Christopher McQuarrie has taken to Instagram to announce that they’ve finally finished production on Mission: Impossible 7 starring Tom Cruise as Ethan Hunt. This after almost a year and a half of filming with various pauses/hiccups due to the COVID-19 pandemic.
Mission: Impossible 7 is part one of a two part story with Mission: Impossible 8 expected to shoot a some point, but likely won’t get going anytime soon as it was reported that it will no-longer shoot back-to-back. Given the lengthy production on this film, we shouldn’t be surprised.
The rest of the sequel’s cast includes Esai Morales, Rebecca Ferguson (Dune), Hayley Atwell (Captain America: The First Avenger), Simon Pegg, Ving Rhames, Vanessa Kirby (Hobbs & Shaw), Pom Klementieff (Guardians of The Galaxy Vol.2), Shea Whigham (Boardwalk Empire), Henry Czerny (Mission: Impossible, Clear & Present Danger), Cary Elwes (Saw, Stranger Things), Indira Varma (Game of Thrones, Obi-Wan Kenobi), Rob Delaney (Deadpool 2), Charles Parnell (The Last Ship), and British character actor Mark Gatiss (Sherlock).
Filming took place in London, Rome, Abu Dhabi, and Norway.
Paramount Pictures recently bumped the film’s release date to September 30, 2022 after putting Top Gun: Maverick in it’s previous spot of May 27, 2022.
Co-director John Francis Daley has officially announced on Twitter that filming on Paramount Pictures’ new Dungeons & Dragon movies has wrapped, after spending time shooting in Belfast, France, and Iceland.
Dungeons & Dragons is based on the beloved table top game that eventually incorporated various universes including elements from the Fafhrd & The Gray Mouser series of novels created by American fantasy author Fritz Leiber. It remains to be seen what Paramount’s angle will be with the new movie, if they’ll be setting it simply in a fantasy world or will be slightly inspired by the recent Jumanji film from Sony Pictures.
The beloved table-top fantasy game that recently got a resurgence with a new generation thanks to Netflix’s Stranger Things and it growing popularity again in the gaming community.
It originally had Chris McKay (The Tomorrow War, The Lego Batman Movie) attached to direct before Paramount pivoted to Game Night filmmakers John Francis Daley and Jonathan Goldstein. The duo, who previously wrote Spider-Man: Homecoming will tackle the script as well.
The Dungeons & Dragons cast members are Chris Pine (Star Trek, Wonder Woman, Hell of High Water), Michelle Rodriguez (Avatar, F9, Alita: Battle Angel), Rege-Jean Page (Bridgerton, The Gray Man), Justice Smith (Detective Pikachu, Jurassic Park: Fallen Kingdom), Sophia Lillis (It), Chloe Coleman (Avatar 2, Gunpowder Milkshake), Daisy Head (Shadow & Bone), Hugh Grant (The Gentlemen, Five Eyes) is reportedly playing a villain.
Their production team consists of cinematographer Barry Peterson (Game Night), production designer Raymond Chan (The Falcon & The Winter Soldier), and stunt coordinator Brad Martin (Underworld, The Falcon & The Winter Soldier).
Paramount will unleash Dungeons & Dragons on March 3, 2023.
Paramount Pictures had previously assigned Seth Rogen and Evan Goldberg to produce an animated film focused on the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles. Rogen took to Twitter to announce that his CGI-animated movie is going to be released on August 11, 2023. The film is directed by Jeff Rowe, who wrote on Disney’s Gravity Falls and Netflix’s Disenchantment. He most recently co-directed the Netflix film The Mitchells Vs. The Machines.
Well, Paramount wants more Ninja Turtles.
Deadline reports that Colin and Casey Jost have been tapped to pen a new movie with Michael Bay set to produce, the assumption is that this will be “live-action” but unknown if it’ll be a continuation of the previous two movies or a hard-reboot. There had been talk that next live-action film would be a reboot but it’s not mentioned in this report.
Colin Jost is famously a writer and Weekend Update co-host on Saturday Night Live.
Starting out as a violent comic book turned kids cartoon and toyline that was eventually developed into a live-action film franchise at New Line Cinema starting in 1990 and was recently rebooted with two installments at Paramount from producer Michael Bay.
Paramount hasn’t had much luck with reboots lately as the Michael Bay movies were increasingly bizarre/incoherent in comparison to the original Ninja Turtles films and the studio recently saw their G.I. Joe reboot Snake Eyes flop hard only earning $28.8 million in two weekends of release on a budget of $88 million.
The original 1990 movie had practical suits from Jim Henson, his final film before passing from cancer.
TEENAGE MUTANT NINJA TURTLES – In New York, mysterious radioactive ooze has mutated four sewer turtles into talking, upright-walking, crime-fighting ninjas. The intrepid heroes — Michelangelo (Robbie Rist), Donatello (Corey Feldman), Raphael (Josh Pais) and Leonardo (Brian Tochi) — are trained in the Ninjutsu arts by their rat sensei, Splinter. When a villainous rogue ninja, who is a former pupil of Splinter, arrives and spreads lawlessness throughout the city, it’s up to the plucky turtles to stop him.
Paramount Pictures released Star Trek Beyond in 2016 and has been mulling over the next steps for Star Trek 4 for ages now. They’ve been churning-out multiple Star Trek series but for some reason just couldn’t settle with the right incarnation for the fourth installment, directors S.J. Clarkson (Jessica Jones) and Noah Hawley (Fargo, Legion) previously being attached to helm the sequel.
Deadline is now reporting a third candidate has stepped in, as Paramount has hired WandaVision director Matt Shakman to hopefully bring Star Trek 4 past the finish line after various hiccups uring the project’s development. The outlet adds that a new script has been penned by Lindsey Beer and Geneva Robertson-Dworet with an aim to get cameras rolling by next spring.
This announcement would seemly nudge to us that Hawley has joined Clarkson by exiting.
J.J. Abrams and Bad Robot are returning to produce. It’s also assumed that we’ll see the return of Chris Pine, Zachary Quinto, Zoe Saldana, Karl Urban, Simon Pegg, and new addition Sofia Boutella as well.
An earlier incarnation was going to involve time-travel and allow Pine’s Captain Kirk interact with his father George Kirk, who was played by a young Chris Hemsworth before he was cast by Marvel for Thor. Apparently, contract negotiations fell apart leading to the project dissolving.
Quentin Tarantino and Mark L. Smith (The Revenant) had been developing their own film based on the gangster episode of the original series. However, that project doesn’t seem like it will be happening.
Star Trek 4 likely won’t be ready for release until spring or summer of 2023.
STAR TREK BEYOND – A surprise attack in outer space forces the Enterprise to crash-land on a mysterious world. The assault came from Krall (Idris Elba), a lizard-like dictator who derives his energy by sucking the life out of his victims. Krall needs an ancient and valuable artifact that’s aboard the badly damaged starship. Left stranded in a rugged wilderness, Kirk (Chris Pine), Spock (Zachary Quinto) and the rest of the crew must now battle a deadly alien race while trying to find a way off their hostile planet.
As production as begun on the seventh Transformers film, Transformers: Rise of The Beasts, a new voice actor has been enlisted by Paramount Pictures for a key role in the giant robot vs robot big screen saga. The latest installment will be bringing various characters from the Beast Wars cartoon to the film franchise.
Character actor Ron Perlman, likely best known as the actor behind the original toy Hellboy movies has joined the project playing Maximal leader, Optimus Primal, a Prime that transforms into a giant gorilla instead of a semi-truck. The news comes from the folks over at Collider.
Perlman’s other credits include Pacific Rim, Blade II, Sons of Anarchy, Drive, Enemy At The Gates, Alien Resurrection, The Lost City of Children, Cronos, and Monster Hunter.
Returning to the action and spectacle that first captured moviegoers around the world 14 years ago with the original Transformers, Transformers: Rise of the Beasts will take audiences on a ‘90s globetrotting adventure and introduce the Maximals, Predacons, and Terrorcons to the existing battle on earth between Autobots and Decepticons. Directed by Steven Caple Jr. and starring Anthony Ramos and Dominique Fishback, the film arrives in theatres June 24, 2022.
We couldn’t be more excited about David Fincher returning to the thriller genre and his upcoming film The Killer sounds like something fans can really get behind. It will see him work with actor Michael Fassbender as an assassin in adaptation of the Alexis Nolent’s graphic novel that will have a script from Se7en’s Andrew Kevin Walker.
A man solitary and cold, methodical and unencumbered by scruples or regrets, the killer waits in the shadows, watching for his next target. And yet the longer he waits, the more he thinks he’s losing his mind, if not his cool. A brutal, bloody and stylish noir story of a professional assassin lost in a world without a moral compass, this is a case study of a man alone, armed to the teeth and slowly losing his mind.
Spanish outlet El Diario Vasco (via The Film Stage) spoke with Mank’s Oscar-winning cinematographer Erik Messerschmidt, who confirmed his involvement and that they’re hoping to begin shooting this November in Paris, France. Messerschmidt’s previous credits include Raised By Wolves, Legion, Fargo, and Mindhunter.
While not officially attached for a role, Mank actress Lily Collins was spotted meeting with David Fincher in Paris and could signal she’ll join Michael Fassbender in the thriller.
Fassbender has completed production on Taika Waititi’s sports drama Next Goal Wins and David Sandberg’s satirical action flick Kung Fury 2. His recent films Dark Phoenix, The Snowman, Alien: Covenant, and Assassin’s Creed haven’t be huge box office successes, I’m sure the actor is hopeful The Killer will have a greater impact with audiences.
While this is the first graphic novel/comic book adaptation for David Fincher, it won’t be his first attempt to tackle genre material as his first feature film was Alien 3 and had been trying to direct a sequel to Brad Pitt’s World War Z until things fell apart.
A release date has yet to be announced but the film is produced by Brad Pitt’s Plan B Entertainment, Paramount Pictures, and will hit Netflix at some point in 2022.
Today, a virtual event from Paramount Pictures revealed the official title for Steven Caple Jr.’s Transformers 7 as Transformers: Rise of The Beasts and confirming that Optimus Prime will indeed be the lead Autobot.
That’s not all that was revealed.
An official synopsis posted on Collider confirmed Beast Wars factions will be appearing.
Returning to the action and spectacle that first captured moviegoers around the world 14 years ago with the original Transformers, Transformers: Rise of the Beasts will take audiences on a ‘90s globetrotting adventure and introduce the Maximals, Predacons, and Terrorcons to the existing battle on earth between Autobots and Decepticons. Directed by Steven Caple Jr. and starring Anthony Ramos and Dominique Fishback, the film arrives in theatres June 24, 2022.
Deadline adding some specific robot characters that we’ll see in the seventh installment.
During Paramount’s virtual event, Caple and Di Bonaventura also touched on a wide range of Transformers appearing in the film, sharing early designs for Mirage, Arcee, Nightbird, Air Razor, Rhinox, Optimus Primal, the “ruthless and scary” Terracon leader known as Scourge, and a new “off-road” Camaro version of Bumblebee.
Also, Anthony Ramos is playing a Brooklyn military vet named Noah and Dominique Fishback is playing an artifact researcher at a museum.
Paramount Pictures and Hasbro are teaming up for a new feature film reboot of the Power Rangers, after Hasbro was able to get their hands on the rights from Saban alongside various stuff like My Pet Monster. The project won’t be continuation of the previous installment from Lionsgate and will likely see a new group of actors in the lead roles instead of having the previous lineup reprise their roles.
Jonathan Entwistle had been hired to direct the Power Rangers reboot, who is currently working on Lucasfilm’s Willow series that is filming in Wales and will debut on Disney+ sometime next year. He’s also apparently going to be involved in a Power Rangers series as well.
Well, it sounds like Hasbro has an idea of when Paramount might release the new movie.
What looks to be like an official press release from Hasbro for a Licensing Convention in Brazil (spotted on by fans on Twitter), briefly mentions that the next film will be released in 2023. The screenshot comes of the event’s website.
Here is a rough English translation.
Power Rangers is a global phenomenon! A unisex brand with more than 90% knowledge, present in over 180 countries since the 90s! With more than USD 10 billion in retail sales in the most diverse categories, Power Rangers has in its DNA a lot of Action, Emotion, Teamwork, Diversity and Humor! With a movie release planned for 2023, Power Rangers is a streaming success, with more than 26 seasons and 900 episodes available on Netflix and has a very active fan community with over 2.8 million followers on Facebook, 330,000 on Instagram and another 140,000 on Twitter! Its 29th season, called Dino Fury is ready to be released!
The Ronin can confirm that veteran cinematographer Larry Fong is indeed finally returning to the superhero genre with Paramount Pictures’ Secret Headquarters, which is currently in-production and is produced by Jerry Bruckheimer via Bruckheimer Films.
A high-concept family action movie about a kid who discovers the secret headquarters of the world’s most powerful superhero hidden beneath his home and must defend it with his group of friends when villains attack.
Fong’s list of credits include big studio projects such as Watchmen, 300, Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice, Kong: Skull Island, The Predator, Sucker Punch, Super 8, and the upcoming Chris Pratt sci-fi action flick The Tomorrow War.
If you kept your eyes peeled during Zack Snyder’s latest effort, Army of The Dead, you would have noticed a cheeky not to his longtime cinematographer, who happened to have worked on the magician franchise Now You See Me. Snyder decided to be his own director of photography on the action-packed zombie movie.
Secret Headquarters stars comedic actor Owen Wilson (Loki, The Life Aquatic, Wedding Crashers) and will be directed by Project Power’s Henry Joost and Ariel Schulman. The directing duo is also attached to helm a feature film adaptation of the Mark Millar comic book, Nemesis, for Warner Bros. with a script penned by Oscar-winning screenwriter Emerald Fennell (Promising Young Woman).
It has an original story and script from Christopher Yost (The Mandalorian, Thor: Ragnarok), the latest draft was worked on by Joost, Schulman, and Josh Koenigsberg.
Owen Wilson can be seen next starring alongside Tom Hiddleston in the highly-anticipated Marvel Studios series Loki, set to debut on Disney+ tomorrow.
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.
THE RONIN 