Tag: Paramount Pictures

Posted on in Film News

Neve Campbell Finally Confirmed For ‘Scream 5’ Return and Other Cast Members Announced

Back in May, Scream franchise actress Neve Campbell confirmed talks with Spyglass Media for a return to the Sidney Prescott role in Scream 5. 

That interview was then deleted from YouTube and it was all but assumed that Campbell would be back after it was announced that original cast members David Arquette and Courtney Cox were returning for what looks to be a continuation of the satirical horror franchise. 

Yesterday, Bloody Disgusting was finally able to confirm Neve’s return. 

She’ll be joining a cast that also includes Jack Quaid, Melissa Barrera, Jenna Ortega, Dylan Minnette, Mason Gooding, Mikey Madison, Kyle Gallner, Jasmin Savoy Brown, Marley Shelton, and Mikey Madison. 

Ready or Not’s Matthew Bettinelli-Olpin and Tyler Gillett are directing from a script penned by James Vanderbilt and Guy Busick.

The original film from Wes Craven followed Sidney Prescott and her group of high school friends as a killer “Ghostface” is going around town killing students which leads to Cox’s tabloid reporter Gale Weathers to return to the town after writing a sleazy tell-all-book about the murder of Sidney’s mother. Craven’s take on the slasher was to be more of a send-up/satire of the genre itself and harped on the troupes as rules to stay alive.

I wouldn’t hold out any hope that the original characters will survive the new installment. 

The horror pic will be released on January 14th, 2022 by Paramount Pictures.

SOURCE: BLOODY DISGUSTING 

Posted on in Film News

‘Scream 5’ Adds ‘The Boys’ Actor Jack Quaid – Releases January 2022

Variety has reported another new addition to the cast of Scream 5, as they’ve added Jack Quaid in an undisclosed role. Jack is best known for playing the comic book character Hughie Campbell in the Amazon Prime Video series The Boys, which will see it’s second season drop on September 4th.

Scream 5 is being called a reboot by certain trades but the title and returning cast would suggest it’s more of a continuation, if anything.

Officially, Courtney Cox and David Arquette will reprise their roles of reporter Gale Weathers and Sheriff Dewey Cox. Jack joins fellow new additions Melissa Barrera (In the Heights) and Jenna Ortega (Jane The Virgin).

Actress Neve Campbell confirmed talks for her return to play Sidney Prescott before that interview was ultimately deleted from YouTube. Her name has been absent from these casting reports, but it’s likely she’ll sign on.

Ready or Not’s Matthew Bettinelli-Olpin and Tyler Gillett are directing from a script penned by James Vanderbilt and Guy Busick.

The original film from Wes Craven followed Sidney Prescott and her group of high school friends as a killer “Ghostface” is going around town killing students which leads to Cox’s tabloid reporter Gale Weathers to return to the town after writing a sleazy tell-all-book about the murder of Sidney’s mother. Craven’s take on the slasher was to be more of a send-up/satire of the genre itself and harped on the troupes as rules to stay alive.

It’s expected that this new film will continue the cheeky tradition of being a satire.

I know my first thought is that Jack is more or less either going to play the killer or the stand-in for Jamie Kennedy’s video store character Randy.

The horror pic will be released on January 14th, 2022 by Paramount Pictures.

SOURCE: VARIETY

Posted on in Film News

‘Snake Eyes’ Moved To October 22nd, 2021 By Paramount

It was revealed yesterday by Paramount Pictures that they have delayed the release for their G.I. Joe spinoff origin film Snake Eyes: G.I. Joe Origins an entire year, moving it from October 23rd to October 22nd, 2021. 

This is a direct result of the Coronavirus pandemic and Paramount is likely looking closely at how poorly New Mutants is doing this weekend giving them cold feet to sticking to that original October release date. 

Snake Eyes is an origin film that will explore the connection between the silent G.I. Joe member played by Henry Golding and his villainous rival Storm Shadow played by Andrew Koji along with the Shadow’s push towards the terrorist organization Cobra. 

The prequel was shot in Vancouver and Japan by director Robert Schwentke from a script penned by Evan Spiliotopoulos.

Here is the rundown of the film’s cast. 

  • Henry Golding as Snake Eyes 
  • Andrew Koji as Storm Shadow 
  • Úrsula Corberó as The Baroness 
  • Iko Uwais as Hard Master
  • Peter Mensah as Blind Master
  • Samara Weaving as Scarlett
  • Steven Allerick
  • Takehiro Hira
  • Haruka Abe

A third G.I. Joe film is also said to be in the works that could see the character Chuckles take the lead role. However, this project has been in the works for ages and still hasn’t come together. 

SOURCE: PARAMOUNT

Posted on in Film News

Emma Watts Becomes President of Paramount Motion Pictures Group – Former Head of 20th Century Studios

Former 20th Century Fox executive Emma Watts has been previously named the successor to Stacey Snider as the president of production at 20th Century Studios, while Disney took reigns of the legendary film studio. In January, Watts resigned her position at 20th Century and according to Deadline has found a new home at Paramount.

Emma has taken the role of president at Paramount Motion Pictures group starting on July 20th and will directly report to Paramount Pictures Chairman/CEO Jim Gianopulos.

Wyck Godfrey, the current president, will be returning to produce film and television.

This is exciting news for both Watts and Paramount, as she has an excellent eye for projects having produced films such as The Martian, Deadpool, Logan, Avatar and Ford v. Ferrari.

The next big project at Paramount will be Martin Scorsese’s $200 million-plus budgeted crime thriller Killers of The Flower Moon starring Leonardo DiCaprio and Robert De Niro, which will be co-financed by Apple.

Paramount has been in a rut for the last couple of years after losing the distribution on the Marvel Studios films to Disney. Along with having a tough time competing with other studios despite their success with franchises like Transformers and Mission: Impossible. Not to mention expensive action projects like Ghost In The Shell, Gemini Man, and Terminator: Dark Fate losing them a lot of money when they didn’t perform at the global box office as expected.

Hopefully, Emma Watts can attract directors and high-end projects to the studio that will get audiences excited.

SOURCE: DEADLINE

Posted on in Film News

Netflix Acquiring Domestic Rights To Aaron Sorkin Drama ‘The Trial of The Chicago 7’

Variety reports that Netflix is about to buy another high-profile awards contender with Aaron Sorkin’s The Trial of The Chicago Seven. The streaming service is negotiating to secure the domestic rights from Paramount Pictures and Cross Creek Productions.

The Chicago Seven, a group of seven activists who were charged by the federal government with conspiracy, inciting to riot and other charges stemming from anti-Vietnam War protests that broke out during the 1968 Democratic National Convention. It’s a hot-button story, one that is sure to resonate in a presidential election year and at a time when protests over racial injustice are breaking out across the country.

Aaron Sorkin previously made his directorial debut with the Jessica Chastain film Molly’s Game. His screenwriting credits includes A Few Good Men, Charlie Wilson’s War, The Social Network, Moneyball, and Steve Jobs.

The film’s impressive cast includes Sacha Baron Cohen, Eddie Redmayne, Jeremy Strong, Joseph Gordon-Levitt, Yahya Abdul-Mateen II, Frank Langella, William Hurt, Michael Keaton, and Mark Rylance. 

They had luckily wrapped production on The Chicago 7 before the pandemic hit and was originally set to be released on October 16th, 2020. It’s said to be aiming to get a release before the election in November.

SOURCE: VARIETY

Posted on in Film News

Apple Teaming With Paramount For Martin Scorsese’s Pricey Crime Drama ‘Killers of The Flower Moon’

 

When various reports surfaced that Martin Scorsese’s next film Killers of The Flower Moon had its budget balloon to $200-230+ million it seemed like Paramount Pictures wouldn’t likely move forward with it. 

The project is based on the novel Killers Of The Flower Moon: The Osage Murders And The Birth Of The FBI by author David Grann with a script penned by screenwriter Eric Roth (Dune, Munich, The Curious Case of Benjamin Button).

KILLERS OF THE FLOWER MOON – A mystery about a series of murders of wealthy Osage Native Americans in Oklahoma in the early 1920s, after oil deposits were discovered beneath their land. The ensuing investigation established the FBI and was a pivotal moment in the evolution of America from its frontier era.

Oscar winners Leonardo DiCaprio and Robert De Niro are set for the lead roles. Leo and Robert haven’t worked together since the 1993 film This Boy’s Life, where De Niro played Leo’s abusive stepfather. 

Multiple suitors had been in the mix to help finance including Universal, MGM, Apple, and Netflix.  

Deadline first reported that a deal seemingly has been struck with Apple partnering to help cover the costs. The film will be distributed first theatrically by Paramount and the film would later become an exclusive streaming title on Apple TV+. 

Production was expected to take place this spring/summer in the state of Oklahoma before the Coronavirus and budgetary issues delayed things. 

Apple had recently acquired the Tom Hanks WWII film Greyhound from Sony Pictures as another Apple TV+ exclusive. 

Hopefully, we’ll start hearing more casting news shortly. 

SOURCE: DEADLINE

Posted on in Film News

‘Mission: Impossible 7’ Expected To Resume Filming In September and Complete By April/May

Paramount Pictures was one of the first studios to halt production on their major film projects as a portion of Mission: Impossible 7 was set to film in Venice, Italy where the Coronavirus in Europe was spreading rapidly. The studio did the responsible thing and placed production on pause out of concern for the safety of the cast and crew. 

While speaking with Variety, franchise actor Simon Pegg has reinforced statements made by first assistant director Tommy Gormley to the BBC’s Radio 4 program Today, that Paramount is planning on getting filming up and running sometime in September. Gormley adding that he’s convinced they could complete production by April or May. 

Simon also revealed they’ll be focusing more on the outdoor scenes, to begin with, and isn’t exactly sure how they’ll be executing the testing. 

PEGG: “That will begin with the outdoor stuff. That feels fairly doable, and obviously, there will be precautions put in place.”

“People that are involved in any close proximity stuff, it will have to be determined that they’re safe to do that. I don’t know what the testing situation is, how that works, or whether they’ll be able to be tested regularly.”

Christopher McQuarrie will be both writing and directing the two untitled sequels that are expected to shoot back-to-back. 

Filming in the United Kingdom under the working title “Libra” (Fallout’s working titled was Gemini) was confirmed to take place at Warner Bros. Studios Leavesden in Watford, England. 

There was a recent casting shake-up as character actor Esai Morales (Ozark, Titans) has replaced Nicholas Hoult as the film’s villain after Hoult had to bow-out over a scheduling conflict. 

The rest of the cast includes Tom Cruise, Rebecca Ferguson, Simon Pegg, Vanessa Kirby, Hayley Atwell, Pom Klementieff, Shea Whigham, and the original film’s cast member Henry Czerny. 

The studio had recently bumped the release dates for the pair of action sequels due to the production delays, those new spots in the release calendar are November 19th, 2021, and November 4th, 2022.

SOURCE: BBC & VARIETY 

Posted on in Film News

‘Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker’ 2nd Unit Director Victoria Mahoney In Talks For Paramount’s Action Flick ‘Kill Them All’

Earlier in the week, there was some exciting news concerning the next project for Victoria Mahoney, the 2nd unit director on Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker. 

The Hollywood Reporter reveals that Victoria (Power, American Crime) is currently in negotiations with Paramount Pictures to direct their feature film adaptation of the Kyle Starks graphic novel Kill Them All published by Oni Press. She most recently worked HBO’s upcoming series Lovecraft Country produced by Jordan Peele and J.J. Abrams. 

The comic book project sounds a lot like The Raid and Dredd according to the rundown provided. 

Kill Them All tells of a betrayed murderess on a revenge campaign and a hard-drinking former cop who team up to take down a crime lord. Their nemesis rules from atop a 15-story Miami high-rise, so the duo must go floor by floor cutting through assassins, murderers, Luchadore gang bosses, ex-boyfriends, and office workers.

Mission: Impossible – Ghost Protocol screenwriters Josh Appelbaum and Andre Nemec are producing with a script penned by newcomer James Coyne. 

When they plan on filming is currently unknown and I’ll be excited to see who they ultimately pick for the two leads.

SOURCE: THE HOLLYWOOD REPORTER