After previously landing cast members such as Oscar-winner Halle Berry (John Wick: Chapter 3) and Josh Gad, The Hollywood Reporter has exclusively revealed that Patrick Wilson (Aquaman, Watchmen, The Conjuring) and Christopher Plummer (All The Money In The World) has also taken roles in Roland Emmerich’s upcoming science-fiction disaster film Moonfall.
Moonfall sees its plot go into action when the moon is knocked from its orbit by a mysterious force and is on a collision course with Earth. With just weeks to go before impact, a ragtag team is sent on a seemingly impossible mission to land on the lunar surface and save humanity.
They also add some information on their characters.
Wilson will play a disgraced former NASA astronaut whose last mission, which ended in tragedy, holds a clue about the impending catastrophe. Plummer will play his teenage son.
Moonfall is also reportedly eyeing a fall production start in Montreal.
We’ve learned that they have added production designer Kirk M. Petruccelli (Blade, The Incredible Hulk, Ghost Rider), who previously worked with Roland on his WWII film Midway.
Deadline is reporting that actor Jake Gyllenhaal and director Gustav Möller (The Guilty) are putting a package together for a new thriller with BOOM! Studios producing. The script written by Patrick Ness (A Monster Calls) is an adaptation of the original graphic novel from Ollie Masters. It’s being pitched as being “Prisoners meets Running On Empty”.
Here is a synopsis for the graphic novel.
SNOW BLIND – For high school student Teddy, life in a sleepy suburb in Alaska turns upside down when he innocently posts a photo of his dad online, only to learn he and his family are in the Witness Protection Program. A man seeking revenge invades their town, and soon FBI agents arrive too. But what if his parent’s reasons for going into the program aren’t as innocent as they say?
They are expecting a deal to be announced soon.
BOOM! Studios had recently set an expansive deal with Netflix for multiple films and television projects based on their comic book properties, so I wouldn’t be shocked if Snow Blind ended up landing on the streaming service.
Jake has been involved with some very interesting thrillers over his career with David Fincher’s Zodiac, Denis Villeneuve’s Prisoners, and Dan Gilroy’s Nightcrawler. He certainly fits well within that genre and we’ll be excited to see what the final results of the adaptation.
The Evil Dead franchise is officially getting another movie!
Bruce Campbell has just revealed to Empire that Evil Dead Now, the fourth Evil Dead film, is already in the works with Lee Cronin (The Hole In The Ground) writing and directing the horror-comedy.
CAMPBELL: “We’re just getting off the phone with Lee Cronin, who is writing and directing the next Evil Dead. It’s called Evil Dead Now. Sam handpicked Lee – he did a cool movie called The Hole In The Ground. We’re going to get that sucker out as soon as practical.”
However, Bruce says that Ash isn’t going to be in the film and seemingly confirms Evil Dead Now will have a female protagonist instead.
CAMPBELL: “From this point forward, they kind of have to stand on their own. Which is fine. And liberating. You could have different heroes, different heroines in this case. This one is gonna be a little more dynamic. We just want to keep the series current. And the mantra, really, is that our heroes and heroines are just regular people. That’s what we’re going to continue.”
It is unclear if this means that Jane Levy will be reprising her role of Mia from the reboot or if they’ll be pursuing a new actress attempting a second reboot.
Also, when they plan on shooting it.
THE HOLE IN THE GROUND – One night, Sarah’s young son disappears into the woods behind their rural home. When he returns, he looks the same, but his behavior grows increasingly disturbing. Sarah begins to believe that the boy who returned may not be her son at all.
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.
Simon Kinberg would absolutely direct an X-Men film for Marvel, if the opportunity came up. "I've dedicated a lot of my life to Logan and Deadpool and the X-Men and would love to do a fresh take." #XMen#DaysofFuturePast#WFHTheaterpic.twitter.com/Le0HwO8Rmg
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.
One of the many interesting feature film projects on the cusp of shooting before the Coronavirus pandemic included the new crime flick Kill Switch from Logan Lucky director Steven Soderbergh.
A 1950s crime drama set in Detroit about a trio of criminals who carry out a home invasion, only to wonder if they’ve been double-crossed when the job goes sideways.
It was previously revealed back in March that Jon Hamm was in talks to replace Josh Brolin in a leading role alongside Don Cheadle and Sebastian Stan.
The filmmaker revealed during a video interview with Flaviar that they were two weeks away from the production start in Detroit, Michigan before the lockdown. He confirms a bulk of actors in the film including new additions such as Benicio Del Toro, George Clooney, Ray Liotta, Amy Semietz, and Frankie Shaw.
SODERBERG: “Kill Switch, we were two weeks from shooting. Look, I want to get back there, this was a movie I had been working on for a long time. It’s a great script, we had a great cast together, it’s a period crime film set in 1955.”
When asked who would be starring in Kill Switch, Steven responded with the following. Adding they’re hopeful they’re eager to resume production as soon as it’s safe to.
SODERBERG: “It was written for Don Cheadle…Benicio Del Toro, Sebastian Stan, Jon Hamm, Ray Liotta, George Clooney, Amy Seimetz, Frankie Shaw…”
Steven and Steven have previously worked together on films such as Out of Sight, Solaris, Ocean’s 11, Ocean’s 12, Ocean’s 13, and The Good German.
Benicio Del Toro won his Best Supporting Actor Oscar for his work in Soderbergh’s Traffic and their reunion is extremely exciting.
There has been some speculation from Collider that Kill Switch could land on HBO Max.
THE RONIN 