Tag: Hunters

Posted on in Film News

Original ‘Predator’ Screenwriters Suing Disney To Get Rights Back

The rights to Predator might be on the chopping block.

A report from The Hollywood Reporter reveals that Disney’s hold on the franchise copyright expires this Saturday, allowing the original screenwriters Jim and John Thomas to attempt to activate the copyright termination provision allowing the brothers to recapture the rights from Disney via their original script, titled Hunters. Something similar has been happening with the Friday The 13th franchise, they’ll also be represented by Marc Toberoff.

20th Century Studios (now owned by Disney) had been planning on shooting Predator 5 aka Skulls this summer in Calgary with director Dan Trachtenberg, it’s unknown what this could mean for this upcoming project and if the Thomas Brothers will be entitled to a piece of the box office.

There are six feature films with the iconic alien hunter such as Predator, Predator 2, Predators, The Predator, Alien vs. Predator, and Alien vs. Predator: Requiem.

The Predator franchise has been extremely lucrative for 20th Century as it’s spawned decades worth of comic books, novels, video games, multiple toys lines, t-shirts, and other merchandise since the release in 1987. I don’t see Disney giving up the franchise without a fight or attempting to buy them out.

PREDATOR – Dutch (Arnold Schwarzenegger), a soldier of fortune, is hired by the U.S. government to secretly rescue a group of politicians trapped in Guatemala. But when Dutch and his team, which includes weapons expert Blain (Jesse Ventura) and CIA agent George (Carl Weathers), land in Central America, something is gravely wrong. After finding a string of dead bodies, the crew discovers they are being hunted by a brutal creature with superhuman strength and the ability to disappear into its surroundings.

SOURCE: THE HOLLYWOOD REPORTER

Posted on in Television News

‘Lord of The Rings’: Wayne Yip Officially Directing 4 Episodes

Filming is still happening in New Zealand on Amazon’s Lord of The Rings series and the streamer has just announced a new director.

Today, it was revealed by Amazon that British director Wayne Yip will be directing four episodes and also nabbed an executive producer credit. Yip joins fellow director J.A. Bayona (Jurassic World: Fallen Kingdom), J.A. directed the first two episodes of the fantasy series.

Wayne’s massive amount of credits include Utopia, Doctor Who, Hunters, Misfits, Preacher, and Doom Patrol. The director recently working on Amazon’s The Wheel of Time, another large fantasy world from author Robert Jordan and likely had a lot to do with his hiring for The Lord of The Rings.

They’ve committed to at least five seasons which means Amazon is going to be spending a heap of money on this show. Considering they’ll be covering the The Second Age they have multiple events to cover including the fall of the ancient kingdom of Númenor, J.R.R. Tolkien’s Middle-Earth take on the Atlantis myth. Along with Sauron manipulating various kingdoms in the wake of The Dark Lord Morgoth’s banishment.

Amazon Studios’ forthcoming series brings to screens for the very first time the heroic legends of the fabled Second Age of Middle-Earth’s history. This epic drama is set thousands of years before the events of J.R.R. Tolkien’s The Hobbit and The Lord of the Rings. Beginning in a time of relative peace, the series follows an ensemble cast of characters, both familiar and new, as they confront the long-feared re-emergence of evil to Middle-earth. From the darkest depths of the Misty Mountains, to the majestic forests of the elf-capital of Lindon, to the breathtaking island kingdom of Númenor, to the furthest reaches of the map, these kingdoms and characters will carve out legacies that live on long after they are gone.

SOURCE: AMAZON

Posted on in Film News

‘Blade, The Vampire Hunter’: Marvel Selects ‘Watchmen’ & ‘Hunters’ Writer Stacy Osei-Kuffour To Pen Their Reboot

Yesterday, it was revealed by The Hollywood Reporter that Marvel’s search for screenwriters to tackle their upcoming Blade reboot (seemingly now titled Blade, The Vampire Hunter) has ended as the studio has reportedly selected writer Stacy Osei-Kuffour to tackle the reboot’s script. The studio is said to have been looking for black writers for the last six months that could jump onto their new incarnation.

Stacy is no stranger to comic book or genre project as she previous worked on HBO’s Watchmen and Amazon’s Nazi-hunter exploitation homage Hunters. A perfect choice if you ask me given those her credits. This will make her the first black female writer to work on a Marvel Studios feature film.

Oscar-winner Mahershala Ali is taking over the role of Eric Brooks aka Blade made famous by Wesley Snipes starting in 1998. The success of that first film led to two sequels along with messy live-action televisions that aired on Spike TV. It also predates the release of Fox’s X-Men by two years and proved that feature film adaptations based on Marvel Comics characters could connect with audiences, and make money.

Blade is a half-vampire which allows him to be immune to sunlight leading to his nickname, The Daywalker. He has the strength and speed of a vampire along with their thirst for blood. In the films, he used a serum to keep his thirst at bay. It remains to be seen how much of the established film lore will survive the new MCU version.

We’ll have to wait and see what their angle for the reboot as the trilogy (Blade: Trinity was produced by Kevin Feige) is best known as an R-rated genre hybrid of martial arts action and horror. If Marvel Studios is keen to keep Deadpool 3 an R-rated film there is a likelihood that Blade, The Vampire Hunter could be targeted towards adult audiences given that kids really don’t identify the character or for certain age groups even know he exists.

The next big step will be hiring a director.

While no names have been circulated to be in the running, I’d love to see Rick Famuyiwa to be considered as his work on Lucasfilm’s Star Wars series The Mandalorian has proven he can play within a large established sandbox and also contribute to it at the same time.

As they’ve only just announced a screenwriter, I don’t think the Blade reboot is going to be shooting in 2021 as Marvel is currently busy with productions such as Spider-Man 3, Doctor Strange In The Multiverse of Madness, and Thor: Love & Thunder filming in Atlanta, London, and Sydney respectively. They’re also expected to begin shooting Ant-Man 3, Captain Marvel 2, and Black Panther 2 later in the year.

A release date for Blade, The Vampire Hunter has yet to be announced.

SOURCE: THE HOLLYWOOD REPORTER