Tag: Marvel Studios

Posted on in Television News

Jon Bernthal Still Hopeful Marvel Will Ask Him To Reprise ‘The Punisher’ Role – “I’ll Be Ready”

Despite fan wishes and rumblings that Marvel Studios was going to resurrect the Netflix lineup of Marvel shows for Hulu/Disney+, that doesn’t seem to be happening as Marvel Television was re-branded as Marvel TV Studios with Kevin Feige overseeing future television projects after Jeph Loeb exited the company.

This hasn’t detoured The Punisher actor Jon Bernthal and has been vocal about reprising the Frank Castle role if Marvel wants him to. This is reinforced in a new interview with Geek House Show (via The Playlist). As great as Jon’s enthusiasm is, as he points out himself he’s not part of those decisions.

BERNTHAL: “I think with that, there’s always hope, you know? It’s unbelievably humbling how much people responded to this version of Frank. I can’t tell you how much he means to me. He’s in my blood. He’s in my bones. And for me, it’s not really a question ever with this kind of stuff about whether you get the opportunity to do it or not…It’s not about whether we do it, it’s about doing it right. And doing the version the fans really deserve.”

“We’ll see. All of those decisions are made in rooms I’m not invited into. That’s okay with me…When we get the call to go, I’ll be ready. And I’ll do everything I can to make sure we do it right or we don’t do it at all.”

The actor first played Frank Castle in Season 2 of Daredevil before getting his own solo Punisher series that landed two seasons itself before it was cancelled.

Jon Bernthal sounds more optimistic than Daredevil’s Charlie Cox, who said he wasn’t even expecting the series to get a Season 3 despite the online fan campaign #SaveDaredevil and poured cold water on the rumor he was going to be involved with Spider-Man 3.

We ultimately don’t know what Kevin’s plans are for characters like Frank Castle, Matt Murdock, Elektra Natchios, Jessica Jones, Luke Cage, and Danny Rand (despite Iron Fist connections rumored for Shang-Chi). Also, if he wants to bring them into the real Marvel Cinematic Universe I’m unconvinced he’ll even ask those actors to return to their roles or attempt soft-reboots with new actors instead. Even if characters are slowly reverting back to Marvel from Netflix the contracts for actors and showrunners (many have found new gigs) have expired, meaning that Marvel TV Studios has zero obligations anymore.

Fiege didn’t seem terribly interested in continuing the Loeb era of Marvel Television projects as reflected with the cancellations and it doesn’t look like those projects will find new lives elsewhere. It might also irk Disney to have off-shoots on places like Netflix and rebooting might be a way to sever any ties to those Netflix shows or being branded as “MCU”.

However, speaking of Spider-Man 3, Jamie Foxx is seeming getting a second shot at playing Electro in what is likely going to be an MCU take on the character not unlike J.K. Simmon’s new version of J. Jonah Jameson first seen in Spider-Man: Far From Home. There is a chance they could bring Cox and Bernthal back but ignore the events of the Netflix shows entirely given that Feige and the producing team didn’t have oversight on that material which would suggest they’re more likely to just jettison it.

There has been zero sign from Marvel that they’re even interested in using those characters anytime soon, so we’ll just have to be patient.

SOURCE: GEEK HOUSE SHOW

Posted on in Film News

Jason Blum Optimistic About Marvel Studios Tackling Horror With ‘Blade’ Reboot – “Never Bet Against Marvel”

Another nifty quote from horror guru Jason Blum of Blumhouse Productions during his interview with Inverse is his take on Marvel Studios finally tackling horror with their Blade reboot and the Doctor Strange sequel (originally announced as a scary film back at SDCC 2019), asking if Jason believes Marvel can make scary movies.

BLUM: “I’m of two minds. I would never bet against Marvel. They have a relatively good track record — that’s a joke, they have one of the best track records ever, right? I also think it’s a challenge to do horror at big budgets, but if anyone can do it, it’s Marvel.”

Inverse seems to be unaware that the scary/horror side of Doctor Strange In The Multiverse of Madness might be getting trimmed potentially due to the Multiverse aspect (likely making this more like an event film), something that was likely part of the reason director Scott Derrickson exited and was replaced with Spider-Man’s Sam Raimi.

However, it’s worth mentioning that Blade would most likely skew more in horror realm since the lead character is a vampire hunter and vampire hybrid himself. I think we’re all still curious how the action and violence will influence the film’s rating, given the original three movies are R-rated and given how the MPAA feels about blood/gore having tame vampires in your Blade film would certainly rub fans the wrong way.

When acquiring 21st Century Fox, former Disney CEO Bob Iger said they were open to the idea of keeping Deadpool R-rated which was seemingly echoed by studio heads Alan Horn and Kevin Feige. Blade is certainly a character that could be an experiment being produced by Marvel Studios then possibly released by 20th Century Studios under a Marvel Max or Marvel Knights banner, as not to confuse parents with the Disney side of the MCU.

It’s worth mentioning that Kevin Feige previously produced Blade Trinity (New Line Cinema) and Punisher: War Zone (Lionsgate) for Marvel, both R-rated films but the latter used the Marvel Knights banner.

There are certainly characters that should be set aside for their own mature films.

Marvel is reportedly now seeking black screenwriters to tackle Blade’s script which should tell you how in the development process they are at the moment. The project was first announced at San Diego Comic-Con 2019 with two-time Oscar winner Mahershala Ali (Moonlight, Alita: Battle Angel) playing Eric Brooks in the reboot. Ali revealed recently he met with the studio years ago after the release of the Netflix series Luke Cage to see if he could nab the Blade role.

BLADE – A half-mortal, half-immortal is out to avenge his mother’s death and rid the world of vampires. The modern-day technologically advanced vampires he is going after are in search of his special blood type needed to summon an evil god who plays a key role in their plan to execute the human race.

SOURCE: INVERSE

Posted on in Film News

Chris Pratt’s Star-Lord Joins ‘Thor: Love & Thunder’ Character Lineup – Will Other Guardians Appear?

At the end of Avengers: Endgame, we saw Thor join the ranks of The Guardians of The Galaxy and that seemingly will be carrying over to Thor: Love & Thunder.

The Hollywood Reporter says that after Chris Pratt does some additional photography for The Tomorrow War he’ll join the production of Thor: Love & Thunder (working title The Big Salad) sometime next year in Sydney, New South Wales, Australia. Reprising the Peter Quill/Star-Lord role for the Thor sequel.

Love and Thunder is due to shoot in Australia in January, and Pratt will do a short round of additional photography for his sci-fi movie The Tomorrow War before heading to the land Down Under.

I have to assume the rest of the Guardians cast will being showing up as well.

SOURCE: THE HOLLYWOOD REPORTER

Posted on in Television News

Marvel Studios Confirms The ‘Loki’ Series Has 4-5 Weeks Left of Filming

When asked by Clarin the production status of their upcoming Marvel series in a recent interview, Marvel Studios executive vice president Victoria Alonso confirms that both WandaVision and The Falcon & The Winter Soldier have indeed wrapped filming.

However, Tom Hiddleston’s Loki series has about four to five weeks left of shooting before they are finished.

ALONSO: “We finished filming The Falcon… and WandaVision , because it is almost, almost, almost finished. Loki  (with Tom Hiddleston) still have four or five weeks to go.”

Loki has resumed filming in Atlanta, Georgia and potentially could be all wrapped-up by end of the year depending if they’ll take breaks for the American holidays.

While WandaVision (January 15th) and The Falcon have been delayed until 2021, the Loki series was always planned to drop next year and likely won’t be pushed too far down the road because of the production delays caused by COVID-19. Disney+ has yet to give the Marvel series an official debut date.

Unconfirmed but possible rumblings have suggested that Loki will jump straight into Season 2 next year but this has yet to be announced by Marvel Studios, as the only series they’ve officially confirmed has a second season will be What If…?, an animated anthology show inspired by the comics of the same name.

There is an expectation that the Loki series will inform the plots of Doctor Strange In The Multiverse of Madness, Thor: Love & Thunder, and possibly even Ant-Man 3 given it will explore The Multiverse via The Time Variance Authority.

SOURCE: CLARIN

Posted on in Film News

Marvel Studios’ Victoria Alonso Debunks Bizarre ‘Black Panther 2’ Rumor – “There’s Only One Chadwick and He’s Not With Us”

Sorry folks, Marvel Studios is not going to use a digital-double of Chadwick Boseman for their Black Panther sequel. As terrible as that sounded it wasn’t even something they’ve been considering according to Marvel Studios brass.

In a new interview with Marvel Studios executive vice president Victoria Alonso, she reveals to Clarin (via Comic Book Movie) they are not in anyway considering CGI effects to resurrect recently departed actor Chadwick Boseman for Black Panther 2 as they haven’t even started to think about what they want to do as they’re still mourning the late actor.

ALONSO: “No. There’s only one Chadwick, and he’s not with us. Our king, unfortunately, has died in real life, not just in fiction, and we are taking a little time to see how we return to the story and what we do to honor this chapter of what has happened to us that was so unexpected, so painful, so terrible, really.”

“[We] have to think carefully about what we are going to do, and how, and think about how we are going to honor the franchise.”

Chadwick Boseman, you might remember suddenly passed over the summer from colon cancer. Something he kept private and even shot multiple Marvel films during his treatment. People close to the production of Black Panther 2 (including Marvel and Disney) are stilling mourning the loss of Chadwick and the studio rightfully isn’t rushing the production giving people time to grieve. It’s still unclear what they’ll do with the film which fans should have an extra notch of patience for the cast, creatives, and crew at this time.

The ghoulish rumor originally came from YouTuber Grace Randolph, who isn’t a reliable source of news.

SOURCE: CLARIN

Posted on in Television News

Marvel’s ‘WandaVision’ Debut Officially Delayed To January 15th On Disney+

The mystery of WandaVision’s release date has been finally solved!

While there was an expectation back in August that they would be able to begin airing episodes before the end of 2020, that isn’t the case. Disney has officially announced on social media that the series will begin airing on Disney+ starting on January 15th.

Many fans had tried to convince themselves that WandaVision could be ready before December but that obviously wasn’t realistic given that production delays due to COVID-19 has seemingly impacted multiple Marvel Studios even the film slate.

Back in August, in The Ronin’s report on the delay of The Falcon & The Winter Soldier to sometime in 2021 there had been an expectation that WandaVision was much further along in the production/post-production process and could have been ready in late 2020.

Fans will really need to dig deep down to find their patience because targeted release dates are written in sand and not stone. We’ll likely see many more delays and shifts throughout 2021 as situations are influx leading to date changes/production pauses.

This news would confirm that 2020 will be the first year without new MCU projects in a long time.

Other live-action series officially on the way include Loki, Ms. Marvel, She-Hulk, Moon Knight, and Hawkeye.

WANDAVISION – Marvel Studios’ WandaVision blends the style of classic sitcoms with the Marvel Cinematic Universe in which Wanda Maximoff (Elizabeth Olsen) and Vision (Paul Bettany)—two super-powered beings living their ideal suburban lives—begin to suspect that everything is not as it seems.

SOURCE: DISNEY

Posted on in Television News

Marvel’s ‘Moon Knight’ Series Will Indeed Shoot In Budapest and Officially Adds ‘Morbius’ Production Designer Stefania Cella

In a brief production update from Discussing Film, they mention that Marvel’s Moon Knight series will be shooting Budapest, Hungary and that they’ve added production designer Stefania Cella (Morbius).

Moon Knight, aka Marc Spector, a mercenary who has numerous alter egos — cabbie Jake Lockley and millionaire playboy Steven Grant — in order to better fight the criminal underworld. But later he was established as being a conduit for the Egyptian moon god Khonshu. Most recently, the character was a consultant who dresses in all-white and goes by the name Mr. Knight. 

The Ronin can independently confirm from our own sources that Budapest is indeed one of multiple locations being used for Moon Knight (working title Good Faith). A shoot in United Kingdom had been previously revealed last year along with an expectation before the pandemic of possibly shooting in the United States and Morocco (used for Black Widow) but those plans have yet to be made concrete.

Budapest is a popular production locale which has been used for Marvel’s Black Widow, Showtime’s Halo series, Blade Runner 2049, Legendary’s Dune remake, The Martian, Red Sparrow, Terminator: Dark Fate, Bloodshot, Gemini Man, Midsommar, and the first season of Netflix’s The Witcher.

Stefania Cella also posted on her website that she has officially joined Moon Knight as production designer working on the pilot and the series. Her film credits include Morbius, Downsizing, White Boy Rick, Lucy In The Sky, and Black Mass.

Oscar Isaac is reportedly in negotiations to play the role of Marc Spector aka Moon Knight, although, neither Disney nor Marvel has made an official announcement.

Egyptian director Mohamed Diab had been recently announced for the series.

Lost of casting is underway and there should be announcements via trades in the coming weeks.

Posted on in Film News

Marvel Studios Inching Closer To Making Their ‘Fantastic Four’ Reboot?

A while back it first reported by Murphy’s Multiverse that Disney had listed a new LLC called Solve Everything Productions, that we were able to back-up. The claim made was that it was likely hinting to the studio moving forward with their Fantastic Four reboot before tackling X-Men.

A small update from Charles Murphy further confirms that the Disney-owned LLC is indeed at Marvel Studios. This would mean that they’re going into production on the project which is most likely going to be Fantastic Four given the LLC’s name is connected to the Marvel Comics property.

However, it’s worth noting that Marvel/Disney and trades have yet to announce any screenwriters or directors have joined the project, let alone they are moving forward with a Fantastic Four film or series. All signs are pointing towards a Fantastic Four project will be announced in the near future and could be primarily filming in the United States.

The Fantastic Four has had four live-action films starting with the Roger Corman-produced film from 1994 that was ultimately never released and then 20th Century Fox released two installments from director Tim Story then attempted a reboot from Josh Trank in 2015.

The film rights shifted back to Marvel once Disney finalized their acquisition of 21st Century Fox (included 20th Century Fox). Marvel now has access to Fantastic Four, Doctor Doom, The Brood, The Shi’ar Empire, Alpha Flight, X-Force, New Mutants, X-Men, Deadpool, Wolverine, Silver Surfer, Galactus, Super-Skrulls, and many many more characters to use for their MCU projects.

A one time, writer/director Adam McKay (Ant-Man, Vice, The Big Short) was interested in pitching a Silver Surfer film to Marvel’s chief creative officer Kevin Feige.

Posted on in Film News

Tom Holland Posts First Official ‘Spider-Man 3’ Set Photo Confirming Filming Has Finally Started In Atlanta

After multiple production delays due to the Coronavirus outbreak and deal hiccups between Sony/Marvel, Spider-Man 3 is finally shoot with it’s lead Tom Holland back as Peter Parker!

Tom Holland made the announcement today on his Instagram account posting the first official set photo with himself in the costume wearing a mask, supporting calls for people to embrace mask wearing as new American COVID-19 cases have exploded (hitting 100,000+ daily cases).

HOLLAND: “Wear a mask, I’m wearing two…”

Tom had recently completed filming his Uncharted feature film co-starring Mark Wahlberg before arriving in Atlanta, Georgia to begin production on the untitled Spider-Man sequel others that have been spotted in the area getting ready to shoot include Zendaya and Jacob Batalon.

It’s also expected that Tony Revolori, J.K. Simmons, Marisa Tomei, Jon Favreau, and Angourie Rice will reprise their roles.

Returning to direct is Jon Watts, who previously helmed Spider-Man: Homecoming and Spider-Man: Far From Home. There have been reports that Jamie Foxx will be reprising his role as villain Electro (potentially a new MCU version) along with Benedict Cumberbatch shooting his scenes as Doctor Strange before moving on to Doctor Strange In The Multiverse of Madness at Longcross Studios in Surrey, England.

Marvel Studios has yet to confirm any new additions but more casting announcements via trades are assumed in the coming weeks given that filming has started officially.

The new deal between Sony and Marvel allows for Holland to appear as Spider-Man in one more Disney film before they have return to the table and examine if they want to continue the beneficial relationship, which most likely could be the Doctor Strange sequel given Benedict’s participation in Spider-Man 3.

Marvel’s next big productions are Doctor Strange 2 in the UK and as Shang-Chi has wrapped in Sydney, New South Wales, Australia will see Thor: Love & Thunder move into those stages at Fox Studios Australia.

Both Ant-Man 3 and Captain Marvel 2 were aiming to shoot in England next year but COVID-19 may have delayed that shooting schedule. Director James Gunn is also going be returning for Guardians of The Galaxy 3 once he finishes his work on The Suicide Squad and his Peacemaker series for HBO Max. Black Panther 2 is more of an unknown for the time being after the sudden death of franchise lead Chadwick Boseman due to colon cancer. Everyone involved including the cast seems to be focusing on grieving that loss rather than rushing a sequel.

Sony Pictures has set Spider-Man 3’s release date for December 17th, 2021.

SOURCE: TOM HOLLAND

Posted on in Film News

UK Heading Into Second National Lockdown This Week – Will Not Impact Film Productions For The Moment

The British government has announced via Prime Minister Boris Johnson’s national address over the weekend that after weeks of dire COVID-19 predictions for the region they’re finally moving back into a second national lockdown starting on November 5th and lifting it on December 2nd (could be extended if necessary).

JOHNSON: “Unless we act, we could see deaths in this country running at several thousand a day”

For comparison, UK COVID-19 cases have topped 1,000,000 including 47,717 deaths while the United States still hasn’t instituted a national lockdown with 9,280,000 million cases and over 231,000 COVID-19 deaths.

While dine-in bars/restaurants (can do takeout), cinemas, and other non-essentially businesses are closing film productions are expected to chug along like nothing is happening. I’m curious how long that will last if more productions publicly deal with new positive cases after both Jurassic World: Dominion and The Batman dealt with their own recently, the latter seeing star Robert Pattinson test positive for COVID-19.

This was later backed-up by Oliver Dowden, the government’s Culture Secretary on Twitter.

Things like schools, universities, construction sites and manufacturing businesses will stay open. However, that could change if they don’t see a decrease in numbers which might also lead to stricter measures and might lead to everything non-essentially getting closed including film shoots (filming in a bubble or not).

As previously stated, The Batman and Jurassic World: Dominion are filming in the United Kingdom alongside Fantastic Beasts 3. There is an expectation that the Moon Knight series, Ant-Man 3, Captain Marvel 2, and The Flash are prepping to shoot as well in the new year. Doctor Strange In The Multiverse of Madness was supposed to film at Longcross Studios in Surrey, England, however, trades have suggested that lead actor Benedict Cumberbatch is set to shoot his scenes in Atlanta for Spider-Man 3 before filming starts on the Strange sequel.

A lot can happen in a month and it doesn’t seem they’re going all-in with this new lockdown, which might return to bite them in the ass as did the slow response to rising new cases and delayed second lockdown when the government knew months ago that this was only getting worse in the UK. I’m worried these half-steps just won’t be enough and they’ll essentially announce a more rigorous lockdown in a couple weeks or in December, extending it throughout the holidays.