Tag: J.J. Abrams

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Andy Serkis Was “Slightly Mortified” By Snoke’s Death In ‘Star Wars: The Last Jedi’

Actor/director Andy Serkis is making the press rounds to help promote his latest directorial effort, Venom: Let There Be Carnage and finally is talking about his experience on Star Wars.

While speaking with geek outlet iO9, the topic predictable turned to Star Wars and specifically the death of his big villain, Supreme Leader Snoke. It was expected that Snoke would become the new Emperor Palpatine and that was cut short, literally, with a death scene in the throne room.

Serkis reveals that he was shocked to find out while reading the Star Wars: The Last Jedi script that his new villain wouldn’t survive the second film, giving the impression he assume Snoke would become a franchise staple or at least stick around for the third film.

“I was devastated when I read that script because it was all going so well. I was like, ‘Man, this is a boss character. I’m going to love playing… what!? You’re kidding me, what?’ I was like ‘Okay, is a good idea? I supposed it is. I was slightly mortified, pardon the pun. It was all in the right, I think. I loved playing that character and I love the face-off scene between Kylo Ren and Rey, and so it was great.”

Serkis also says that he was kept in the dark about the origins of Snoke that were revealed in Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker, which isn’t terribly surprising since there were multiple incarnations of Episode 9 and the Palpatine stuff seemed to be tagged-on once Colin Trevorrow exited.

“The journey towards discovering that he was a Palpatine clone was something that happened during the process because everything was so secret since Force Awakens.”

I personally wasn’t a fan of the return of Palpatine, as they could have made Snoke an immortal entity that has died thousands of time and simply brought him back in The Rise of Skywalker. Oh well.

Luckily, Serkis was doing motion capture work and allows him return to play future characters, if called upon for other film and television projects.

There is an assumption that Andy Serkis, while won’t play Caesar, will be involved in the fourth Planet of The Apes installment from director Wes Ball. The pair almost worked together on Mouse Guard, one of the large budget projects that got killed during the Disney/Fox merger.

SOURCE: iO9

Posted on in Film News

‘WandaVision’s Matt Shakman Becomes Third Director Hired For ‘Star Trek 4’; Paramount Aims For Spring 2022 Production Start

Paramount Pictures released Star Trek Beyond in 2016 and has been mulling over the next steps for Star Trek 4 for ages now. They’ve been churning-out multiple Star Trek series but for some reason just couldn’t settle with the right incarnation for the fourth installment, directors S.J. Clarkson (Jessica Jones) and Noah Hawley (Fargo, Legion) previously being attached to helm the sequel.

Deadline is now reporting a third candidate has stepped in, as Paramount has hired WandaVision director Matt Shakman to hopefully bring Star Trek 4 past the finish line after various hiccups uring the project’s development. The outlet adds that a new script has been penned by Lindsey Beer and Geneva Robertson-Dworet with an aim to get cameras rolling by next spring.

This announcement would seemly nudge to us that Hawley has joined Clarkson by exiting.

J.J. Abrams and Bad Robot are returning to produce. It’s also assumed that we’ll see the return of Chris Pine, Zachary Quinto, Zoe Saldana, Karl Urban, Simon Pegg, and new addition Sofia Boutella as well.

An earlier incarnation was going to involve time-travel and allow Pine’s Captain Kirk interact with his father George Kirk, who was played by a young Chris Hemsworth before he was cast by Marvel for Thor. Apparently, contract negotiations fell apart leading to the project dissolving.

Quentin Tarantino and Mark L. Smith (The Revenant) had been developing their own film based on the gangster episode of the original series. However, that project doesn’t seem like it will be happening.

Star Trek 4 likely won’t be ready for release until spring or summer of 2023.

STAR TREK BEYOND – A surprise attack in outer space forces the Enterprise to crash-land on a mysterious world. The assault came from Krall (Idris Elba), a lizard-like dictator who derives his energy by sucking the life out of his victims. Krall needs an ancient and valuable artifact that’s aboard the badly damaged starship. Left stranded in a rugged wilderness, Kirk (Chris Pine), Spock (Zachary Quinto) and the rest of the crew must now battle a deadly alien race while trying to find a way off their hostile planet.

SOURCE: DEADLINE

Posted on in Film News

UPDATE: J.J. Abrams-Produced Action Flick ‘Lou’ Starring Allison Janey & Jurnee Smollett Adds Cinematographer

The Ronin has learned that the latest action film from Netflix, Lou, has nabbed cinematographer Michael McDonough (I Am The Night, Fear The Walking Dead, Bosch, Pieces of Her). Bad Robot and J.J. Abrams are producing the film that stars Oscar-winner Allison Janey (Juno, Mom) and Jurnee Smollett (Birds of Prey, Lovecraft Country, Escape From Spiderhead) that is set to begin filming soon in Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada.

The story centers on a woman whose daughter is kidnapped, so she teams up with the mysterious older woman next door to pursue the kidnapper — a journey into the wilderness that will test their limits and expose dark and shocking secrets from their pasts.

It will be directed by German filmmaker Anna Foerster, who previously helmed Underworld: Blood Wars.

Foerster also worked on episodes of Outlander, Jessica Jones, Westworld (explains the Bad Robot connection), and Carnival Row. At one time, she was attached to direct a sequel to Duncan Jones’ sci-fi thriller Source Code. As a second unit director, working on big action projects such as The Day After Tomorrow, 10,000 B.C., and the Charlize Theron pic Æon Flux.

Production is said to begin next week in Vancouver and wrap in late August. This comes after there were extensive delays due to the pandemic in 2020, but things are getting better allowing more productions to begin in various Canadian cities.

I’m sure we’ll be getting more casting announcements in the coming weeks.

Abrams and Bad Robot closed a development deal with WarnerMedia which already has them working on a new Superman film featuring a black incarnation of the iconic superhero and a Justice League Dark series at HBO Max, among other projects.

Netflix hasn’t given Lou an official release date.

Posted on in Film News

‘Star Wars’: J.J. Abrams Reflects On Planning The Sequel Trilogy – “There’s Nothing More Important Than Knowing Where You’re Going”

There has been some criticism from Star Wars fans that Lucasfilm, J.J. Abrams, and Rian Johnson jumped into making the sequel trilogy without a concrete plan and potentially led to some contradictory moments between the three massive movies.

This was highlighted when director Colin Trevorrow’s unmade version of Episode IX, Star Wars: Duel of The Fates, was pretty much scrapped by the studio for something completely different from Abrams and screenwriter Chris Terrio with Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker. Concept artwork and the script for Duel of The Fates made it’s way online placing a spotlight on those scrapped plans, reinforcing the narrative that the studio didn’t have a master plan for this trilogy from the start.

Abrams was doing a round of press interviews to help promote the 4K UHD Blu-Ray home release of his alien adventure film Super 8, where he was asked by Collider if they should have had a plan for the Star Wars trilogy beforehand. The filmmaker gave a mixed repose giving the pros and cons of both.

ABRAMS: “There are projects that I’ve worked on where we had some ideas but we hadn’t worked through them enough, sometimes we had some ideas but then we weren’t allowed to do them the way we wanted to. I’ve had all sorts of situations where you plan things in a certain way and you suddenly find yourself doing something that’s 180 degrees different, and then sometimes it works really well and you feel like, ‘Wow that really came together,’ and other times you think, ‘Oh my God I can’t believe this is where we are,’ and sometimes when it’s not working out it’s because it’s what you planned, and other times when it’s not working out it’s because you didn’t [have a plan].”

“You just never really know, but having a plan I have learned – in some cases the hard way – is the most critical thing, because otherwise you don’t know what you’re setting up. You don’t know what to emphasize. Because if you don’t know the inevitable of the story, you’re just as good as your last sequence or effect or joke or whatever, but you want to be leading to something inevitable.”

The main quote mentioned at the top of the interview piece suggests that Abrams laments not having a plan with their Star Wars movies.

ABRAMS: “I do think that there’s nothing more important than knowing where you’re going.”

J.J. Abrams has since moved to WarnerMedia with a massive deal to develop films/television series for the media company and Lucasfilm is looking beyond the Skywalker Saga with Patty Jenkins directing Star Wars: Rogue Squadron as the next big Star Wars release for December 2023. Other films in development stages are coming from Taika Waititi and Rian Johnson, neither are expected to continue the Rey Skywalker journey.

SOURCE: COLLIDER

Posted on in Film News

J.J. Abrams Says The ‘Portal’ Movie Is Being Actively Written For Warner Bros.

J.J. Abrams and Bad Robot recently signed a massive development deal with Warner Bros. which has led to a new Superman film that will focus on a black incarnation of the DC Comics hero and an HBO Max series version of the Justice League Dark.

It looks like Abrams is going to be indeed tackling a live-action film based on the video game Portal as he mentioned in an interview with IGN, that the project is being actively written for Warner Bros. and they have a script on the go.

ABRAMS:”We actually do have a script that’s being written for the Portal movie now at [Warner Bros.]. We’re really excited about the take and the pitch, so it feels like that thing’s finally on the rails.”

In Portal, the player controls the protagonist, Chell, from a first-person perspective as she is challenged to navigate through a series of test chambers using the Aperture Science Handheld Portal Device, or portal gun, under the watchful supervision of the artificial intelligence GLaDOS.

A live-action short was directed by 10 Cloverfield Lane’s Dan Trachtenberg, the filmmaker is about to begin shooting Predator 5 next month in Calgary, Alberta.

SOURCE: IGN

Posted on in Film News

Michael B. Jordan Admits He “Bombed” His ‘Star Wars: The Force Awakens’ Audition & Still Open To Reprise ‘Black Panther’ Villain Erik Killmonger

Michael B. Jordan is certainly is a different place in his career after two installments of Creed with a third on the way as he’ll make his feature film directorial debut on Creed III. He also got Marvel redemption after playing Johnny Storm in Fox’s Fantastic Four reboot only to play the complex villain Erik Killmonger in Ryan Coogler’s Black Panther.

Jordan is attempting to launch another franchise with Tom Clancy’s Without Remorse, set directly within the Jack Ryan universe and is attached to reprise his role in a Rainbow Six movie based on the Clancy novel. The new action film is currently playing on Amazon Prime Video and the actor is making the press rounds to promote it.

While speaking on the Variety podcast Just For Variety with Mark Malkin (via The Playlist), the actor revealed not everything has gone his way during his Hollywood journey as he recalls completely messing up an audition for a role in Star Wars: The Force Awakens with J.J. Abrams himself in the room.

JORDAN: “It was probably the Star Wars’ audition that I had with JJ [Abrams], I think. It just wasn’t my best. It was probably my worst to date. I just couldn’t wrap my brain around some of the sides. When you’re reading for these high-level projects, there’s never really any specificity in the sides. Everything is super gray and a secret. Reading it through, I just couldn’t connect it. Definitely bombed that one, for sure.”

I think he’s recovered from that experience and might potentially have a sigh of relief after the publicly frustrating experience cast members of the recent Star Wars trilogy were exposed to on and off the set. Notably, the racism that John Boyega and Kelly Marie Tran faced from so-called “fans” alongside what looked to be both their roles being trimmed at certain points in the trilogy by the studio.

Speaking of Black Panther, Entertainment Tonight also interviewed Jordan and brought up the possibility of him reprising the role of Erik Killmonger (died in last film) at some point. We know that Black Panther: Wakanda Forever is set to shoot this July in Atlanta and could likely conflict with the pre-production/filming of Creed III as Jordan will direct and star making it difficult for him to have a significant role in the Marvel sequel.

JORDAN: “There’s always a love I have for those characters and Erik is definitely one of those that means a lot to me. So only if it’s the right thing and it’s impactful and if I could add something to it. If it means something then, yeah, I wanna be a part of that journey, you know?”

SOURCE: JUST FOR VARIETY & ENTERTAINMENT TONIGHT

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Marvel’s ‘Blade’ Reboot & WB’s Next ‘Superman’ Movie Courting The Same Directors

Disney and Warner Bros. are reportedly courting the same black filmmakers for their upcoming superhero projects as mentioned by The Hollywood Reporter. As both Blade and the next Superman film produced by J.J. Abrams are expected to be shot by experienced black directors. An exciting era of inclusion given the budgets expected for the two comic book movies.

Apparently, screenwriter Ta-Nehisi Coates’ black Superman project is expected to have a non-contemporary setting, which sounds similar to the studio’s original plans for Supergirl (1980s). However, it’s unclear when in the 1900s they’ll be aiming for. Instead, Supergirl will appear in The Flash movie (filming in the United Kingdom) played by actress Sasha Calle ushering her directly into the DCEU but the Superman movie doesn’t seem to be joining that corner of the cinematic universe.

The Superman film appears to be moving onto its own track and won’t be part of the universe, as of now. Sources tell THR that Coates is crafting a Kal-El in the vein of the original Superman comics and will have the protagonist hail from Krypton and come to Earth. While the story is currently being crafted and many details could change, one option under consideration is for the film to be a 20th century period piece.

THR is claiming that there is a group candidates that have been looked for both movies.

The names mentioned in the report are Steven Caple Jr. (Creed II), J.D. Dillard (Sleight, Sweetheart), Regina King (One Night In Miami, and Shaka King (Judas & The Black Messiah). It’s certainly an excellent group of contenders but it’s unclear if these names are simply suggestions by the outlet or actually in the running.

The former list can include Creed II’s Steven Caple Jr., J.D. Dillard, Regina King — who got raves for her drama One Night in Miami — and Shaka King, who is popular at Warners thanks to best picture Oscar nominee Judas and the Black Messiah. Some potential directors have met with both studios for both films, even as one agent said the process was “phenomenally early.” 

You might remember that Steven is currently busy with Paramount’s latest Transformers movie about to shoot over in Montreal and Dillard had been previously tasked to co-write a Star Wars project for Lucasfilm.

They also mentioned that Blade’s shoot was bumped from September 2021 to July 2022, giving folks over a full year to complete any outstanding projects before jumping to the MCU. Coates is said not to be delivering his script until mid-December suggesting both projects won’t be shooting until 2022.

SOURCE: THE HOLLYWOOD REPORTER

Posted on in Film News

Paramount Releasing Mystery ‘Star Trek’ Film In June 2023

Paramount Pictures announced a new slate of release dates today via Deadline and one of the projects mentioned included an untitled Star Trek film given a spot on June 9, 2023.

There had been multiple Star Trek film projects in the works over the years as the studio has been increasingly indecisive concerning the franchise and what to do next after Star Trek Beyond.

S.J. Clarkson had been hired to direct Star Trek 4 with talk of Chris Hemsworth returning to play Kirk’s father before it was scrapped after returning cast members couldn’t make a deal with the studio concerning salaries.

Quentin Tarantino and screenwriter Mark L. Smith (The Revenant) teamed-up for their own Star Trek film that was expected to be inspired by the gangster episode from the original series, however, it sounds like that one lost steam as well. It seemingly would have allowed the current cast to be part of the project.

Noah Hawley (Legion, Fargo) was hired to write and direct his own Star Trek movie before Paramount pulled the plug, according to Hawley speaking to Deadline back in 2020. It was announced in December that Noah would be working with Ridley Scott on an Earthbound Alien streaming series for Disney.

HAWLEY: ” It doesn’t appear to be in my immediate future. I think when Emma [Watts] came in, she took a look at the franchise and wanted to go in a different direction with it. But you know, life is long, we were very close to production but in this business that doesn’t mean much. You got to get out of the gate to be in the race if you know what I mean.”

Last month, Deadline reported that Star Trek: Discovery writer Kalinda Vazquez was tasked by Paramount and producer J.J. Abrams to write an “original” Star Trek film. She’s also working with George R.R. Martin on HBO’s Roadmarks series.

I guess we’ll have to be patient to find out what this project is or if it’s just another incarnation that is going to get shelved before filming kicks-off.

SOURCE: DEADLINE

Posted on in Film News

‘Promising Young Woman’s Emerald Fennell To Write ‘Zatanna’ Movie With J.J. Abrams’ Bad Robot Producing

Screenwriter and director Emerald Fennell is coming off a very successful year for her rape-revenge film Promising Young Woman as it landed an impressive five Oscar nominations, three for Fennell. Those include Best Original Screenplay, Best Picture, and Best Director there is a good chance she’ll end up with multiple awards come April 25th.

Studios are already circling the talented filmmaker as Variety reports that Warner Bros. has tapped Fennell to write a DC Comics film focused on the heroine Zatanna for them with DC Films and J.J. Abrams’ Bad Robot producing it.

Zatanna, created by Gardner Fox and Murphy Anderson, is a magician and considered one of the most powerful sorcerers in the DC universe. Her magical abilities are genetic, as her dad Giovanni Zatara was also an alchemist.

There had been an expectation that the Zatanna character would be part of the Justice League Dark series on HBO Max that Abrams is also involved with. However, Variety states the feature film will this incarnations first appearance.

Abrams is also developing a “dark” Constantine reboot series for HBO Max.

It’s quite interesting to see DC Films recruiting from Oscar contenders.

PROMISING YOUNG WOMAN – Nothing in Cassie’s life is what it appears to be — she’s wickedly smart, tantalizingly cunning, and she’s living a secret double life by night. Now, an unexpected encounter is about to give Cassie a chance to right the wrongs from the past.

SOURCE: VARIETY

Posted on in Film News

J.J. Abrams’ Bad Robot To Produce ‘Superman’ Reboot With ‘Black Panther’s Ta-Nehisi Coates Penning The Script

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.

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.

SOURCE: DEADLINE