Tag: John Krasinski

Posted on in Film News, News

Director Guy Ritchie Casts John Krasinski & Natalie Portman For Global Heist Adventure Flick ‘Fountain Of Youth’ At Apple

There doesn’t seem to be any stopping Guy Ritchie as The Hollywood Reporter has learned that the British director has selected his next feature film effort with “Fountain of Youth.” It will focus on “two estranged siblings who partner on a global heist to find the mythological Fountain of Youth” and landed at Apple Original Films/Skydance Media. The outlet also names actors John Krasinski (“Jack Ryan”) and Natalie Portman (“Thor: Love & Thunder”) as the two leads of the film playing the aforementioned siblings with an original script penned by James Vanderbilt.

The veteran screenwriter has a varied group of credits that include the John McTiernan-directed military whodunnit “Basic,” David Fincher’s fantastic serial killer pic “Zodiac,” the last two “Scream” movies, “The Amazing Spider-Man,” Dwayne Johnson’s Brazil-set actioner “The Rundown,” and the upcoming post-WWII drama “Nuremberg” starring Russell Crowe that is based on the novel “The Nazi & The Psychiatrist” by Jack El-Hai.

Ritchie has been a bit of a workhorse lately after delivering Disney a billion-dollar hit with “Aladdin” by shooting a string of quickly developed movies since 2018 that consist of “The Gentlemen,” “Wrath of Man,” “Operation Fortune: Ruse de Guerre,” “The Covenant,” and the upcoming WWII commando flick “The Ministry of Ungentlemanly Warfare.” The filmmaker most recently reunited with Henry Cavill and Jake Gyllenhaal for an untitled action thriller, which will see them play two extraction specialists who are tasked to designate a route of escape for a senior female negotiator with that latter role being occupied by Eiza González (“Ambulance”).

Despite mainly focusing on grinding out a horde of action-packed films, Ritchie is also involved with a series spinoff of “The Gentlemen” as well that will drop on Netflix in the not-too-distant future which stars actors Theo James, Kaya Scodelario, and longtime pal/former football star Vinnie Jones (“Snatch”).

Eddie Halstead inherits large estate from father, unaware it fronts Pearson’s drug empire. With no crime experience, he must take over the operation or lose the estate.

Interestingly enough, the director’s former creative partner and producer Matthew Vaughn (“Layer Cake”) has also set up shop at the streaming service after Apple spent an impressive $200 million to acquire his spy-comedy “Argylle.” There had been talk that the film could spawn a new franchise which is said to be a motivating factor why Apple spent so much money on securing the film that will debut on February 2, 2024, with Universal Pictures handling the distribution before it lands on Apple TV+.

The report isn’t exactly clear when they plan to begin production on “Fountain of Youth,” but I’m sure we’ll be getting more details in the coming weeks and months on that front.

SOURCE: THE HOLLYWOOD REPORTER

Posted on in Television News

‘Jack Ryan’ Season 3 Adds ‘Dunkirk & ‘The Dark Knight’ Stunt Coordinator Tom Struthers

John Krasinski is having a pretty good week as his second feature film as a director made a mint at the domestic box office this past Memorial Day long weekend, with A Quiet Place Part II taking in around $57 million surpassing both the original film and Godzilla Vs. Kong’s pandemic record breaking domestic opening. Krasinski is also the main lead of the Amazon spy series Jack Ryan, of course, based on the Tom Clancy series of novels that spawned five studio movies previously led by actors such as Alec Baldwin, Harrison Ford, Ben Affleck, and Chris Pine.

The Ronin can confirm that veteran stunt coordinator Tom Struthers has joined the production team of the Amazon Prime Video series. Something that should get action fans like myself hyped about the third season taking steps to elevate the show’s action sequences.

The stunt coordinator isn’t a stranger to the Jack Ryan franchise as he worked on Chris Pine’s Jack Ryan: Shadow Recruit. Struthers’ other credits include The Dark Knight, Dunkirk, Inception, The Dark Knight Rises, John Carter, Terminator Salvation, and X-Men: First Class. He most recently worked on Denis Villeneuve’s first Dune installment and the Paramount+ streaming series Halo starring Pablo Schreiber as Master Chief, both sci-fi projects had been primarily shot in Budapest, Hungary.

Filming is reportedly still underway as Deadline says they added Betty Gabriel (Get Out) to the cast last month and mentioned the plot synopsis of the next season. She joins Krasinski alongside others such as Wendell Pierce, Mark Kelly, James Cosmo, Peter Guinness, Nina Hoss, and Alexej Manvelov.

Season 3 of Tom Clancy’s Jack Ryan finds Jack Ryan (Krasinski) on the run and in a race against time. Jack is wrongly implicated in a larger conspiracy and suddenly finds himself a fugitive out in the cold. Now, wanted by both the CIA and an international rogue faction that he has uncovered, Jack is forced underground, crisscrossing Europe, trying to stay alive and prevent a massive global conflict.

Season 3 is said to debut sometime this year.

Posted on in Film News

‘A Quiet Place Part II’ Expected To Surpass ‘Godzilla Vs. Kong’s Domestic Opening With An Impressive $57 Million Over The Memorial Day Weekend

It’s hard to deny that the COVID-19 pandemic has changed the landscape for various films to earn top-dollar and with the American box office struggling over the last year, you can’t blame movie fans for getting excited about the small victories concerning the box office slowly coming back to life. This weekend saw A Quiet Place Part II have an exceptional weekend at the box office despite all that and illustrates that appointment viewing is still key to getting asses in seats.

Following the deadly events at home, the Abbott family must now face the terrors of the outside world as they continue their fight for survival in silence. Forced to venture into the unknown, they quickly realize that the creatures that hunt by sound are not the only threats that lurk beyond the sand path.

The John Krasinski-directed horror sequel was able to muster an estimated $57 million over four days, according to Variety. This gives A Quiet Place Part II the new pandemic era domestic opening weekend record surpassing Godzilla Vs. Kong’s five day opening total of $48.5 million. It’s release had been delayed a full year because of the pandemic.

For some comparison, A Quiet Place opened to $50.2 million in the summer of 2018 and went on to earn $341 million on a budget of $17 million. There is a good shot that the second film is able to cross the $300 million, if not earn the studio even more.

This box office performance with these two installments should help bolster John Krasinski’s directing career and ability to get original projects picked-up by studios in the future. Krasinski hasn’t given up on acting as he’s still playing Jack Ryan on the popular Amazon Prime Video series with Season 3 coming out sometime this year.

A third movie is already in the works with filmmaker Jeff Nichols (Mud, Midnight Special, Loving, Take Shelter) attached to write and direct it, as reported by Deadline last fall. Nichols had once been developing a feature film reboot of the sci-fi buddy cop film Alien Nation for 20th Century Fox before the merger with the Walt Disney company placed the project into limbo, he’s currently hoping to repackage Alien Nation as a series.

Disney also decided to release Emma Stone’s 101 Dalmatians prequel, Cruella, over the weekend using a hybrid model having it drop in both theaters and on Disney+’s Premier Access at the same time. Cruella was able to earn a projected $27 million for a solid second place spot given the Disney project was being marketed to an older audience, although, I’m sure Disney was hoping for a bigger turnout.

The other big movies coming this summer include F9, The Conjuring: The Devil Made Me Do It, Hitman’s Wife’s Bodyguard, In The Heights, Black Widow, Snake Eyes: G.I. Joe Origins, Space Jam: Legacy, Jungle Cruise, The Green Knight, Free Guy, The Suicide Squad, and Candyman.

SOURCE: VARIETY

Posted on in Film News

‘Fantastic Four’: Emily Blunt Downplays Sue Storm Rumors As Fan-Casting – “I Don’t Know If Superhero Roles Are For Me”

Marvel Studios casting real-life couple John Kraskinski and Emily Blunt for their Fantastic Four reboot from Spider-Man: No Way Home director Jon Watts is starting to feel like stretch given recent comments from the pair of actors.

Emily has been on Marvel’s radar going back to Iron Man 2 as she was originally attached to play Black Widow before 20th Century Fox exercised a contract and pulled her off the film leading to Scarlett Johansson taking the role instead. She was later in the mix to play Peggy Carter with John up for the Steve Rogers, neither landed the project.

Speaking on The Howard Stern Show, Emily Blunt revealed that despite online rumblings neither of them have got a call from Marvel about the reboot and even downplayed her enthusiasm for superhero roles entirely. After striking out twice before you can’t really blame Emily for feeling like the genre isn’t for her. There had been similar rumors about her being wanted for Carol Danvers aka Captain Marvel but has since denied multiple times in interviews that was ever a thing.

BLUNT: “That is fan-casting. No one has received a phone call. That’s just people saying, ‘Wouldn’t that be great?’ It’s not that it’s beneath me. I love Iron Man and when I got offered Black Widow I was obsessed with Iron Man. I wanted to work with Robert Downey Jr., it would’ve been amazing but I don’t know if superhero movies are for me. They’re not up my alley. I don’t like them. I really don’t.”

This comes after hubby John Krasinski also nixed rumors last year and has recently landed a deal with Paramount Pictures that will likely keep him busy for ages.

Emily recently worked with Disney for the Jungle Cruise movie based on the theme park ride and if successful will likely spawn sequels. An Edge of Tomorrow sequel has been in the works for ages but as Blunt has stated multiple times it all comes down to scheduling with Tom Cruise and director Doug Liman.

Tenet actor John David Washington has voiced some interest in playing Reed Richards.

Back in February, Deadline reported the production was only early stages of development and didn’t have screenwriters attached. With 2023 release dates dwindling and Blade expected to be third 2023 release, there is a good shot that we won’t see Fantastic Four until sometime in 2024. We still don’t have a timeline as Watts is still seemingly working on the final days of shooting Spider-Man: No Way Home and will have to spend most of 2021 in post-production before it’s December release.

SOURCE: THE HOWARD STERN SHOW

Posted on in Film News

‘A Quiet Place Part II’: The Anticipated Horror Sequel Leaps From April To September

Another big film has been moved from the spring as Paramount Pictures has also delayed their anticipated horror flick A Quiet Place Part II moving it from April 23rd to September 17th.

Studios weighing closures of theaters alongside the the slow rollout of the vaccine has led to a bulk of the spring line-up being pushed to the summer and fall. In the case of some Sony Pictures films such as Uncharted and Morbius, moved completely out of 2021 to early 2022.

Paramount seems to be committed to a theatrical release of their films despite the rebranding of the streaming service CBS All Access as Paramount+ coming soon. There are signs that Tom Cruise’s Top Gun: Maverick could be bumped when studios start moving more summer tentpoles but there are suggestions they will keep a theatrical release.

However, we’ll likely see more of these pushes in the coming weeks.

The studio has future plans of continuing A Quiet Place franchise as director Jeff Nichols is currently attached to write and direct an untitled third film.

A QUIET PLACE PART II – Following the deadly events at home, the Abbott family (Emily Blunt, Millicent Simmonds, Noah Jupe) must now face the terrors of the outside world as they continue their fight for survival in silence. Forced to venture into the unknown, they quickly realize that the creatures that hunt by sound are not the only threats that lurk beyond the sand path.

Here’s a reminder of the recent date changes.

  • Godzilla vs. Kong – March 26th, 2021 (moved up)
  • Nobody – April 2nd, 2021
  • BIOS – August 13th, 2021
  • The King’s Man – August 20th, 2021
  • A Quiet Place Part II – September 17th, 2021
  • The Many Saints of Newark – September 24th, 2021
  • No Time To Die – October 8th, 2021
  • Last Night In Soho – October 22nd, 2021
  • Antlers – October 29th, 2021
  • Ghostbusters: Afterlife – November 11th, 2021
  • Nightmare Alley – December 3rd, 2021
  • Morbius – January 21st, 2022
  • Uncharted – February 11th, 2022
  • Ambulance – February 18th, 2022
  • Bob’s Burgers (TBA)

SOURCE: PARAMOUNT PICTURES

Posted on in Television News

EXCLUSIVE: Amazon’s ‘Jack Reacher’ Series Hires ‘Bodyguard’ Director Thomas Vincent

The Ronin has been able to confirm that Skydance/Amazon has hired French director Thomas Vincent to helm an undisclosed amount of episodes for their new Jack Reacher series starring Alan Ritchson (Titans, Ghosts of War). The Amazon series is a hard reboot of the character previously played by Tom Cruise in two feature films released by Paramount Pictures and based on the novels written by author Lee Child.

The first season is said to be an adaption of the novel The Killing Floor.

Jack Reacher comes to the little town of Margrave looking for information about the mysterious death of a guitar player named Blind Blake. Instead, he finds one of the largest counterfeiting operations in history.

Vincent is likely best known for directing the first three episodes of the hit Netflix series Bodyguard that was led by Richard Madden (Game of Thrones, Eternals).

BODYGUARD – Set in and around the corridors of power, Bodyguard tells the story of David Budd (Richard Madden), a heroic, but volatile war veteran now working as a Specialist Protection Officer for London’s Metropolitan Police Service. When he is assigned to protect the ambitious Home Secretary Julia Montague (Keeley Hawes), Budd finds himself torn between his duty and his beliefs. Responsible for her safety, could he become her biggest threat?

We previously reported that filming is expected to kick-off around mid-April in Toronto.

They’ve also hired production designer Patricio M. Farrell, who worked on The Haunting of Hill House and The Haunting of Bly Manor.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tykS7QfTWMQ

Skydance is also behind Amazon’s Jack Ryan series starring John Krasinski and developing an original spy series starring Arnold Schwarzenegger for Netflix.

More casting announcements are on the horizon.

Posted on in Film News

Jeff Nichols To Write and Direct ‘A Quiet Place 3’ For A Release In 2022

Deadline reports that filmmaker Jeff Nichols (Mud, Midnight Special) has been hired by Paramount Pictures to write and direct a third film in the A Quiet Place franchise, which had it’s first two installments directed by John Krasinski.

They aren’t saying if the project is a direct sequel featuring the Abbott family or simply set in the world of the other two films.

Jeff had been developing a remake of Alien Nation for 20th Century Fox before the merger with Disney. The original was a sci-fi take on the Lethal Weapon and Beverly Hills Cop model of the buddy cop genre.

A Quiet Place II was delayed by Paramount Pictures to April 23rd, 2021 due to COVID-19.

A QUIET PLACE II – The Abbott family must now face the terrors of the outside world as they fight for survival in silence. Forced to venture into the unknown, they realize that the creatures that hunt by sound are not the only threats that lurk beyond the sand path.

SOURCE: DEADLINE