Tag: Kong: Skull Island

Posted on in Film News, News

Legendary Entertainment Reportedly Exploring Sale/Merger; Behind ‘Dune’ & ‘Godzilla Vs. Kong’

After reports of Apple inquiring a potential purchase of A24 and Amazon picking up MGM Studios for a hefty $8.45 billion, it looks like another major production studio might end up on the auction block. Variety is reporting that Legendary Entertainment could be looking to be sold or merge with another company,. This comes after Bloomberg revealed that Legendary was working with investment bank LionTree LLC to develop possible deals.

Any deal would likely be for less than than the $3.5 billion that Dalian Wanda paid to acquire Legendary in 2016 from founder Thomas Tull, because that pact included the assumption of substantial debt. 

Legendary is behind recent releases such as Godzilla vs. Kong and the upcoming sci-fi epic Dune from director Denis Villeneuve. In the past, the company has had distribution deals with Universal Pictures and Warner Bros., however, there have been tension with the partnering companies over the years. There were multiple reports that Legendary was on the cusp of suing WarnerMedia over blocking a deal to offload Godzilla vs. Kong at Netflix for around $200 million. Instead, WarnerMedia with little notice announced plans to add Godzilla vs. Kong and Dune to their big day-and-date slate, that would the two pricey films dropped on HBO Max at the same time as theaters.

A sale could essentially dissolve distribution deals, meaning that future Dune and Monsterverse (pending Toho extending their rights deal) franchise installments could find a new home depending if there is a sale or merger on the horizon. That is unless WarnerMedia believes they want to acquire Legendary.

There a bunch of projects still in development including Dune: Part Two and a handful of Monsterverse movies such as the rumored Son of Kong from director Adam Wingard. It remains to be seen what this could mean for those films and other various things being worked on behind the scenes.

SOURCE: VARIETY

Posted on in Television News

‘Kong: Skull Island’ Actor Eugene Cordero Reunites With Tom Hiddleston In The First ‘Loki’ Episode

There was an interesting reunion in the first episode of Loki as comedian Eugene Cordero (The Good Place, Star Trek: Lower Decks) has a small role as a Time Variance Agency employee named Casey.

Cordero appeared alongside Tom Hiddleston, Brie Larson, and Samuel L. Jackson in the Monsterverse film Kong: Skull Island playing one of the soldiers. He also appeared in Season 1 of The Mandalorian as one of the farmers that begs Mando to protect their village from bandits, making the comedian part of two rather large universes now.

Loki tracks down Casey to get his hands on the Tesseract, only to discover that in the TVA cosmic and magic power doesn’t work. His desk drawer is full of infinity stones as they’re just shiny objects that are often used as paperweights in the office.

We’ll have to keep watching the series to see if Eugene’s character is just a one-time thing.

Posted on in Film News

‘Kong: Skull Island’ Director Jordan Vogt-Roberts & Brian K. Vaughn Team For Live-Action ‘Gundam’ Movie

Legendary and Netflix is moving forward with a live-action Gundam movie, according to IGN. As the streaming giant has set Jordan Vogt-Roberts to direct a script from Lost’s Brian K. Vaughn. Legendary will distribute the film in China while Netflix will exclusively stream the film globally.

It’s unclear if they’ll be adapting the original anime series or attempt a new incarnation.

In the war between the Earth Federation and Zeon, a young and inexperienced crew find themselves on a new spaceship. Their best hope of making it through the conflict is the Gundam, a giant humanoid robot, and its gifted teenage pilot. It is the year 0079 of the Universal Century.

Vogt-Roberts is likely best known for his Monsterverse installment Kong: Skull Island that rebooted King Kong for the Legendary franchise and recently cast Oscar Isaac (Dune, Star Wars: The Force Awakens, Moon Knight) for his Metal Gear Solid film at Sony Pictures.

Brian K. Vaughn is an established comic book writer and had once been tasked to write a solo Silver Surfer movie for 20th Century Fox before the merger with Disney nixed those plans. He’s behind comics such as Saga, Y: The Last Man and Ex Machina.

It’s starting to sound like Legendary and Netflix will attempt to grow their relationship after recently working together on Enola Holmes. You might remember that Netflix offered the studio a massive $200 million deal to secure Godzilla vs. Kong, as WarnerMedia crushed that deal to place the film on HBO Max for free alongside the theatrical release. I’m curious if we’ll see big projects like this at Legendary offered to Netflix in the future instead of Warner Bros. for distribution.

SOURCE: IGN

Posted on in Film News

UPDATE: ‘Godzilla vs Kong’ Earns Estimated $70M In China & $122M Internationally

Despite multiple countries still reeling from the COVID-19 pandemic, with a handful staring down the barrel of a fourth wave because of the increased variants (alongside folks ignoring medical recommendations), the international box office seems to be returning in some markets.

Legendary’s Godzilla vs Kong made a big splash when it’s first trailer dropped and the marketing campaign has seemingly resonated with audiences that had been previously lukewarm about previous installments like Kong: Skull Island and Godzilla: King of The Monsters.

Will this equate into a huge box office hit?

Well, internationally that seems to be the case and is becoming the biggest debut since the pandemic started. Deadline is reporting that after the film had a spectacular Friday opening of $21.1 million in China it seems to be lumbering towards an estimated haul of $70.4 million in the Middle Kingdom. This means the kaiju showdown is expected to cross $100+ million opening weekend internationally and has surpassed the Chinese opening of Godzilla: King of The Monsters. It’s worth mentioning that foreign movies don’t tend to stick around very long in the Chinese market compared to their local releases and the studio hopes to make hay as long as they can.

UPDATE: The Hollywood Reporter adds that the intentional estimate is now $121.8 million.

Godzilla vs Kong won’t be debuting domestically until March 31.

However, WarnerMedia is offering the film free for a month on HBO Max which will certainly have an impact on domestic box office earnings. While there has been positive estimates, we’ll have to wait and see if folks will be piling into indoor theaters as a fourth wave of COVID-19 looms or will opt for the free alternative available on HBO Max with a subscription.

Bob Odenkirk’s action flick Nobody took the top spot this weekend domestically with $6.7 million which is good for a movie budgeted at $16 million. This isn’t exactly the sign of box office strength you want to see with Godzilla vs Kong’s release on the horizon later in the week.

With a budget of $165 million, Godzilla vs Kong will need to continue to be successful overseas to turn a profit when movies like Wonder Woman 1984 were reportedly said to take $100 million loss. The hybrid release model from WarnerMedia has yet to be seen as box office benefit to the Warner Bros. division, but we’ll see if this changes with films such as Godzilla vs Kong.

SOURCE: DEADLINE

Posted on in Film News

‘Last Voyage of The Demeter’: Amblin Taps ‘Kong: Skull Island’ Actor Corey Hawkins To Lead Dracula Flick

According to Deadline, Amblin has hired Corey Hawkins to lead their upcoming vampire movie Last Voyage of The Demeter, the Russian ship that transports Dracula to London as the vampire feeds on the crew members during the journey. The horrific trip was seen in films such as Bram Stoker’s Dracula directed by Francis Ford Coppola and the classic silent film Nosferatu.

Hawkins is no stranger to creature features appearing in Kong: Skull Island and The Walking Dead.

The film will detail the strange events that befell the doomed crew as they attempt to survive the ocean voyage, stalked each night by a terrifying presence onboard the ship. When it finally arrived near Whitby Harbor, it was a derelict. There was no trace of the crew. The initial script was written by Bragi Schut.

Andre Øvredal is directing from a script from Bullet Train screenwriter Zak Olkewicz.

The project has been kicking around for just under two decades with various directors attaching themselves and exiting before Amblin kicked things into gear with this incarnation.

When they plan to begin shooting wasn’t mentioned in the report.

SOURCE: DEADLINE

Posted on in Film News

Robert Rodriguez Thriller ‘Hypnotic’ Starring Ben Affleck To Begin Shooting July 27th At Troublemaker Studios In Austin

Despite Robert Rodriguez’s original intention to shoot his next film Hypnotic in California, the film starring Ben Affleck is instead reportedly heading to Austin, Texas. 

Even though Texas has become a new hot-spot in the United States for coronavirus, the Austin Chronicle is reporting that the Affleck project is going to attempt to begin shooting next month in the state at Robert’s Troublemaker Studios facility located in East Austin around July 27th. 

The high-end estimates of Hypnotic’s budget are said to be in the range of $80 million. However, with the explosion of new cases in Texas, I wouldn’t be shocked if the shoot is delayed beyond the summer. Production was originally planned to begin in late April.

The film’s script was penned by Rodriguez and Monsterverse screenwriter Max Borenstein (Godzilla, Kong: Skull Island, Godzilla: King of The Monsters, Godzilla vs Kong). 

Ben Affleck has been set to star in Robert Rodriguez’s action-thriller Hypnotic, playing a detective who, while investigating a string of impossible high-end heists, becomes entangled in a mystery involving his missing daughter and a secret government program.

Robert recently worked on the Netflix superhero film We Can Be Heroes along with directing on Season 2 of the Star Wars live-action series The Mandalorian for Lucasfilm/Disney. He also released the cyberpunk film Alita: Battle Angel last year for 20th Century Studios, the manga adaption was a collaboration with blockbuster filmmaker and producer James Cameron. 

I’ve learned that cinematographer David Klein, who worked with Robert on The Mandalorian, is expected to reunite with him on Hypnotic. 

If they do end up starting production this summer or fall there is a good shot that it’ll be ready for release sometime next year.

Affleck had wrapped his erotic thriller Deep Water with co-star Ana de Armas and had been shooting a smaller role in Ridley Scott’s period drama The Last Duel before the production shutdown earlier this year.

SOURCE: AUSTIN CHRONICLE 

Posted on in News

Directors Neill Blomkamp and Jordan Vogt-Roberts Tease A Future Collaboration?

Earlier in the month, while praising the work of fellow director Neill Blomkamp on District 9, Jordan Vogt-Roberts (Kong: Skull Island) teased that he’d love to work on something together in the future. 

VOGT-ROBERTS: “Rewatching Neill Blomkamp’s DISTRICT 9. Without a doubt a modern classic. Still in awe of what he pulled off all these years later. Still a gold standard for VFX. Still explosive and brilliant. One day I hope to mind-meld with this man.”

Blomkamp responding to the tweet with “I’m down”. 

https://twitter.com/NeillBlomkamp/status/1275620892207222784

Nothing more than a hint but it’s exciting none-the-less. 

Jordan has a couple of projects in the works including a live-action adaptation of the beloved military espionage video game series Metal Gear Solid for Sony Pictures. A new draft of the script has been completed but still has yet to be given an official greenlight from the studio. 

Neill Blomkamp has been having a rough time securing his next feature film bouncing from Alien 5 to RoboCop Returns to Greenland to his latest original project, a horror film titled Inferno which is expected to begin shooting soon in Albuquerque, New Mexico. 

Both share a love for video games having directed live-action trailers for Anthem and Destiny 2.

SOURCE: TWITTER