to see if this version of the villain would be taking visual cues from Depp’s incarnation or if they’ll try something a bit different.

Johnny Depp announced his forced exit from the franchise via Instagram likely connected to the ruling against him in his libel case against The Sun. However, despite only shooting a single scene will be reportedly payed $10 million by the studio as part of his pay or play deal.

Fantastic Beasts 3 is currently filming in London and is expected to be released on July 15th, 2022.

SOURCE: DEADLINE

Posted on in Film News

‘Fantastic Beasts 3’ To Release A Week After ‘Captain Marvel 2’ On July 15th, 2022

Today, Warner Bros. announced that their Potterverse film Fantastic Beasts 3 would be getting a new summer release date of July 15th, 2022. The sequel will be competing directly with Marvel Studios’ Captain Marvel 2 in it’s second weekend of release.

It remains to be seen if Captain Marvel 2 keeps it’s July 8th, 2022 spot or if Warner Bros. moves Fantastic Beasts 3 again. The film’s previous release date was November 12th, 2021.

This comes after filming has already begun in England despite the announcement that Johnny Depp has officially exited the franchise as the main villain. The actor released a statement on his Instagram account last week that he was being forced to give up the role upon request of the studio.

There is an expectation that Warner Bros. will recast the Grindelwald role but has yet to make any formal announcements on Depp’s replacement.

SOURCE: WARNER BROS.

Posted on in Film News

Johnny Depp Officially Resigns Grindelwald Role In ‘Fantastic Beasts 3’ – WB Will Recast

Johnny Depp won’t be in Fantastic Beasts 3 after all, the actor took to his Instagram account to make a public statement about the studio asking him to resign the role of villain Gellert Grindelwald.

You can read Johnny’s post below.

The studio is said to be looking to recast the role as filming has been underway at Warner Bros. Studios Leavesden in Watford, England making it a little difficult to pivot to a new villain given how Grindelwald was being lined-up to be a baddie in the next three films.

Colin Farrell had played a version in the first installment before morphing into Johnny Depp and we’ll keep our fingers crossed they’ll go back to him, given how much hype the Irish actor is getting for playing The Penguin in The Batman with heavy special effects makeup.

It feels like Warner Bros. was waiting on the results of Johnny Depp’s libel court case against The Sun (concerning articles calling him a “wife beater”) before making any concrete calls, Depp had recently lost that trial and alludes in his statement to that being a reason for the exit.

There has also been some behind the scenes chatter that Depp will also be removed from Disney’s Pirates of The Caribbean franchise as well, despite two separate projects in the works from the studio.

Warner Bros. has also had to deal with multiple anti-trans comments from Fantastic Beasts franchise screenwriter and Harry Potter author/creator J.K. Rowling, the writer sticking to guns and seemingly inflaming upset fans by doubling-down on that transphobia.

Rowling and director David Yates had previously stood by Depp.

SOURCE: JOHNNY DEPP

Posted on in Film News

UK Heading Into Second National Lockdown This Week – Will Not Impact Film Productions For The Moment

The British government has announced via Prime Minister Boris Johnson’s national address over the weekend that after weeks of dire COVID-19 predictions for the region they’re finally moving back into a second national lockdown starting on November 5th and lifting it on December 2nd (could be extended if necessary).

JOHNSON: “Unless we act, we could see deaths in this country running at several thousand a day”

For comparison, UK COVID-19 cases have topped 1,000,000 including 47,717 deaths while the United States still hasn’t instituted a national lockdown with 9,280,000 million cases and over 231,000 COVID-19 deaths.

While dine-in bars/restaurants (can do takeout), cinemas, and other non-essentially businesses are closing film productions are expected to chug along like nothing is happening. I’m curious how long that will last if more productions publicly deal with new positive cases after both Jurassic World: Dominion and The Batman dealt with their own recently, the latter seeing star Robert Pattinson test positive for COVID-19.

This was later backed-up by Oliver Dowden, the government’s Culture Secretary on Twitter.

Things like schools, universities, construction sites and manufacturing businesses will stay open. However, that could change if they don’t see a decrease in numbers which might also lead to stricter measures and might lead to everything non-essentially getting closed including film shoots (filming in a bubble or not).

As previously stated, The Batman and Jurassic World: Dominion are filming in the United Kingdom alongside Fantastic Beasts 3. There is an expectation that the Moon Knight series, Ant-Man 3, Captain Marvel 2, and The Flash are prepping to shoot as well in the new year. Doctor Strange In The Multiverse of Madness was supposed to film at Longcross Studios in Surrey, England, however, trades have suggested that lead actor Benedict Cumberbatch is set to shoot his scenes in Atlanta for Spider-Man 3 before filming starts on the Strange sequel.

A lot can happen in a month and it doesn’t seem they’re going all-in with this new lockdown, which might return to bite them in the ass as did the slow response to rising new cases and delayed second lockdown when the government knew months ago that this was only getting worse in the UK. I’m worried these half-steps just won’t be enough and they’ll essentially announce a more rigorous lockdown in a couple weeks or in December, extending it throughout the holidays.

Posted on in Film News

Second Round of Shutdowns In The UK and Elsewhere Could Have A Huge Impact On Hollywood’s Recovery

Movie theaters around the globe are trying to recover from the last couple of months but it looks like they could be closing again in multiple countries sooner than expected. The United Kingdom and Canada are currently seeing spikes of new cases of Coronavirus that has led to new restrictions along with promises from governments that a second national shutdown isn’t off the table if things don’t improve. 

New cases in the United Kingdom could hit as high as 50,000 per day by mid-October, which would be more than the United States is currently seeing as September 20th numbers were 34,586. The UK’s numbers on Monday were reportedly 4,368, a steady increase going the wrong way as the numbers have been doubling every seven days. The idea is to prevent 200+ deaths per day. 

Spain has already instituted restrictions on Madrid just months after European countries eased restrictions back in July. The continent is now seeing rises just like the UK with Spain seeing 31, 428 new cases since Friday. 

France also hit 13,000 new cases on Saturday and 10,569 on Sunday. 

Not the direction you want to see when there are predictions of a massive second wave in the fall and winter. 

The film industry has seemingly shrugged off the lackluster domestic returns thinking that international box office numbers will keep studios afloat. However, if places like the UK, Europe, and Canada shut down theaters again a massive movie like No Time To Die might lose a lot of money and end up hurting Hollywood’s recovery. 

The United Kingdom is also trying bounce-back concerning film production with large studio films such as The Batman, Fantastic Beasts 3, and Mission: Impossible 7-8 said to be currently filming. A shutdown could see those shoots placed on pause again if the government suddenly decides it’s not a good idea while the country is seeing significant COVID-19 spikes. Robert Pattinson had reportedly tested positive for Coronavirus despite the strict safety precautions promoted ahead of the production resuming in London. 

Other projects expected to shoot in the United Kingdom soon include Doctor Strange In The Multiverse of Madness (Longcross Studios), Ant-Man 3 (Pinewood Studios UK), The Flash (Warner Bros. Studios Leavesden), and Marvel’s Moon Knight series. Some of these shoots could see hiccups in the pre-production/prep stages if not massive filming delays if there is a prolonged shutdown. 

Dwayne Johnson and his family tested positive for COVID-19, he’s already back on the set of Netflix’s Red Notice in Atlanta, Georgia. Filming on The Falcon & The Winter Soldier has also resumed in Atlanta as well with expectations that Loki and other shows will begin there soon. 

It seems extremely irresponsible on the part of studios to chug along like nothing is wrong given that the state of Georgia with a population of 3.7 million has more new cases of COVID-19 than the entire country of Canada that has a population of 37.4 million, the latter on the cusp of greenlighting a second shutdown that could see productions in Toronto, Montreal, and even Vancouver stop entirely again. Not to mention, pulling down theater ticket sales as Canadian box office dollars are included in the domestic cumes.  

We’ll have to see the numbers can be turned around without national shutdowns but it doesn’t seem like it can be avoided at this point. 

Posted on in Film News

Disney Enlists Jude Law To Play Captain Hook In ‘Peter & Wendy’

Yesterday, The Ronin was able to independently confirm that Peter & Wendy director David Lowery would be reuniting with Pete’s Dragon cinematographer Bojan Bazelli (Snake Eyes, The Ring, The Lone Ranger, Spectral) on the live-action version of the classic Peter Pan tale for Disney.

Now, Variety reports that they’ve found their Captain Hook with British actor Jude Law and is currently in talks with the studio. He had recently worked with Disney playing the villain of their cosmic MCU film Captain Marvel.

Jude’s credits include The Talented Mr. Ripley, Enemy At The Gates, Sherlock Holmes, Road To Perdition, Gattaca, Cold Mountain, and his film Contagion recently got a resurgence of popularity on various streaming platforms due to the Coronavirus pandemic.

The outlet also insists that Peter & Wendy is still aiming for a theatrical release and won’t be dumped on their streaming service Disney+.

I’m slightly curious if Jude takes the role could it possibly conflict with the production of Fantastic Beasts 3. Law plays a younger version of Dumbledore in those films. Considering the issues that franchise currently has with the problematic public images of Johnny Depp, Ezra Miller, and creator/screenwriter J.K. Rowling I wouldn’t be shocked if we started to see actors decline the project.

The news would suggest that Warner Bros. isn’t moving on Sherlock Holmes 3 anytime soon as well.

Filming was originally set to begin last month under the working title Bonfire and complete by October in Vancouver, but there are signs that the film and television industry might not resume until after the first week in September.

Lowery’s latest film The Green Knight, saw it’s theatrical release date postponed because of the pandemic and a new date has yet to be announced.

SOURCE: VARIETY