Tag: Lovecraft Country

Posted on in Film News

EXCLUSIVE: ‘Godzilla vs. Kong’ Cinematographer Ben Seresin Joins Jennifer Lopez Assassin Pic ‘The Mother’ Directed By ‘Mulan’s Niki Caro

Back in February, Deadline reported that Jennifer Lopez was attached to star/produce a new action film for Netflix. The Mother has a script penned by Misha Green (Tomb Raider 2, Lovecraft Country) and Andrea Berloff (Straight Outta Compton) it was described as being in the vein of Luc Besson’s The Professional and would see Lopez playing an assassin. 

Lopez will play a deadly female assassin who comes out of hiding to protect the daughter that she gave up years before, while on the run from dangerous men.

The Ronin can exclusively reveal that Kiwi cinematographer Ben Seresin has joined The Mother’s production team and should bring a striking visual flair after being behind Legendary’s Godzilla vs. Kong. Seresin’s other credits include World War Z, Pirates of The Caribbean At World’s End, Pain & Gain, Transformers: Revenge of The Fallen, Unstoppable, Tom Cruise’s The Mummy, and Chaos Walking. 

Fellow Kiwi, director Niki Caro (Mulan), has closed her deal to direct, and we can confirm that Canadian production designer Jean-Francois Campeau (Annie With An E, Bon Cop Bad Cop II) has also joined the production team. 

We’ve learned that filming will take place from early October to late January in Vancouver, British, Columbia, Canada.

Misha Green is currently attached to write and direct MGM’s Tomb Raider sequel starring Oscar-winner Alicia Vikander, she also signed an overall deal with Apple after HBO cancelled Season 2 of Lovecraft Country.

Lopez is coming off the heat from her stripper movie Hustlers and has wrapped on the action-comedy Shogun Wedding. You might remember her kicking serious ass in Steven Soderbergh’s Out of Sight opposite George Clooney, so it’ll be interesting to see her tackling a similar badass role.

HUSTLERS – Working as a stripper to make ends meet, Destiny’s life changes forever when she becomes friends with Ramona — the club’s top money earner. Ramona soon shows Destiny how to finagle her way around the wealthy Wall Street clientele who frequent the club. But when the 2008 economic collapse cuts into their profits, the gals and two other dancers devise a daring scheme to take their lives back.

Posted on in Film News

Jonathan Majors In Talks To Play Adonis’ Opponent In ‘Creed 3’ – Will Be Michael B. Jordan’s Directorial Debut

Michael B. Jordan is making the jump to director with MGM’s Creed III while continuing to play Adonis, the son of Apollo Creed from the iconic Rocky movies. The last two movies had Sly Stallone reprising Rocky for the spinoff, but has announced that he won’t be involved with this new film.

It looks like they’ve found an actor to play Adonis’ next opponent as Deadline reports that Jonathan Majors is currently in negotiations for the role. Majors got awareness thanks to roles in Spike Lee’s Da 5 Bloods, White Boy Rick, and HBO’s Lovecraft Country. He is officially is playing Kang The Conqueror in Marvel’s Ant-Man & The Wasp: Quantumania as announced by Kevin Feige back in December.

It honestly wouldn’t hurt for Jordan and MGM to hire a seasoned actor to star opposite given that might be considered a weakness with the last two movies. It’s hard to really care about the actors who play Adonis’ opponents as they don’t have the same character that you’d expect.

Quantumania will begin shooting in a couple of weeks in the United Kingdom.

Jonathan Majors recently wrapped on the Korean War film Devotion, directed by J.D. Dillard.

Amazon recently acquired MGM Studios for a massive $8.45 billion.

The sport drama is set to be released by MGM on November 23, 2022.

SOURCE: DEADLINE

Posted on in Television News

‘She-Hulk’: ‘Lovecraft Country’s Elena Albanese Confirmed As Production Designer

The Ronin can confirm that Elena Albanese is indeed working on Marvel’s She-Hulk as the show’s production designer. Elena’s previous credits as an art director includes Captain Marvel, HBO’s Lovecraft Country, Guardians of The Galaxy Vol.2, and Netflix’s Ozark.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RoPQ_OPWDN0

She-Hulk is the heroic alter-ego of defense lawyer Jennifer Walters, who after a blood transfusion develops her own Hulk powers. The series has Rick & Morty’s Jessica Gao as the head writer which shouldn’t surprise people they’re aiming for a comedic bend and will also explore Walters’ job as a lawyer defending various heroes/villains of the Marvel Cinematic Universe.

The 10-episode series will be directed by Kat Coiro and Anu Valia.

Filming is underway in Atlanta, Georgia under the working title Clover with a cast that consists of Emmy-winner Tatiana Maslany as Jennifer Walters aka She-Hulk, Mark Ruffalo is officially returning to play Jennifer’s cousin Bruce Banner aka Hulk, Tim Roth is finally back as Incredible Hulk villain Emil Blonsky aka Abomination, Renee Elise Goldsberry as Amelia, and Ginger Gonzaga.

I wouldn’t be terribly shocked if William Hurt’s Thunderbolt Ross or Emily VanCamp’s Sharon Carter made appearances.

Other live-action Marvel shows on the horizon include Loki, Moon Knight, Ms. Marvel, Hawkeye, Secret Invasion, Armor Wars, Ironheart, Ryan Coolger’s Wakanda series, and a spinoff featuring Hawkeye’s Echo. Loki is set to release on June 9, 2021, moving to Wednesdays instead of Fridays.

Marvel Studios will debut She-Hulk on Disney+ in 2022.

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Evangeline Lilly Confirms ‘Ant-Man & The Wasp: Quantumania’ Will Begin Shooting This Summer

Ant-Man & The Wasp: Quantumania seemingly has a seasonal start date according to Evangeline Lilly. The Canadian actress has revealed in the comments section of a recent Instagram post they’re aiming to start shooting the sequel sometime in the summer.

Below is a screenshot of that interaction.

Lilly will be returning alongside director Peyton Reed and fellow cast members Paul Rudd, Michael Douglas, and Michelle Pfeiffer. Newcomers include Kathryn Newton as the new Cassie Lang and Lovecraft Country’s Jonathan Majors playing Kang The Conqueror, the latter is assumed to be the main villain of the picture.

There are multiple signals that filming will take place at Pinewood Studios UK, the British stages were previously used for Black Widow and Eternals.

Doctor Strange In The Multiverse of Madness, directed by Sam Raimi, is currently in production over at Longcross Studios in Surrey, England with cameras still rolling on Spider-Man 3 in Atlanta and Takia Waititi’s Thor: Love & Thunder just starting production last month at Fox Studios Australia in Sydney, Australia.

Ryan Coogler’s Black Panther 2 is reportedly aiming to start filming in the summer as well but will be shooting in Atlanta, Georgia. There is also evidence that Nia DaCosta’s Captain Marvel 2 will be shooting in the UK as well but given it’s November 2022 release date likely won’t begin shooting until September-October. James Gunn is busy with his HBO Max series Peacemaker but will eventually return to the Marvel family to shoot Guardians of The Galaxy 3, most likely in 2022.

Sadly, the Ant-Man & The Wasp sequel is without an official release date from Disney/Marvel.

SOURCE: EVANGELINE LILLY

Posted on in Television News

‘Constantine’ Getting Dark HBO Max Series Reboot From J.J. Abrams & Bad Robot

After it was previously announced that J.J. Abrams and his production company Bad Robot would be working on a Justice League Dark series, there is word from Deadline that he’ll also be working on a new Constantine series reboot that will be written by Guy Bolton based on the occult DC Comics character. Bolton is said to be prepping to open a writers’ room next month.

The report stating the new version will skew darker than the previous series. Matt Ryan most recently played John after the Keanu Reeves film released back in 2005, they are reportedly seeking a diverse young actor to play the new version.

This is part of the overall deal that Bad Robot has with WarnerMedia. Abrams is also a producer on HBO’s Lovecraft Country and Westworld.

It’ll be interesting to see if this project will directly connect to that Justice League Dark show in development given that John Constantine is a key character on that team. Justice League Dark originally was put together as film for Guillermo del Toro before the studio attempted to give to other directors before deciding to turn it into a series instead.

CONSTANTINE – As a suicide survivor, demon hunter John Constantine (Keanu Reeves) has literally been to hell and back — and he knows that when he dies, he’s got a one-way ticket to Satan’s realm unless he can earn enough goodwill to climb God’s stairway to heaven. While helping policewoman Angela Dodson (Rachel Weisz) investigate her identical twin’s apparent suicide, Constantine becomes caught up in a supernatural plot involving both demonic and angelic forces. Based on the DC/Vertigo “Hellblazer” comics.

SOURCE: DEADLINE

Posted on in Film News

‘Tomb Raider 2’: ‘Lovecraft Country’s Misha Green Replaces Ben Wheatley As Director

Deadline reveals that MGM Studios has lost director Ben Wheatley on their Tomb Raider sequel starring Alicia Vikander, they’ve hired Lovecraft Country showrunner Misha Green to both write and direct Tomb Raider 2.

This will be Green’s feature film directorial debut after directing an episode of Lovecraft Country. Her HBO series produced by Jordan Peele and J.J. Abrams runs the gauntlet of genres between horror, action, thriller, crime, and science fiction. So, tackling the supernatural and action-adventure genre doesn’t seem like a huge stretch for Misha.

I do think fans are going to be puzzled why MGM was willing not to wait for someone like Ben Wheatley, who proved with his action-comedy Free Fire he really should be making more films within the action genre. He had recently signed-on to direct the sequel to Jason Statham’s The Meg for Warner Bros. and likely came into conflict with shooting Tomb Raider sequel.

Misha certainly has the writing chops to pen the film but given the scale of the film having her make a feature film debut might be scary to a lot of fans. I’m sure there is a reason why MGM selected her vision and didn’t go after a seasoned filmmaker to execute it.

SOURCE: DEADLINE

Posted on in Film News

‘Devotion’: Korean War Film Starring Jonathan Majors Adds ‘John Wick’s Thomas Sadoksi & Others – Begins Shooting Next Month

We’ve been really interested in the upcoming Korean War film Devotion, directed by JD Dillard with Lovecraft Country‘s Jonathan Majors and Top Gun: Maverick‘s Glenn Powell in leading roles.

The aerial epic will chart the true story of U.S. Navy fighter pilots, Jesse Brown and Tom Hudner, two young men from different worlds. Initiated together into the VF-32 squadron, they are pushed to their limits flying a new design of fighter jet. But their friendship is tested when one of them is shot down behind enemy lines.

Deadline reports that the cast has added Thomas Sadoski from HBO’s Newsroom, Christina Jackson from HBO’s Boardwalk Empire, and singer Joe Jonas. Thomas might be best known out of the three for acting previously seen as the New Jersey cop Jimmy from the first two John Wick movies starring Keanu Reeves.

Filming is said to begin this February in Georgia.

Majors recently caught the attention of Marvel Studios landing the role of comic book villain Kang The Conqueror in Peyton Reed‘s Ant-Man & The Wasp: Quantumania, the Marvel Studios film is expected to begin shooting later this year in London.

SOURCE: DEADLINE

Posted on in Television News

‘Loki’: ‘Lovecraft Country’ Actress Wunmi Mosaku Confirmed For Disney+ Series

The Multiverse is going to be a huge part of the upcoming MCU projects and one of the more interesting one so far is the Loki series starring franchise-favorite actor Tom Hiddleston time-hopping after getting his hands on the Tesseract in Avengers: Endgame leading to him getting on the radar of the Time Variance Agency. A group of people that police the Multiverse in Marvel Comics and it looks like at some point Loki is recruited by them.

Loki is set to debut on Disney+ in May 2021 featuring the God of Mischief as he steps out of his brother’s shadow in a new series that takes place after the events of Avengers: Endgame. Tom Hiddleston returns as the title character, joined by Owen Wilson, Gugu Mbatha-Raw, Sophia Di Martino, Wunmi Mosaku and Richard E. Grant. Kate Herron directs Loki, and Michael Waldron is head writer.

One of the highlight of the news concerning the series seems to be Marvel’s confirmation that Lovecraft Country actress Wunmi Mosaku will be in the Multiverse show.

The trailer teases that Idris Elba‘s Heimdall could be appearing during the 1970s segment with Loki as the infamous criminal D.B. Cooper. Seeing Asgard again wouldn’t be shocking after a report from Deadline has suggested that Jaimie Alexander might be showing up in the Disney+ series as Lady Sif alongside Taika Waititi’s Thor: Love & Thunder.

After watching the series trailer, I’m really looking forward to the show as it feels like live-action version of Rick & Morty, the popular sci-fi animated series at Adult Swim.

As mentioned above Loki will begin airing on Disney+ starting in May.

Posted on in Film News

Jordan Peele’s Mystery Movie For Universal Releases On July 22nd, 2022

While we didn’t any new details about Jordan Peele’s third directorial effort for Universal Pictures, the studio announced via Deadline that the untitled film’s release date has been set for July 22nd, 2022 a week after Fantastic Beasts 3 and in the third week of release of Captain Marvel 2. This would suggest Peele’s project will have some stiff competition opening weekend.

Details on Jordan’s next feature film haven’t been made public but his last two films Get Out and Us skewed into the societal horror sub-genre. Peele won a Best Original Screenplay Oscar for his work on Get Out.

I’ll keep my hopes up for him to tackle something more in the realm of science fiction.

As a producer he’s a busy bee as Jordan is behind HBO’s Lovecraft Country, Amazon’s Hunters, The Twilight Zone reboot, the upcoming soft-reboot of horror flick Candyman directed by Captain Marvel 2’s Nia DaCosta, and is reportedly developing a remake of The People Under The Stairs.

While I was slightly let down with Us, I’m beyond excited to see what he’s planning on doing next.

SOURCE: DEADLINE

Posted on in Television News

Marvel Studios’ Animated Series ‘What If…?’ Adds ‘Lovecraft Country’ Composer Laura Karpman

In a new profile from Variety, it’s been revealed that Lovecraft Country composer Laura Karpman has joined Marvel Studios’ upcoming animation series What If…?, which will be airing exclusively on Disney+.

Westworld and The Batman actor Jeffrey Wright will be voicing the cosmic being known as Uatu The Watcher in the series who will give viewers a glimpse into multiple possibilities that feature variations on the heroes and villains we know from the Marvel Cinematic Universe.

Marvel Studios and Disney has already moved forward with a Season 2 order as confirmed by Kevin Feige, both seasons will each consist of 10-episodes.

While air dates seem to be all over the place at the moment, What If…? might not begin airing Season 1 until 2021 and the official Marvel website still points towards a debut in the summer. However, unlike live-action projects the production of animation can be done remotely during the pandemic and could mean they’re further along than expected.

The animated series is part of a large wave of Marvel Studios originals developed for Disney+ which includes WandaVision, The Falcon & The Winter Soldier, Loki, She-Hulk, Ms. Marvel, Moon Knight, and an unannounced Nick Fury series.

SOURCE: VARIETY