Matthew Vaughn’s next feature film made some big headlines over the summer when it was revealed, Argylle, had been reportedly picked-up by Apple for hefty $200 million.
Not only that, but the spy flick’s impressive cast would include Henry Cavill (The Witcher, Man of Steel), Sam Rockwell (Iron Man 2, Moon, Seven Psychopaths, Three Billboards), Bryce Dallas Howard (Black Mirror, Jurassic World, Jurassic World: Dominion), Bryan Cranston (Godzilla, Breaking Bad), Catherine O’Hara (Home Alone, SCTV, Schitt’s Creek), John Cena (Bumblebee, F9: The Fast Saga, Peacemaker, The Suicide Squad), Samuel L. Jackson (Pulp Fiction, The Hateful Eight, Django Unchained, Secret Invasion, The Marvels), and singer Dua Lipa making her acting debut.
The Ronin can update with some exclusive production updates such as the working title being Tartan during the film’s London area shoot and that they’ve added visual effects supervisor Jody Johnson (Mission: Impossible – Fallout, Rush, In The Heart of The Sea) to the massive action flick’s production team.
Previously, we first revealed the film’s title along with multiple reports confirming key crew members such as cinematographer George Richmond (Fantastic Beasts 3, Kingsman: The Secret Service, Kingsman: The Golden Circle, Rocketman, Eddie The Eagle), production designer Daniel Taylor (Tetris), and costume designer Stephanie Collie (Layer Cake, Silent Night, Hellboy, Peaky Blinders).
Argylle is based on the upcoming novel by Ellie Conway with a script from Jason Fuchs (Wonder Woman, Pan).
It’s expected to debut sometime in 2022 as suggested in official teaser posters.
Apple is also behind the big Napoleon Bonaparte historical epic Kitbag from director Ridley Scott film with a cast already consisting of Oscar-winner Joaquin Phoenix and Jodie Comer. They’re working with director Martin Scorsese on his upcoming thriller Killers of The Flower Moon (said to have wrapped production), which will likely help Apple become a strong awards contender.
The next film from Matthew Vaughn will be the Kingsman franchise prequel The King’s Man that will hit theaters on December 22, which explores the origins of the secretive British spy agency.
THE KING’S MAN – As a collection of history’s worst tyrants and criminal masterminds gather to plot a war to wipe out millions, one man must race against time to stop them. Discover the origins of the very first independent intelligence agency in The King’s Man.
The Suicide Squad is winning over a lot of people and there had been early ideas to have Task Force X being assembled to take down Superman. However, the main threat of the film was the Borg-like alien Starro The Conqueror, who was able to control the minds of anyone that was unlucky enough to get one of the self-replicated mini-Starro attached to their face.
James Gunn has revealed to the Script Apart podcast (via Comic Book) that one of the big reasons they didn’t go with Superman was the studio’s uncertainty about Henry Cavill sticking around or what exactly their DCEU plans for the son of Krypton moving forward.
“There was a time when I thought The Suicide Squad should fight Superman. At the time, there were a lot of questions like, ‘Who is Superman in the DCEU? Is this movie outside the DCEU?’ I just didn’t want to deal with it all that much.”
This could also explain why the Superman cameo in Shazam! was a stand-in, despite that film clearly takes place within the Snyderverse/DCEU.
It’s revealed that Idris Elba’s Bloodsport put Superman in the ICU after shooting him with Kryptonite bullet, so at the least they were able to add that small connective tidbit.
Gunn explained why he wanted to use Starro.
“I think he’s a perfect comic book character because he’s absolutely ludicrous but also very scary in his own way. What he does is scary. He used to scare the crap out of me when I was a child, putting those face-huggers on Superman and Batman. So I thought he was one of the major, major DC villains that was probably never going to be put into another movie. And if they did, it’d have been a ‘black cloud’ version of Starro. Not a giant walking starfish, a kaiju that’s bright pink and cerulean blue, this ridiculously big, bright bad guy.”
The studio has indicated that they’re keen on working with James Gunn again on more DC movies, but that seemingly won’t Gotham City Sirens as the director downplayed recent speculation on Twitter.
A while back, Netflix made headlines when they spent an obscene amount of money to secure the global rights to Rian Johnson’s next two Knives Out sequels starring Daniel Craig. Well, it looks like Apple is jumping into the blockbuster game themselves as Deadline reports that they’ve spent $200 million to land Matthew Vaughn’s new spy project Argylle.
Argylle is based on the upcoming novel by Ellie Conway with a script from Jason Fuchs (Wonder Woman, Pan).
It will star Henry Cavill (The Witcher, Man of Steel), Sam Rockwell (Iron Man 2, Moon, Seven Psychopaths, Three Billboards), Bryce Dallas Howard (Black Mirror, Jurassic World, Jurassic World: Dominion), Bryan Cranston (Godzilla, Breaking Bad), Catherine O’Hara (Home Alone, SCTV, Schitt’s Creek, John Cena (Bumblebee, F9: The Fast Saga), Samuel L. Jackson (Pulp Fiction, The Hateful Eight, Django Unchained), and singer Dua Lipa making her acting debut.
While Apple is reportedly only buying the single installment, it’s been said that Vaughn expects the movie to be expanded into a trilogy.
In theory, Argylle could give Apple their own spy franchise as their director competitor Amazon is looking to acquire Bond production partner MGM Studios and will likely attempt to expand that franchise for streaming projects beyond the feature films.
The Ronin first revealed that the title for Matthew Vaughn’s next flick would be titled Argylle (originally we thought it was a working title) along with confirmations that the film’s production team would consist of cinematographer George Richmond (Fantastic Beasts 3, Kingsman: The Secret Service, Kingsman: The Golden Circle, Rocketman, Eddie The Eagle), production designer Daniel Taylor (Tetris), and costume designer Stephanie Collie (Layer Cake, Silent Night, Hellboy, Peaky Blinders).
Argylle is expected to be released sometime in 2022, but it’s unknown if Apple will pursue a traditional theatrical release or keep it as simply a Apple TV+ exclusive. The latter is assumed though.
Apple is also behind the big Napoleon Bonaparte historical epic Kitbag from director Ridley Scott film with a cast to include Oscar-winner Joaquin Phoenix and Jodie Comer. They’re working with Martin Scorsese on his upcoming thriller Killers of The Flower Moon, which will likely give Apple a strong awards contender.
We first revealed the title for Matthew Vaughn’s (Kingsman 1-2, X-Men: First Class, Kick-Ass) upcoming high-profile spy film Argylle alongside production team that will include cinematographer George Richmond (Fantastic Beasts 3, Tomb Raider, Eddie The Eagle) and production designer Daniel Taylor (Tetris).
Argylle’s epic cast so far reportedly includes Henry Cavill (The Witcher, Man of Steel), Sam Rockwell (Iron Man 2, Moon, Seven Psychopaths, Three Billboards), Bryce Dallas Howard (Black Mirror, Jurassic World, Jurassic World: Dominion), Bryan Cranston (Godzilla, Breaking Bad), Catherine O’Hara (Home Alone, SCTV, Schitt’s Creek), John Cena (Bumblebee, F9: The Fast Saga), and Samuel L. Jackson (Pulp Fiction, The Hateful Eight, Django Unchained).
The Ronin can confirm that director Matthew Vaughn will indeed reunite with costume designer Stephanie Collie (Silent Night, Hellboy, Peaky Blinders), who he hasn’t worked with since his directorial debut Layer Cake that released back in 2004. The humorous crime film was notably Daniel Craig’s big solo outing before landing the James Bond role in Casino Royale and even had the actor pretending to play 007 when he was being shown a collection of guns. You’ll also spot a very young Tom Hardy as well.
LAYER CAKE – An unnamed mid-level cocaine dealer (Daniel Craig) in London makes plans to step away from the criminal life. Before he can cut ties, the dealer’s supplier Jimmy Price (Kenneth Cranham) draws him into a complicated pair of jobs involving kidnapping the teenage daughter of a rival gangster (Michael Gambon) and brokering the purchase of a large shipment of ecstasy pills from a dealer known as “the Duke” (Jamie Foreman), leading to a series of elaborate double-crosses from all corners.
I would argue that Layer Cake might be Vaughn’s best film. It also had a lot of custom-made suits and more stylish causal wear worn by the Duke’s crew, Collie has a fantastic eye for men’s wear.
Collie also worked with Guy Ritchie on Lock, Stock & Two Smoking Barrels (produced by Vaughn) and his recently reunion with Jason Statham on the armored truck thriller Wrath of Man.
Production is expected to take place in England and Europe.
A distributor and release date have yet to be announced for Argylle. It’s said to be the first installment of a trilogy.
Deadline has now revealed/confirmed the full cast after a handful of names from the cast were revealed yesterday by Observer.
The spy flick based on the upcoming novel by Ellie Conway will star Henry Cavill (The Witcher, Man of Steel), Sam Rockwell (Iron Man 2, Moon, Seven Psychopaths, Three Billboards), Bryce Dallas Howard (Black Mirror, Jurassic World, Jurassic World: Dominion), Bryan Cranston (Godzilla, Breaking Bad), Catherine O’Hara (Home Alone, SCTV, Schitt’s Creek, John Cena (Bumblebee, F9: The Fast Saga), and Samuel L. Jackson (Pulp Fiction, The Hateful Eight, Django Unchained).
This will be a return for Cavill to the spy genre after taking roles in Guy Ritchie’s The Man From U.N.C.L.E and playing a villain in Christopher McQuarrie’s Mission: Impossible – Fallout opposite franchise star Tom Cruise.
Director Matthew Vaughn will be reuniting with Cavill after working with him on his second feature film Stardust and more recently worked with Jackson on Kingsman: The Secret Service.
Conway’s novel follows the world’s greatest spy, Argylle, as he is caught up in a globe-trotting adventure.
Here is the character information from the Observer.
Bryce Dallas Howard is in talks to star in the lead role. Tricked into thinking she’s a writer, her lethal skills return with her memories, setting her down a path of revenge against the shadowy organization she used to work for, the Division. Also in talks to star are Sam Rockwell as a former Division agent and our heroine’s love interest, and Samuel L. Jackson as a rogue agent dedicated to exposing the corruption within the clandestine spy network.
Singer Dua Lipa will also make her acting debut in the project and teased a release in 2022 alongside a teaser poster.
After the merger between Disney and 21st Century, the film and television rights to live-action X-Men projects reverted back to Marvel. This has led to the announcement of Jon Watts directing a reboot of The Fantastic Four, another group of characters that came home to Marvel in the wake of the merger. Marvel Studios doesn’t seem to be in any rush to introduce mutants into the Marvel Cinematic Universe, but the biggest task they’ll have is recasting the Wolverine role.
Getting the X-Men and Wolverine on the big screen took a bit longer than you might imagine. Apparently, development goes back to 1984 as Wolverine co-creator Roy Thomas (Conan The Barbarian, Conan The Destroyer, Red Sonja) and Punisher co-creator Gerry Conway (Fire & Ice, Conan The Destroyer) wrote an X-Men film for Orion Pictures before the studio had financial issues.
Another incarnation had James Cameron producing a version with Near Dark director Kathryn Bigelow (Point Break, Zero Dark Thirty, The Hurt Locker) and a script titled Wolverine & The X-Men was penned by Gary Goldman (Total Recall, Big Trouble In Little China, Navy Seals) around 1991 for Cameron’s Lightstorm Entertainment and Carolco Prictures. When Carolco went bankrupt the project was essentially dead.
In 1994, producer Lauren Shuler Donner got her hands on the X-Men rights and brought it to 20th Century Fox hiring screenwriter Andrew Kevin Walker (Seven, The Wolfman, 8mm, Sleepy Hollow, Fight Club, Event Horizon, The Game) to work on a script, he was also assigned to write a Silver Surfer movie for the studio that never saw the light of day. After multiple tweaks to the X-Men script from various writers (some uncredited like Christopher McQuarrie and Ed Solomon), David Hayter would eventually get the screenwriting credit. It was eventually shot in 1999-2000 in Toronto/Hamilton/Burlington, Ontario, Canada by director Bryan Singer (attached since 1996) and released in 2000 earning an impressive $296.3 million globally on a budget of $75 million.
The Hugh Jackman era was certainly a bumpy road as the Australian actor was a last minute replacement for the Wolverine role as Scottish actor Dougray Scott had a scheduling conflict as he was busy shooting John Woo’s Mission: Impossible II. During the Cameron/Bigelow incarnation, Bob Hoskins had been considered. Much later on actors such as Russell Crowe, Viggo Mortensen, and Keanu Reeves had been in the mix for Wolverine.
The commercial success of the first X-Men movie is often cited by many as the turning point for Marvel projects being appealing to wide-range of audiences. Alongside Blade, proved to Marvel that people were willing to go see popcorn films featuring their characters which at the time had been considered a niche audience as a multitude of comic book movies had failed to make money in the 1990’s. Many studios tried to chase the box office returns achieved by Tim Burton’s Batman movies only to lose a lot of money in the process.
Due to Wolverine’s popularity he ended up landing his own film trilogy at 20th Century Fox starting with the forgettable mess, X-Men Origins: Wolverine that was plagued with studio brass,Tom Rothman, meddling with production and threatening to fire director Gavin Hood. A workprint of the film had been leaked online ahead of the officially release with incomplete visual effects and wasn’t much better than the theatrical version, as it clearly had half-cooked effects and godawful digital claws. The horrible effects only highlighted how bland the film was.
Luckily, The Wolverine was helmed by James Mangold (replacing Darren Aronofsky) and became one of the better films of the X-Men franchise and led to a stellar final bow for Hugh Jackman in the sequel Logan. Hugh would announce his retirement as Wolverine following the success of Logan, even turning down multiple pleas from Ryan Reynolds to make a Wolverine vs Deadpool movie.
Marvel Studios is now in the perfect position to reboot the X-Men and remove all the silly timeline issues along with the character deviations that started with Singer’s first installment giving us faithful versions of the mutants. The only mutant project they’re currently working on is the R-rated Deadpool 3 starring Ryan Reynolds as they recently hired Wendy Molyneux and Lizzie Molyneux-Loeglin to write it.
The Falcon & The Winter Soldier has introduced Logan’s stomping-ground Madripoor and I hope we’ll see the location in future X-Men projects. I’d love to see Marvel give Wolverine a faithful origin covering his adventures during WWII/Cold War, confrontations with Mark Ruffalo’s Hulk, connections to the Canadian mutant team Alpha Flight or in the Weapon X Program as Marvel Studios would likely be able to explore this stuff in a Disney+ series as not to distract from the main X-Men team.
We’re still waiting on Marvel to announce the creative team working on their X-Men reboot.
Hiring the next Wolverine is gong to be a pivotal moment for Marvel Studios because Hugh Jackman has been the face of Logan for over 20 years and to some fans their entire lives. It’s sort of tough coming up with the “perfect list” of casting hopefuls to play the MCU’s Wolverine because those are big shoes to fill. However, I came up with a group that might skew a little older but I felt had the well-rounded careers that could be solid enough to be in consideration along with being names that I assume Marvel would want to target. Given that Moon Knight’s Oscar Isaac is in his forties it wouldn’t be that hard to imagine older/seasoned contenders for Wolverine.
HENRY CAVILL (AGE 37): Mission: Impossible – Fallout, The Witcher, Man of Steel, The Count of Monte Cristo, Stardust, Immortals, The Man From U.N.C.L.E., Enola Holmes, Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice, and Justice League.
CHRIS PINE (AGE 40): Star Trek, Star Trek Into Darkness, Star Trek Beyond, Wonder Woman, Wonder Woman 1984, Hell or High Water, Outlaw King, Jack Ryan: Shadow Recruit, Unstoppable, Smokin’ Aces, This Means War, and The Finest Hours.
TOM HARDY (AGE 43): Band of Brothers, RocknRolla, Black Hawk Down, Locke, Taboo, Inception, The Dark Knight Rises, Venom, Venom: Let There Be Carnage, Peaky Blinders, Dunkirk, Legend, The Revenant, The Drop, Lawless, Warrior, Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy, Bronson, Marie Antoinette, Star Trek: Nemesis, and Layer Cake.
CILLIAN MURPHY (AGE 44): 28 Days Later, Inception, Batman Begins, The Dark Knight, Peaky Blinders, Red Eye, Sunshine, Dunkirk, Free Fire, TRON: Legacy, Cold Mountain, The Wind That Shakes The Barley, and A Quiet Place II.
Deadline has breaking news that Warner Bros. is looking to reboot their iconic Superman franchise with a script from writer Ta-Nehisi Coates and producer J.J. Abrams via Bad Robot. Coates is best-known for his work on the fantastic modern run of Black Panther comics for Marvel.
Deadline has confirmed that author Ta-Nehisi Coates is writing a Superman reboot feature for Warner Bros and DC, which J.J. Abrams is producing under his Bad Robot label.
Funny, it’s being called a “reboot” and Deadline mentions Henry Cavill, but if it’s a hard-reboot that would likely mean he’s not going to be in it. The addition of Coates would give the impression they might be going with a different take on the DC hero.
They point out that Coates is working with Ryan Coolger and Michael B. Jordan on the film Wrong Answer, the connection to Jordan is certainly interesting given rumblings he wanted to play a new version of Superman.
Could that Michael B. Jordan/Superman casting rumor come true?
Variety mentioned in a report last year that Jordan pitched a Superman project.
To help find a way to make Superman relevant to modern audiences, studio brass has been polling lots of high-profile talent. There have been discussions with J.J. Abrams, whose company Bad Robot recently signed a massive first-look deal with the studio, and there was a meeting with Michael B. Jordan earlier this year with the “Creed” star pitching Warners on a vision for the character. However, Jordan isn’t ready to commit to taking on the project since filming doesn’t seem likely to happen for several years and he has a full dance card of projects. Insiders think that a new Superman film is unlikely to hit screens before 2023, given that there’s no script and no director attached.
UPDATE:The Hollywood Reporter has chimed-in and Warner Bros. are reportedly indeed looking to introduce a black Superman in the reboot. They certainly have options with Steel’s John Henry Irons, Val-Zod, and Calvin Ellis established in the comic books. Given Coates is writing the reboot and his history with Black Panther it’s hard to imagine this won’t have a black Superman.
According to sources, the project is being set up as a Black Superman story. This is something that the studio has been trying to wrap its head around for months, if not a year or two. Michael B. Jordan tried to develop a Black Superman project when he first arrived at the studio with his deal in 2019, but that did not go very far at the time, according to sources. It is possible that the studio could return to him to star down the line.
Will audiences be introduced to a Black Superman? That is the intent and something that the studio has been trying to find a way in for months if not a year or two, according to sources. https://t.co/X8RTtSJ7EK
It’s worth mentioning Michael B. Jordan is producing a film for the studio based on the DC Comics hero Static Shock.
This news comes after Warner Bros. has been developing a new solo Supergirl film from The Cloverfield Paradox (produced by Abrams) screenwriter Oren Uziel and the studio recently hiring Sasha Calle in the role, making her big screen debut in The Flash.
It’ll be interesting to see if Henry Cavill ultimately comes back to the Superman role as the chances of that seem to be getting smaller with Supergirl entering the picture and this reboot from Bad Robot now in development.
If Patty Jenkins ever decided to tackle other superheroes beyond Wonder Woman, we now have a pretty good idea of who she’d want to use. As a fan on Twitter has asked Wonder Woman 1984 director Patty Jenkins that very question and her answer consisted of Superman, Spider-Man, and even Black Widow.
JENKINS: “Thank you for the question. Probably Superman, Spiderman, or Black Widow! So much potential with all of them, always.”
Thank you for the question. Probably Superman, Spiderman or Black Widow! So much potential with all of them, always. https://t.co/zDtxgZuwM9
You might remember that Patty Jenkins is currently assigned to direct Star Wars: Rogue Squadron for Lucasfilm making her part of that family of studios under the Disney umbrella. It’s expected to begin production sometime before the end of 2022 as the release date is set for December 22, 2023.
There are a handful of examples of crossovers between Lucasfilm and Marvel Studios with Thor franchise’s Taika Waititi tackling both The Mandalorian and an untitled live-action feature film. Also, Ant-Man trilogy director Peyton Reed ended up directing two episodes in Season 2 even the emotional season finale. We can’t forget that Jon Favreau, who help usher-in the Marvel Cinematic Universe via Iron Man and Iron Man 2, spearheaded The Mandalorian series with Dave Filoni, producing three spinoffs that include The Book of Boba Fett, Ahsoka, and Rangers of The New Republic. Jon also continues to play the role of Happy Hogun, most recently appearing in the post-Avengers: Endgame film Spider-Man: Far From Home back in 2019.
Despite rumors, there hasn’t been any official word of how Warner Bros. would like to pursue another Superman film beyond having the character potentially have cameos in other projects. There had been development on a Supergirl film but that seemingly has stalled.
Concerning Spider-Man, we don’t know if Sony/Marvel will extend their production deal despite some signals that could be happening behind closed doors as Olivia Wilde‘s Spider-Woman movie could be Sony/Marvel co-production. With Spider-Man 3 director Jon Watts announced for Marvel’s Fantastic Four reboot there is now an expectation he could be moving on to make a trilogy there making it less likely he’d return to make Spider-Man 4 and beyond leaving room for a new director to make a second trilogy, that’s if Sony/Marvel can play nice for another batch of movies.
Having Patty get involved with Black Widow is an interesting proposition as it seems like Florence Pugh may end up taking that mantle as Yelena Belova in future MCU projects. Such as her reported involvement in the upcoming Hawkeye series that will be airing on Disney+ in late 2021. Yelena could lead a Black Widow franchise of films moving forward because of the death of Natasha during the events of Avengers: Endgame.
I think it’ll be a long time before we know for sure if Patty will make Wonder Woman 3 or any other superhero films given the next couple of years will be dedicated to Star Wars: Rogue Squadron.
Despite a lockdown in the United Kingdom, film and television productions were allowed to keep going without much hindrance from the British government.
There is now a report from Deadline that filming has paused by Netflix after four people working on the fantasy series had tested positive for COVID-19 today. Filming on the Henry Cavill show had been taking place at Arborfield Studios which is near London, England.
Netflix has halted production in the UK on The Witcher following multiple positive COVID-19 cases, we can reveal. The four positive cases are from today, we have confirmed, and Netflix will carry out an isolated round of testing of everyone involved in the show. Those impacted have been isolated and are not among lead cast, we hear.
This would be the second time that filming has been disrupted by positive COVID-19 tests.
Given the increase of COVID cases in the UK and the lockdown, it seems odd that productions are being allowed to keep going and this just another example that even being extremely careful the amount of people on set just makes it easier for people to get exposed to an airborne virus.
Not too long ago there was a rumor circulating from Deadline that Henry Cavill was in early discussions with Warner Bros. about reprising the Superman role in a non-solo film, but that seemingly spiraled into a massive amount of fan speculation that ballooned into him coming back for a Man of Steel sequel and folks guessing where he’d show up next.
While speaking with Variety, Henry Cavill revealed he’s frustrated by those Superman rumors and speculation online, even more so that he can’t publicly comment on them.
However, isn’t opposed to the regular fans speculating as they normally do.
CAVILL: “They get wilder and wilder by the day. The amount of speculation, the stuff I read on the Internet, is extraordinary and sometimes frustrating. It’s when you see people stating stuff as fact. Like, ‘No, that’s not the case. That hasn’t happened, and that conversation isn’t happening’. But the important thing is that people are excited about it, and I think it’s important to be excited about a character like Superman. Superman is a fantastic character. If people are chatting about it, and even if they’re making stuff up, it’s okay, because that means they want to see the character again. And in an ideal world, I would absolutely love to play the character again.”
He also mused about using an alias to comment on those rumors.
CAVILL: “I’m not going to lie; I’ve been very tempted, but there’s something about that, that feels deeply immoral. When it’s about Superman, and if I’m representing Superman, it just feels like the wrong thing to do. I’m just going to let this all play out. Me saying something isn’t going to make a difference. What does it really matter? One day, people will know the truth, and if they don’t know it now, it’s okay.”
Henry is a little busy at the moment as he’s expected to resume production on his Netflix series The Witcher soon in the United Kingdom.
Superman had a brief cameo in Shazam! which I called back in the summer of 2018 after previously confirming the new movie was indeed set in the DCEU. Because talks broke down between the studio and Cavill he wasn’t able to portray the hero in that scene. There is a good chance since Shazam! established Cavill’s Superman exists in that film having him show up in the sequel would be a good bet to make.
THE RONIN 