Tag: Guardians of The Galaxy

Posted on in Film News, News

‘I Am Groot’ Director Kirsten Lepore Open To Tackling Next Live-Action ‘Guardians Of The Galaxy’ Installment

Earlier this year, with “Guardians of The Galaxy Vol.3” we saw what could potentially be the final Marvel Studios film from writer/director James Gunn as the filmmaker is going off to shoot “Superman: Legacy” next year alongside running DC Studios and developing more DCU projects that he’ll end up making himself like “Creature Commandos.” Marvel is still looking to mine the cosmic side of the MCU with the Skrulls revealed to be on Earth in “Secret Invasion,” “The Marvels” releasing in November as we’ll see the return of the Kree Empire as villains, and an upcoming “Nova” project also in the works focusing on the space hero after the destruction of the Nova Corps. at the hands of Thanos.

The Disney+ original “I Am Groot” has returned with a second season focusing on the little rascal in quirky/inventive shorts, and seems like director Kirsten Lepore (“Adventure Time”) after tackling two seasons of the animated shorts would be willing to fill Gunn’s seat as director on the next “Guardians of The Galaxy.” While speaking with The Hollywood Reporter, it was brought up about the potential of Lepore continuing the franchise by helming the next “Guardians” installment.

“Yeah, I’m open to it, for sure. Years ago, I was like, ‘I definitely want to do live-action!’ I was trying to move into live-action, and now, I think I’m more at peace. I don’t even want to say ‘at peace’ because I’m not settling. I love animation so much. I think I better understand what I bring to animation because it does take a really specific type of person to direct it. I’ve been doing it for so long and I feel very comfortable in that space, and I feel good at it. So I really enjoy working in animation — and I would be totally happy to work in animation for the rest of my life — but I would also be very curious to experiment with live-action,” Lepore responded when asked about directing the next “Guardians of The Galaxy” feature film.

It’s not like “Guardians of The Galaxy Vol.3” didn’t leave room for more installments it ends with Peter Quill on Earth trying to reconnect with his grandfather and homeworld. Rocket Raccoon (Bradley Cooper) is now the team’s leader with Groot (Vin Diesel), Adam Warlock (Will Poulter), Cosmo (Maria Bakalova), Kraglin (Sean Gunn), Phyla (Kai Zen), and Blurp on the new roster going on missions.

Lepore isn’t exactly unfamiliar with feature films after having been the animation director on the Oscar-nominated animated film “Marcel The Shell With Shoes On,” and worked as a VFX artist on recent Best Picture winner “Everything Everywhere All At Once.” Having someone with an effects background might be sort of an asset if more than half the members of the new Guardians lineup are going to be digital characters. Marvel has hired directors from within the studio that have previously worked on MCU projects. Seeing Lepore recruited for a hypothetical “Guardians of The Galaxy 4” after already working closely with the studio on “I Am Groot” (already working with Diesel and Cooper) wouldn’t be all that shocking.

“I Am Groot” is currently streaming on Disney+ and you can watch the series trailer below.

SOURCE: THE HOLLYWOOD REPORTER

Posted on in News

EXCLUSIVE: ‘Kraven The Hunter’ Adds Longtime MCU Cinematographer Ben Davis

The Ronin has confirmed that British cinematographer Ben Davis (The King’s Man) has joined the production team for Sony’s Kraven The Hunter, directed by J.C. Chandor (Triple Frontier) and Aaron Taylor-Johnson (Tenet, Bullet Train, Avengers: Age of Ultron) playing the titular Marvel Comics character.

It’s certainly an interesting crew addition given that Ben Davis is mostly known for working on Marvel Studios films such as Avengers: Age of Ultron (also starred Taylor-Johnson), Guardians of The Galaxy, Doctor Strange, Captain Marvel, and Eternals.

The project will focus on Sergei Kravinoff aka Kraven, a Russian aristocrat turned big-game hunter that becomes a major antagonist of Marvel superhero Spider-Man as a member of The Sinister Six and half-brother of fellow villain The Chameleon.

Kraven The Hunter has a script penned by Richard Wenk (The Equalizer, The Expendables 2) with Art Marcum and Matt Holloway tackling rewrites. The duo of screenwriters aren’t strangers to studio genre projects working on Iron Man, Punisher: War Zone, Transformers: The Last Knight, Men In Black: International, and the upcoming Tom Holland video game movie Uncharted.

Could we see Kraven join the MCU like other Spidey villains?

Well, Davis’ addition isn’t the first time MCU department heads have worked on Spider-Man spinoffs. Matthew Libatique (Iron Man, Iron Man 2) did the cinematography on the first Venom and production designer Stefania Cella (Morbius) recently worked on the Disney+ series Moon Knight.

Deadline reporter Justin Kroll tweeted a list of names that Sony had considered to play Kraven (before Aaron Taylor-Johnson was hired) but they had passed. Those high-profile names were Keanu Reeves (John Wick, The Matrix), Brad Pitt (Once Upon A Time In Hollywood, Fight Club, Inglorious Basterds), John David Washington (Tenet), and Adam Driver (House of Gucci, Logan Lucky, Star Wars: The Force Awakens).

Sony Pictures has already given the Spider-Man spinoff a release date of January 13, 2023.

Posted on in News

‘Guardians Of The Galaxy 3’: James Gunn Announces ‘Peacemaker’ Actor Chukwudi Iwuji For Mystery Role

Guardians of The Galaxy Vol.3 is finally moving forward at Marvel Studios with James Gunn rehired and already securing British actor Will Poulter (Midsommar) as Adam Warlock, a role that will likely continue beyond the Guardian franchise as Marvel expands the cosmic side of the MCU.

James Gunn has announced on Twitter that they’ve officially started shooting and posted an image of the cast revealing that Nigerian-British actor Chukwudi Iwuji (John Wick: Chapter 2, Peacemaker) has joined the third installment in a mystery role. Mentioning that the role is something that “every big name actor in Hollywood wanted.”

It’s unknown if that is a joke or if the role is actually that large.

https://twitter.com/JamesGunn/status/1457792078050590720

Fans are already making wild speculation about what the role could such as The High Evolutionary, Nova (Richard Rider?), and even more outlandish Norrin Radd/The Silver Surfer. However, none of these roles are confirmed despite James Gunn once writing a Silver Surfer movie for 20th Century Fox during his early screenwriting days.

The returning cast will be Chris Pratt as Peter Quill aka Star-Lord, Elizabeth Debicki as Ayesha, Karen Gillan as Nebula, Dave Bautista as Drax, Zoe Saldana as Gamora, Pom Klementieff as Mantis, Sean Gunn as Kraglin, Bradley Cooper as the voice of Rocket Raccoon, and Vin Diesel as the voice of Groot. 

Dave Bautista has said multiple times in interviews this will be the last time playing Drax The Destroyer, which could be telegraphing that Gunn might end up killing off the character to potentially stop Marvel from recasting the role with another actor. He’s been disillusioned by the Drax part as it hasn’t really gone into his comic book roots.

Its crew is expected to include production designer Beth Mickle (The Suicide Squad, Drive), cinematographer Henry Braham (The Suicide Squad), the visual effects supervisor will be Stephane Ceretti (Eternals, Guardians of The Galaxy, Doctor Strange, Ant-Man & The Wasp), and will have Hawkeye stunt coordinator Heidi Moneymaker crafting the film’s action sequences.

Guardians of The Galaxy Vol.3 has a release date of May 5, 2023

SOURCE: JAMES GUNN

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

Chris Pratt’s Star-Lord Joins ‘Thor: Love & Thunder’ Character Lineup – Will Other Guardians Appear?

At the end of Avengers: Endgame, we saw Thor join the ranks of The Guardians of The Galaxy and that seemingly will be carrying over to Thor: Love & Thunder.

The Hollywood Reporter says that after Chris Pratt does some additional photography for The Tomorrow War he’ll join the production of Thor: Love & Thunder (working title The Big Salad) sometime next year in Sydney, New South Wales, Australia. Reprising the Peter Quill/Star-Lord role for the Thor sequel.

Love and Thunder is due to shoot in Australia in January, and Pratt will do a short round of additional photography for his sci-fi movie The Tomorrow War before heading to the land Down Under.

I have to assume the rest of the Guardians cast will being showing up as well.

SOURCE: THE HOLLYWOOD REPORTER

Posted on in Film News

Dave Bautista Plays An Intergalactic Peacekeeper In Brad Peyton’s Alien Prison Escape Flick ‘Universe’s Most Wanted’ – Begins Filming In The Spring

Deadline reports that Dave Bautista will be returning to the sci-fi genre in the Universe’s Most Wanted for director Brad Peyton (Rampage) with a script penned by F. Scott Frazier (xXx: The Return of Xander Cage) with the film heading the virtual American Film Market next month.

The film will focus on a small town which gets a big surprise when a space ship carrying the universe’s most wanted and dangerous criminals crash lands in their backyard. Soon the sheriff’s son becomes a hero when he finds himself helping an intergalactic peacekeeper (Bautista) to keep the ragtag group of alien prisoners from escaping and taking over the world.

AGC Studios and CAA Media Finance will launch worldwide sales on the project in the coming weeks to coincide with the virtual AFM.

Dave’s sci-fi credits include Riddick, Guardians of The Galaxy, Avengers: Infinity War, and Blade Runner 2049.

Honestly, this project sounds a lot like one of the early incarnations of the Lobo film, based on the DC Comics antihero that Peyton was once attached to direct for Warner Bros. Pictures years ago.

Filming on Universe’s Most Wanted begins in the spring.

SOURCE: DEADLINE

Posted on in Television News

James Gunn Wants To Keep Yondu Dead Despite Michael Rooker’s Openness For A Prequel Series On Disney+

If James Gunn has anything to do with it, I don’t think we’ll be seeing Michael Rooker’s Yondu coming back from the dead anytime soon. As the Guardians of The Galaxy franchise writer/director replied to a fan on Twitter that he’s not terribly interested in bringing back Yondu outside of flashbacks as it would ruin the character’s sacrifice.

GUNN: “I get sometimes you can bring back characters in a cool way. But usually, if a character dies, and it’s a meaningful part of the story, the character should stay dead. So unless it’s a flashback, Yondu will stay dead, as far as I’m concerned. Otherwise, it ruins his sacrifice.”

He also added.

GUNN: “And that’s exactly why, as long as I have the power, Yondu will stay dead. I don’t want to cheapen moments like these.”

With these comments from James, I wouldn’t hold your breath about Yondu’s return for Multiverse projects or randomly coming back from the dead in the next Guardians installment.

Back in April, Michael Rooker shared James’ sentiment on co-star Michael Rosenbaum’s podcast Inside You while being open to playing another Marvel character in the future.

ROOKER: “No way, I’m dead. I’m dead. My character is dead. I would play something else, I wouldn’t mind. I would play something else, but why would I want to play Yondu? Yondu had a wonderful…amazing sendoff that you would ever want in cinematic Marvel history. My god, dude, why do you want to spoil that by bringing the character back now?”

However, while recently promoting his new movie Love & Monsters on Mama’s Geeky, the actor revealed an openness to the idea of a prequel series for Yondu on Disney+.

ROOKER: “I will sign on to anything I’m out of work right now. So, bring it on, baby. I really truly enjoyed playing Yondu it was beautifully written, well drawn out…it was a very well rounded character. Of course.”

You can watch that lovely exchange below.

Gunn is currently working on the post-production of The Suicide Squad (coming August 6th, 2021) and won’t be jumping into Guardians of The Galaxy 3 until he finishes up there.

Production on the Guardians sequel was expected to take place in Atlanta, Georgia under the working title Hot Christmas before Gunn was fired and later rehired after already committed to making The Suicide Squad for Warner Bros. Pictures.

Sadly, Guardians of The Galaxy 3 is without a release date.

SOURCE: JAMES GUNN & MAMA’S GEEKY