Tag: Jojo Rabbit

Posted on in Film News, News

Taika Waititi May Indeed Direct Scarlett Johansson In Disney’s ‘Tower Of Terror’ Movie

Disney is looking to release a new horror-themed film “Haunted Mansion,” which is loosely based on the popular theme park attraction. That’s isn’t the only project on the horizon that is connected to the parks as there had been plans on making a “Tower of Terror” movie and there seems to be confirmations of sorts that it’s still in some sort of development at the studio.

In a recent profile of actress Scarlett Johansson, Variety briefly supports a previous report from The DisInsider that Waititi is attached to direct the horror pic for Disney as the two worked together on the WWII movie “Jojo Rabbit.” But Variety failed to give any new concrete details of when that is exactly going to happen. The ride is directly connected to the “Twilight Zone” series and would certainly be a neat way for Disney to keep making horror films.

Step uneasily inside the infamous Hollywood Tower Hotel and find a dusty lobby frozen in time. Even the subdued hotel staff seems strangely out of another era. Suddenly a television set springs to life and Rod Serling welcomes you on a journey into the Twilight Zone. He reveals that on a gloomy Halloween night in 1939, some hotel patrons were riding the elevator when a violent storm struck the building… and they were never seen again. The hotel closed down and has stood empty ever since.

There had been some assumptions that after the actress’ legal headaches with Disney over money tied to Marvel’s “Black Widow” that something like “Tower of Terror” might have soured on her. However, given that Waititi is attached it could delay things even further given how busy the filmmaker is these days with multiple films he’s already attached to including a “Star Wars” film, a remake of “Flash Gordon,” and a new sci-fi pic “Klara & The Sun.”

SOURCE: VARIETY

Posted on in News

Scarlett Johansson & Taika Waititi May Reunite For Disney’s ‘Tower Of Terror’ Movie

Black Widow actress Scarlett Johansson publicly sued Disney during the summer because of a dispute over Disney shutting her out from participating in Disney+ revenue for the Marvel Studios film, which subsequently dinged her bonuses based on box office earnings. They eventually settled out of court when Disney’s big smear campaign against the actress backfired hard and almost led to The Russo Brothers backing out of a new potential project at Marvel.

After the dust settled, there was a report that she would still make Disney’s Terror of Tower movie, based on the horror attraction from their parks. It looks like they might have secured a director.

The Disinsider now is reporting that Kiwi director Taika Waititi has “signed on” to direct.

This would be a reunion as the two previously worked on the Oscar-winning comedic drama Jojo Rabbit, which focused on a family hiding a Jewish girl in Nazi Germany as the young son, Jojo, is being indoctrinated in the Hitler Youth.

Taika Waititi is a busy lad as his films Next Goal Wins and Thor: Love & Thunder still have to be released. He’s also developing a new live-action Flash Gordon movie for 20th Century Studios and is still chipping away on a script for an untitled Star Wars film.

It’s worth mentioning that Taika is currently in post with his Thor sequel and his Star Wars script hasn’t been completed, as Patty Jenkins’ Star Wars: Rogue Squadron is the priority and goes into production next year at Pinewood Studios UK. There haven’t been any real signs of what his next film project will be.

Tower of Terror isn’t the only family-friendly horror project at Disney as they’re shooting a new incarnation of Haunted Mansion with director Justin Simien (Dear White People), another Star Wars creative that is developing the Lando series for Lucasfilm.

Josh Cooley (Toy Story 4, Inside Out) had been previously announced as the film’s screenwriter, but if Waititi is involved he’ll likely add his own polishes to the script given the Jojo Rabbit screenwriter won an Oscar for Best Adapted Screenplay.

JOJO RABBIT – Writer-director Taika Waititi (THOR: RAGNAROK, HUNT FOR THE WILDERPEOPLE), brings his signature style of humor and pathos to his latest film, JOJO RABBIT, a World War II satire that follows a lonely German boy (Roman Griffin Davis as JoJo) whose world view is turned upside down when he discovers his single mother (Scarlett Johansson) is hiding a young Jewish girl (Thomasin McKenzie) in their attic. Aided only by his idiotic imaginary friend, Adolf Hitler (Taika Waititi), Jojo must confront his blind nationalism.

SOURCE: THE DISINIDER

Posted on in Film News, News

Taika Waititi Says He’s Still Keen On Making The ‘Akira’ Movie; “I Don’t Wanna Give Up On That”

Warner Bros. has been trying to make a live-action feature film version of the beloved cyberpunk/body horror anime and manga Akira and their development goes back almost twenty years starting with Stephen Norrington (Blade) in 2002.

Multiple directors had tried to bring the project to the big screen only for things dissolve and the next set of creatives being hired.

The most recent incarnation had Oscar-winner Taika Waititi (Thor: Ragnarok, Jojo Rabbit) attempting to adapt for the studio, but seemingly hit a brick wall when trying to make sure he was able to cast a string of young Asian kids for the roles. Warner Bros. had been trying to whitewash the project for ages and even relocate the extremely Japanese story to Manhattan.

There had been an assumption that Taika Waititi had moved to bigger and brighter things with an original Star Wars movie on the horizon and his Flash Gordon movie at 20th Century Fox being upgraded from animation to live-action.

While promoting his acting performance in Ryan Reynolds’ Free Guy, he spoke to Wired giving the impression he’s still involved with Akira and hasn’t entirely walked away from it.

 “I’m still trying [to make it]. I don’t wanna give up on that.”

Given his busy schedule and admitting his focus is now on his Star Wars project, it’s unlikely he’ll pivot to Akira anytime soon.

The last big anime adaptation was DreamWorks’ box office flop Ghost In The Shell, hopefully, Warner Bros. learns their lesson from that disaster.

If you’re interested in the development of Akira, you can read a feature I wrote for IGN covering the history of live-action adaptation and it includes a heap of concept artwork from various incarnations.

AKIRA – In 1988 the Japanese government drops an atomic bomb on Tokyo after ESP experiments on children go awry. In 2019, 31 years after the nuking of the city, Kaneda, a bike gang leader, tries to save his friend Tetsuo from a secret government project. He battles anti-government activists, greedy politicians, irresponsible scientists and a powerful military leader until Tetsuo’s supernatural powers suddenly manifest. A final battle is fought in Tokyo Olympiad exposing the experiment’s secrets.

SOURCE: WIRED