Director Taika Waititi (“Thor: Ragnarok,” “Thor: Love & Thunder”) had recently bowed out of the running to tackle a hypothetical “Thor 5” while stating that franchise star Chris Hemsworth was “talking to” Marvel about the next installment. However, Marvel and Disney have yet to officially announce plans for “Thor 5.” As soon as it was clear that Waititi wasn’t returning, suddenly an online rumor pegged Gareth Edwards (“Rogue One,” “Godzilla,” “The Creator”) as a potential contender. Well, that might not actually be the case.
The filmmaker has seemingly debunked this rumbling while appearing on Bro Bible’s Post Credit Podcast (via ThePlaylist). He was aware of the rumor making the rounds on the internet while suggesting it wasn’t real but it still amused him and clarified he’s more interested in “pursuing original sci-fi” instead of any other franchise projects.
“I saw those rumors too. I saw it and I jokingly sent it to my girlfriend. I just texted her the link and said, ‘I didn’t want you to find out this way.’ I’ve never heard anything about it. It’s totally… the internet is an incredible place,” said Edwards.
He added, “I love those movies. I love Marvel, a lot of my friends work on Marvel films. I’m very excited about the future of cinema, personally. I feel like everything we did differently on ‘The Creator’ is probably the strongest part of the film. And I just want to push that even further, so having the freedom and being able to take risks, being allowed to fail. I think that’s all an important part of any creativity.”
Pouring more cold water on the potential of him jumping toward the MCU.
“I love all the other movies and franchises, I go to see them. I have most of them on my DVD/Blu-ray shelf. But I really want to keep pursuing original sci-fi. Was that a very politically correct answer? I never say never. In the right circumstances, absolutely.”
Edwards never made much sense given his infamous experience with Disney/Lucasfilm making “Rogue One: A Star Wars Story” (the studio brought in Tony Gilroy to rewrite/reshoot scenes) and focusing his energy these days on original ideas with “The Creator,” which could lead to more budget-conscious projects that allow him to have way more creative freedom than being a hired-gun on an existing franchise.
We still don’t even know if “Thor 5” is going to happen and will have to wait for Kevin Feige to share an update. Given that, even a hint of a sequel hasn’t come from Marvel. Then again, there are plenty of unused characters and Norse mythology for the studio to mine for a fifth installment such as the Midgard Serpent, The Einherjar (dead warriors waiting to fight in Ragnarok), the Light Elves in the realm of Alfheim, Ulik of the Rock Trolls, and Balder The Brave.
Godzilla and Rogue One: A Star Wars Story director Gareth Edwards is returning the science fiction genre with his new film True Love that has a fantastic cast that consists of John David Washington (Tenet, Beckett), Gemma Chan (Crazy Rich Asians, Captain Marvel, Eternals), Benedict Wong (Sunshine, Prometheus, Doctor Strange 1-2, Annihilation, Shang-Chi), and Danny McBride (Alien: Covenant, Pineapple Express, Tropic Thunder, Your Highness).
The Ronin has been able to confirm that True Love’s production will spend time in Vietnam, which has been used previously as a location for projects such as The Impossible, Kong: Skull Island, and Spike Lee’s Da 5 Bloods. There is also the possibly that other Southeast Asian countries such as Thailand could also be used.
Details on the project are scarce but is said to be set in a near-future setting, the title suggests a romance angle as well.
Gareth Edwards famously helmed Lucasfilm’s Rogue One: A Star Wars Story before the studio brought-on Tony Gilroy to handle massive reshoots. Gilroy returned to the Star Wars universe to showrun the Disney+ series Andor starring Diego Luna, a prequel to Rogue One.
GODZILLA – Ford Brody (Aaron Taylor-Johnson), a Navy bomb expert, has just reunited with his family in San Francisco when he is forced to go to Japan to help his estranged father, Joe (Bryan Cranston). Soon, both men are swept up in an escalating crisis when Godzilla, King of the Monsters, arises from the sea to combat malevolent adversaries that threaten the survival of humanity. The creatures leave colossal destruction in their wake, as they make their way toward their final battleground: San Francisco.
After reports of Apple inquiring a potential purchase of A24 and Amazon picking up MGM Studios for a hefty $8.45 billion, it looks like another major production studio might end up on the auction block. Variety is reporting that Legendary Entertainment could be looking to be sold or merge with another company,. This comes after Bloomberg revealed that Legendary was working with investment bank LionTree LLC to develop possible deals.
Any deal would likely be for less than than the $3.5 billion that Dalian Wanda paid to acquire Legendary in 2016 from founder Thomas Tull, because that pact included the assumption of substantial debt.
Legendary is behind recent releases such as Godzilla vs. Kong and the upcoming sci-fi epic Dune from director Denis Villeneuve. In the past, the company has had distribution deals with Universal Pictures and Warner Bros., however, there have been tension with the partnering companies over the years. There were multiple reports that Legendary was on the cusp of suing WarnerMedia over blocking a deal to offload Godzilla vs. Kong at Netflix for around $200 million. Instead, WarnerMedia with little notice announced plans to add Godzilla vs. Kong and Dune to their big day-and-date slate, that would the two pricey films dropped on HBO Max at the same time as theaters.
A sale could essentially dissolve distribution deals, meaning that future Dune and Monsterverse (pending Toho extending their rights deal) franchise installments could find a new home depending if there is a sale or merger on the horizon. That is unless WarnerMedia believes they want to acquire Legendary.
There a bunch of projects still in development including Dune: Part Two and a handful of Monsterverse movies such as the rumored Son of Kong from director Adam Wingard. It remains to be seen what this could mean for those films and other various things being worked on behind the scenes.
The Ronin can confirm that cinematographer Seamus McGarvey has joined the production of Wonka, the prequel film about Willy Wonka that will be played by Timothee Chalamet (Dune). McGarvey is best known for his work on Marvel’s The Avengers, Gareth Edwards’ Godzilla reboot, Atonement, and Bad Times At The El Royale.
Willy Wonky had been previously played by Gene Wilder and Johnny Depp.
Paul King, the director of the first two Paddington movies, is at the helm with production taking place at Warner Bros. Studios Leavesden in Watford, England.The facility in Watford is the home base of the Potterverse franchise and has been one of the key places that the modern era of DC Comics movies are shot as The Batman, The Flash, and Aquaman & The Lost Kingdom have recently used their stages.
Paul King and Simon Farnaby co-wrote the latest incarnation of the script, the prequel film is said to include song and dance numbers, just like the last two movies. King had been attached to Disney’s live-action Pinocchio movie before exiting to focus on Wonka and was replaced with Robert Zemeckis (Back To The Future 1-3)
Christopher Nolan’s longtime production designer Nathan Crowley (Tenet, Inception, The Dark Knight, John Carter, Interstellar) is also confirmed for the film and had been previously announced.
The production team being assembled would suggest the project might be bigger than people might have originally imagined. An official release date for Wonka hasn’t been announced by Warner Bros., but there is an expectation it will be released sometime in 2023.
Below are some examples of Seamus McGarvey’s work.
WILLY WONKA & THE CHOCOLATE FACTORY – A sweet boy from a poor family dreams of finding one of five golden tickets hidden inside chocolate bar wrappers which will admit him to the eccentric and reclusive Willy Wonka’s magical factory. One after another, tickets are discovered by ghastly children – but will the lad find the last remaining one and have all his dreams come true?
Friday marked the 25th anniversary of German director Roland Emmerich‘s alien invasion film “Independence Day,” but it wasn’t the only big sci-fi spectacle he had been working on for 20th Century Fox.
In the wake of David Fincher‘s “Alien 3,” it felt like 20th Century Fox was over the “Alien” franchise, and Sigourney Weaver leading it. Ellen Ripley had killed herself at the end of the film making subsequent sequels seemingly moot after their lead character’s death and flopping at the box office. Thinking they were done with the Ripley saga, between “Alien 3” and “Alien Resurrection” the studio tried to develop an early incarnation of an “Alien vs. Predator” movie years before the Paul W.S. Anderson version.
A rumor appeared in 1992 (same year that “Universal Soldier” is released) that Emmerich was going to direct an “AVP” film based on the popular Dark Horse Comics run, this wasn’t hard to imagine because 1990’s “Predator 2” had given audiences a nod to the comic book crossover as they added a xenomorph skull on a wall of trophies in the predator ship at the end of the film. In 1994, “Stargate” is released and that success leads to another original humans vs. aliens project with the 1996 box office juggernaut “Independence Day,” Toho and TriStar Pictures feel confident enough to allow Roland Emmerich to direct a modern “Godzilla” reboot using CGI special effects.
In 1996, “Alien Resurrection” begins shooting in Los Angeles with French director Jean-Pierre Jeunet overseeing the sequel and Ellen Ripley is brought back via the wonders of cloning (originally going to be a clone of Newt), thanks “Jurassic Park.” The film ends with the survivors landing in Paris and leaves the door open for a fifth installment.
In the November 1997 issue of Starlog Magazine, screenwriter Dean Devlin (“Stargate,” “Independence Day,” “Godzilla“) was interviewed about his Fox Television series “The Visitor” and asked about the status with “Alien vs. Predator” he replied, “For the time being, it’s dead. We wanted to do it if they had not just decided to do ‘Alien Resurrection,’ and now we’re all just waiting around to see how that film does. If it really works, the studio is going to want to continue the franchise with just the alien. If that were to happen, then we won’t be involved at all.”
This interview taking place before “Alien Resurrection”s late November release and while the sequel made slightly more than “Alien 3,” it still didn’t meet studio expectations. The following year, Roland and Dean released their critical disaster “Godzilla,” which was ridiculed and likely could have been a reason why 20th Century Fox ultimately didn’t want them handling a crossover to their two lucrative sci-fi franchises.
Speaking of “Predator 2,” Arnold Schwarzenegger was originally going to return as Dutch in the sequel before the role was reworked as Peter Keyes for actor Gary Busey and there has been a longstanding rumor that Arnold was going to star in this “AVP” movie, there might be something behind that.
In 1991, before Emmerich’s “Universal Soldier” starring Jean-Claude Van Damme was released in 1992, Schwarzenegger visited the film’s set, and we have a bunch of photos that documented that visit. There is a possibility that Arnold was there to get a read on Roland Emmerich and speak to Jean-Claude Van Damme about his experience working with him.
JCVD’s star was rising in the 1990s and had played the first incarnation of the alien hunter in “Predator” before leaving during Stan Winston‘s redesign of the creature (with some help from James Cameron) to lead his action film “Bloodsport” instead of being hidden behind a predator costume.
Producers had been trying to lure him back to the “Predator” franchise every chance they got and a crossover with a huge budget along with the right director could be attractive enough for Arnold to get involved. A reminder, the studio was looking to move past Weaver since Ripley was dead and Schwarzenegger was hot as a pistol at the box office, Dutch was theoretically still alive and every “Predator” sequel since there have been attempts to have him appear.
“Something similar to what we did with Aliens. A bunch of great characters, and of course Sigourney [Weaver]. I’ve even discussed the possibility of putting him [Arnold Schwarzenegger] into the Alien movie,” Cameron told the BBC in 2003 about the possibility of adding Schwarzenegger to his “Alien 5.”
Paul W.S. Anderson begins shooting “Alien vs. Predator” in Prague at the end of 2003 and essentially kills “Alien 5,” finally ending the Ellen Ripley saga for good.
James Cameron pivots to “Avatar” and the film still holds the global box office record thanks to a re-release with four sequels on the horizon.
The original version of “Alien 5” would see Ridley Scott direct with Cameron producing and co-writing (possibly with “Alien Resurrection” screenwriter Joss Whedon writing too) and would take Ripley to the homeworld of the xenomorph. The project was never made, but Ridley Scott returned to tackle his prequel “Prometheus” attempting to explore the origin of Space Jockey (engineers) and was a producer on Neill Blomkamp‘s new “Alien 5” incarnation (approved by James Cameron) that would have acted as a direct sequel to “Aliens” (ignoring the other two sequels) before that also stalled, “Alien: Covenant” stepping in to fill the void.
Scott is currently producing Noah Hawley‘s “Alien” series at FX that will be set on Earth and return the franchise to its class warfare root. He’s also talked-up a third prequel film still being in the works that has previously used the working title of “Alien: Awakening.”
British director Gareth Edwards is set to return to the sci-fi genre after helming films such as Monsters, Godzilla (Legendary’s first Monsterverse installment), and Lucasfilm’s Rogue One: A Star Wars Story. He’ll be writing and directing an original project titled True Love for New Regency and already has Tenet’s John David Washington attached as the film’s male lead.
There is news of a three more exciting additions to True Love’s cast, as Deadline says they’re in talks to have Gemma Chan (Humans, Captain Marvel, Eternals, Crazy Rich Asians), Danny McBride (Alien: Covenant, Eastbound & Down, This Is The End), and Benedict Wong (Prometheus, Doctor Strange, Annihilation, Sunshine, The Martian) take undisclosed roles in the secretive sci-fi flick.
Chan is playing Sersi in Marvel’s Eternals from Oscar-winning director Chloe Zhao and the project will increase her profile with international audiences after briefly appearing in Captain Marvel before landing bigger MCU role, as Sersi is said to be the film’s main protagonist. We shouldn’t be shocked if Gemma Chan ends up playing the female lead opposite John David Washington.
Details on True Love is scarce but is going to take place in the near-future and I have to assume the title is alluding to a romance angle. It’ll be interesting to see if the film will have extensive special effects or slightly scaled-back than Edwards’ previous feature films. Gareth Edwards famously shot Rogue One for Lucasfilm only to have Tony Gilroy to come in at great expense to Disney as he rewrote and reshot multiple scenes, leading to Gilroy being tapped to oversee the Andor series (expected to get a second season) that stars Diego Luna as his Rebellion spy character Cassian Andor. Having more creative control will likely be important to the filmmaker and why it’s taken this long for Edwards to finally pick his next project.
Actor John David Washington has been gathering a lot of steam after his lead role in Spike Lee’s fantastic BlacKkKlansman showed-off his acting chops and charming personality., giving Hollywood some insight to his ability to play a leading man. Washington became the main protagonist in Christopher Nolan’s action flick Tenet last summer and joined the next David O’Russell moving alongside folks such as Christian Bale and Margot Robbie among others.
His next big project will be teaming up with Godzilla and Rogue One: A Star Wars Story director Gareth Edwards on his sci-fi flick True Love at New Regency, according to a report coming from Deadline. Details on the project are scarce at the moment but it’s setting is said to be “near future.”
True Love will be both written and directed by Gareth Edwards.
This would be the first big project for Edwards since the production/editing hiccups on Rogue One led Lucasfilm to bring on Tony Gilroy to reshoot a bunch of things in the first A Star Wars Story installment, including the third act as revealed by photos and earlier trailer footage. Seeing the filmmaker moving away from existing IP is likely going to allow him to be a bit more creative. Then again, he helped launch Legendary’s MonsterVerse cinematic universe back in 2014 with his impressive Godzilla movie starring Bryan Cranston and Aaron Taylor-Johnson.
It’s unclear when they’ll begin shooting True Love.
Legendary might not be winding-down plans for their MonsterVerse after all. After Godzilla Vs. Kong crossed $400 million globally at the box office over the weekend, there is talk that the studio might be already looking to secure Adam Wingard for another future MonsterVerse movie.
The Hollywood Reporter claims that Wingard is currently in talks with Legendary to direct another film in the MonsterVerse for them, potentially with the title of Son of Kong. This could make sense as the ending of Godzilla Vs. Kong seemed to hint there were further adventures for Kong in his new home in the Hollow Earth.
I have to believe that audiences would be a little more inclined to support a second solo Kong film given how well both Kong: Skull Island and Godzilla Vs. Kong have done in comparison to Godzilla: King of The Monsters. Also, that Kong seems to have a little bit more of a personality than Godzilla which goes a long way for a CGI performance from a towering monster and now that he can communicate with humans makes another film even more appealing.
Son of Kong would likely mean that there is female of Kong’s species somewhere in the Hollow Earth, but we still don’t know if that is the project they’ll end up making since they don’t even have a screenwriter attached at this point and the Son of Kong is only a rumbling of a title.
Adam is a little busy at the moment working on a sequel to John Woo’s Face/Off for Paramount Pictures and is going to make a big screen adaptation of the cult cartoon ThunderCats mixing animation with CGI for Warner Bros. as well. It’s unclear when this new MonsterVerse is expected to shoot or even be released. Normally, Legendary announces their plans on these projects way in advance and seemed like they could attempt to pause the release of them entirely.
If Adam Wingard closes a deal with Legendary it would make him the first MonsterVerse director to make two films.
Despite multiple countries still reeling from the COVID-19 pandemic, with a handful staring down the barrel of a fourth wave because of the increased variants (alongside folks ignoring medical recommendations), the international box office seems to be returning in some markets.
Legendary’s Godzilla vs Kong made a big splash when it’s first trailer dropped and the marketing campaign has seemingly resonated with audiences that had been previously lukewarm about previous installments like Kong: Skull Island and Godzilla: King of The Monsters.
Will this equate into a huge box office hit?
Well, internationally that seems to be the case and is becoming the biggest debut since the pandemic started. Deadline is reporting that after the film had a spectacular Friday opening of $21.1 million in China it seems to be lumbering towards an estimated haul of $70.4 million in the Middle Kingdom. This means the kaiju showdown is expected to cross $100+ million opening weekend internationally and has surpassed the Chinese opening of Godzilla: King of The Monsters. It’s worth mentioning that foreign movies don’t tend to stick around very long in the Chinese market compared to their local releases and the studio hopes to make hay as long as they can.
UPDATE: The Hollywood Reporter adds that the intentional estimate is now $121.8 million.
Godzilla vs Kong won’t be debuting domestically until March 31.
However, WarnerMedia is offering the film free for a month on HBO Max which will certainly have an impact on domestic box office earnings. While there has been positive estimates, we’ll have to wait and see if folks will be piling into indoor theaters as a fourth wave of COVID-19 looms or will opt for the free alternative available on HBO Max with a subscription.
Bob Odenkirk’s action flick Nobody took the top spot this weekend domestically with $6.7 million which is good for a movie budgeted at $16 million. This isn’t exactly the sign of box office strength you want to see with Godzilla vs Kong’s release on the horizon later in the week.
With a budget of $165 million, Godzilla vs Kong will need to continue to be successful overseas to turn a profit when movies like Wonder Woman 1984 were reportedly said to take $100 million loss. The hybrid release model from WarnerMedia has yet to be seen as box office benefit to the Warner Bros. division, but we’ll see if this changes with films such as Godzilla vs Kong.
While Legendary is about release their big Monsterverse crossover Godzilla vs. Kong, director Guillermo del Toro is on Twitter responding to fans with the hope that at some point his Pacific Rim universe could “rumble” with the Monsterverse in a crossover of it’s own.
DEL TORO: “I personally love seeing the Neon, Sea battles, building demolition, etc because secretly -maybe- the PAC RIM Universe co-exists in the LEGENDARY Kaijuverse and, perhaps, one day they can rumble!”
I personally love seeing the Neon, Sea battles, building demolition, etc because secretly -maybe- the PAC RIM Universe co-exists in the LEGENDARY Kaijuverse and, perhaps, one day they can rumble! https://t.co/VjcVhTgJgf
Pacific Rim: Uprising didn’t do the kind of business that had been expected and given the two films have their other mythology with kaiju (titans in the Monsterverse) being sent to Earth by aliens. Adding aliens to the Monsterverse could one way to continue the franchise beyond the next installment. However, they might have to do a soft-reboot to make it fit for a crossover. Similar to how Kong: Skull Island was Legendary’s soft-reboot of King Kong to become a direct entry point into the established universe of Godzilla.
You can’t watch the Godzilla vs. Kong trailer without noticing the visual cues from del Toro’s neon-filled Pacific Rim. They’re also seemingly teasing robots with the possible inclusion of Mechagodzilla in the new film.
GODZILLA VS. KONG – Legends collide in Godzilla vs. Kong as these mythic adversaries meet in a spectacular battle for the ages, with the fate of the world hanging in the balance. Kong and his protectors undertake a perilous journey to find his true home, and with them is Jia, a young orphaned girl with whom he has formed a unique and powerful bond. But they unexpectedly find themselves in the path of an enraged Godzilla, cutting a swath of destruction across the globe. The epic clash between the two titans—instigated by unseen forces—is only the beginning of the mystery that lies deep within the core of the Earth.
THE RONIN 