The Ronin has been able to confirm that Skydance/Amazon has hired French director Thomas Vincent to helm an undisclosed amount of episodes for their new Jack Reacher series starring Alan Ritchson (Titans, Ghosts of War). The Amazon series is a hard reboot of the character previously played by Tom Cruise in two feature films released by Paramount Pictures and based on the novels written by author Lee Child.
The first season is said to be an adaption of the novel The Killing Floor.
Jack Reacher comes to the little town of Margrave looking for information about the mysterious death of a guitar player named Blind Blake. Instead, he finds one of the largest counterfeiting operations in history.
Vincent is likely best known for directing the first three episodes of the hit Netflix series Bodyguard that was led by Richard Madden (Game of Thrones, Eternals).
BODYGUARD – Set in and around the corridors of power, Bodyguard tells the story of David Budd (Richard Madden), a heroic, but volatile war veteran now working as a Specialist Protection Officer for London’s Metropolitan Police Service. When he is assigned to protect the ambitious Home Secretary Julia Montague (Keeley Hawes), Budd finds himself torn between his duty and his beliefs. Responsible for her safety, could he become her biggest threat?
We previously reported that filming is expected to kick-off around mid-April in Toronto.
They’ve also hired production designer Patricio M. Farrell, who worked on The Haunting of Hill House and The Haunting of Bly Manor.
Skydance is also behind Amazon’s Jack Ryan series starring John Krasinski and developing an original spy series starring Arnold Schwarzenegger for Netflix.
Deadline is reporting that director George Clooney is looking to cast Ben Affleck (The Way Back, Gone Girl) is his next film as the actor is currently in negotiations to join the Amazon drama titled The Tender Bar. It’s unclear if Clooney will also take a role but the outlet suggests it’s a possibility.
Based on the J.R. Moehringer memoir about growing up in Long Island seeking out father figures among the patrons at his uncle’s bar, the film originally was set up Sony with Ted Melfi directing. When Melfi fell off, Sony put the film into turnaround, allowing Amazon to grab it.
Clooney latest directorial effort is the Netflix sci-fi film The Midnight Sky.
Affleck’s other recent projects include the erotic thriller Deep Water, Ridley Scott’s The Last Duel, and leading Robert Rodriguez’s crime thriller Hypnotic. The latter will see Affleck playing a detective that becomes entangled in a mystery involving his missing daughter and a secret government program, while investigating a string of impossible high-end heists.
Amazon Studios have announced today 20 brand new casting additions to their massive Lord of The Rings series which is currently shooting in Auckland, New Zealand. After a pause due to COVID-19 had resumed filming back in September.
Their massive announcement sees the additions of actors such as Lenny Henry, Peter Mullan (Trainspotting, Children of Men), Lloyd Owen, Augustus Prew, Peter Tait, Benjamin Walker (Heart of The Sea, Abraham Lincoln: Vampire Hunter), Cynthia Addai-Robinson (Arrow, Power), Simon Merrells, Maxim Baldry (finally confirmed by Amazon), Ian Blackburn, Kip Chapman, Anthony Crum, Maxine Cunliffe, Trystan Gravelle, Thusitha Jayasundera, Fabian McCallum, Geoff Morrell, Alex Tarrant, Leon Wadham, and Sara Zwangobani.
They join a cast that already consists of Robert Aramayo, Owain Arthur, Nazanin Boniadi, Tom Budge, Morfydd Clark, Ismael Cruz Córdova, Ema Horvath, Markella Kavenagh, Joseph Mawle, Tyroe Muhafidin, Sophia Nomvete, Megan Richards, Dylan Smith, Charlie Vickers, and Daniel Weyman.
Amazon has yet to give an official synopsis of the series other than it will be taking place during the Second Age and covering the ancient kingdom of Numenor that did not appear in the previous two trilogies.
However, we are hearing that the Amazon series will attempt to deviate from the Peter Jackson series by potentially ignoring the established look of Middle-Earth along with redesigning both familiar creatures and the population. There is also a much more diverse cast this time around which hints this will be different enough from the past two trilogies.
It’s looking like ILM and not Weta Digital will be handling the visual effects on the show. There sadly hasn’t been even confirmation that Weta Workshop is involved either given that they’re shooting in proximity of Weta makes this even more upsetting.
Also, the series set during the Second Age is said to cover Sauron’s perversion of the advanced kingdom of Numenor (essentially J.R.R. Tolkien’s Atlantis) leading to Morgoth (Middle-Earth’s version of Lucifer and the first Dark Lord) cults and a splintering of the forces of man in the island kingdom by fueling their hatred towards the elves because of their immortality. Sauron (a Maia just like the wizards) in a much more pleasing form allows himself to be captured and taken to Numenor corrupting the population from within stoking resentment against the Elves rather than being an unseen villainous force hiding in the shadows.
We’re expecting to see the creation of the rings of power and potentially the origins of the nine Nazgul/Ringwraiths that were once men tricked by Sauron to take rings of power turning them into his unnatural servants via dark magic. Three are supposedly Numenorean Lords including the Witch King of Angmar, who is their leader and had a significant role in The Return of The King. It’s also expected we’ll see the ultimate destruction of Numenor forcing surviving inhabitants to the mainland along with the eventual Last Alliance leading to the defeat of Sauron. The latter I wouldn’t expect to happen for a very long time.
I’ll be keen to see if they’ll also attempt to purse the eastern part of Middle-Earth as that could be an equally interesting part to explore as the two Blue Wizards (Alatar/Morinehtar aka Darkness Slayer and Pallando/Rómestámo aka East Helper) operated there during the Second and Third ages, but have only been briefly referenced in the past. One of the Nazgul, Khamûl The Easterling aka Shadow of The East, is said to be a former Easterling King. We only got a glimpse of the Easterling forces in The Lord of The Rings as they were mostly made up of mercenaries or those loyal to Sauron, who had a strong presence in East along with Morgoth in the First Age.
There are also rumblings of Amazon taking a much more mature tone which wouldn’t be shocking given that director John Boorman (Excalibur, Zardoz) had once attempted a live-action film based on Lord of The Rings in the 1970s that would have included sex and hard violence for the era likely would have landed an R-rating. The Second Age is described as extremely dark in comparison to the Third Age with men’s lust for wealth/power/immortality combined with what is essentially devil worshiping cults and human sacrifices.
The streaming service has yet to announce when episodes will begin dropping on Prime Video.
Deadline reports that Amazon will renew The Expanse for a sixth and final season.
I’m sure this heartbreaking news to fans as the news was announced before the Season 5 premiere. The expensive series had been cancelled by SyFy after three seasons before it was picked-up by Prime Video for Season 4.
Cast member Cas Anvar will not be returning after sexual misconduct allegations.
The Expanse is set in the future where humanity has colonized the solar system and the people of Earth, Mars and the Asteroid Belt have long been in opposition with one another. When the crew of the Rocinante uncovers an ancient alien technology, a vast conspiracy begins to emerge — one that will bring the solar system to the brink of war.
It’s unknown if the show will find a new home or will end forever with Season 6.
Filming on the new Lord of The Rings series resumed at the end of September in Auckland, New Zealand with a cast that consists of Robert Aramayo, Markella Kavenagh, Morfydd Clark, Ema Horvath, Ismael Cruz Cordova, Maxim Baldry, Nazanin Boniadi, and Joseph Mawle.
The new series writers will have to fill in many blanks and may be allowed to use certain characters that were around in during The Second Age but unlike the original novels and The Simarillion (they don’t have access to The First Age material) showrunners will have to piece together a Middle-Earth series based on small tidbits and scraps instead of full novels as blueprints.
One key thing we do know is that Numenor will be featured, an advanced island kingdom in the West that is the Middle-Earth version of Atlantis that is eventually corrupted by Mairon aka Sauron (in his more beautiful form) leading to it’s doom because of their jealously of the immortality of the Elves. Sauron at this point is the former second in-command of the original Dark Lord, Melkor aka Morgoth, who was banished to the void before the start of The Second Age.
After stoking distrust of the Elves, Sauron eventually convinces Numenor to invade the Undying Lands leading to their fleet of ships to be destroyed along with the kingdom of Numenor returning to the water, an obvious nod to the Atlantis myth.
Other notable events in The Second Age include the creation of the Rings of Power by Sauron and Celebrimbor. An elf Prince of The Noldor, Celebrimbor was the ruler Eregion and was killed by Sauron after hiding the lesser rings. We’ve seen a version of this character covered in The Shadow of Mordor and The Shadow of War video games that had Celebrimbor as a playable character in the form of a wraith looking for revenge against Sauron.
I’d personally love to see Celebrimbor explored in the series.
Towards the end we see the fall of Sauron at The War of The Last Alliance at the hands of Isildur that was shown in the opening sequence in Peter Jackson’s The Lord of The Rings: The Fellowship of The Rings. I think it’ll be interesting to see if they would be willing to show Sauron’s perspective during his rise to power as he’s been mostly an ominous figure in previous live-action adaptations.
Some of those tidbits from The Second Age that could also show up in the new series could possibly see two wizards that really have only been briefly mentioned in passing show up. The Blue Wizards, Alatar aka Morinehtar (Darkness Slayer) and Pallando aka Rómestámo (East Helper), were according to Tolkien important unseen players in both The Second and The Third Ages as they helped to stir up rebellions against Sauron in the dark East.
The pair could be excellent replacements for Gandalf, who won’t be part of the show.
There are convincing fan theories that the duo after falling to evil of Sauron at some time in the Third Age could have been the evil force in J.R.R. Tolkien’s sequel to The Lord of The Rings titled The New Shadow (13 pages) taking place in a never fully realized Fourth Age where the world of man has forgotten Sauron. This isn’t hard to imagine given that Sauron was also Maia (like the five wizards) before becoming a minion of Margoth and taking his place as the second Dark Lord. Fellow wizard Saruman was eventually turned by Sauron and attempted his own power grab becoming a main villain for a good chunk of the Lord of The Rings trilogy.
The Fourth Age could be worth exploring at Amazon once they’ve finished-up with The Second Age as it would allow them return to Middle-Earth and explore something never fully developed by J.R.R. Tolkien given that they don’t have access to The First Age. Although, I’m not sure if that will actually happen and the Tolkien Estate could have a change of heart.
Men of The White Mountains could play a role in the latter part of the series as they were worshipers of Sauron that promised to aid Isildur in The War of The Last Alliance. They were cursed by Isildur after breaking their oath leading to them becoming the Army of The Dead aka Oathbreakers that were only released after helping Aragorn during The War of The Ring.
I’ve been hearing that Amazon will be deviating from the Peter Jackson films visually and we could be seeing different takes of characters/creatures we’ve previously seen in the six films. I’ll be very curious to see those changes and if fans will be all-in given for their love for what Peter Jackson accomplished.
We already know from Hugo Weaving that he’s not interested in reprising the Elrond role anytime soon, which would further suggest that we might not see any actors from the films who played elves return to their roles in the Amazon series despite those characters being around in The Second Age. Adding to the talk that the series won’t be as connected to the Peter Jackson films as originally thought and becoming it’s own take on Middle-Earth.
The Ronin has been able to independently confirm that Skydance and Amazon’s upcoming Jack Reacher series reboot starring Alan Ritchson will be shooting in Toronto, Ontario, Canada. Filming is on the streaming series is expected to take place next year from April 15th to July 30th.
Alan Ritchson isn’t a stranger to shooting projects in Canada as he shot DC Universe’s Titans in Toronto as well.
The first season is reportedly taking cues from the novel The Killing Floor written by Lee Child and takes place in Georgia.
Jack Reacher comes to the little town of Margrave looking for information about the mysterious death of a guitar player named Blind Blake. Instead, he finds one of the largest counterfeiting operations in history.
Tom Cruise previously played the titular role in the Paramount feature films Jack Reacher and Jack Reacher: Never Go Back. A casting choice that author Lee Child was never happy with given the character is a tall and hulking figure in the books.
Skydance Media is also behind Amazon’s Jack Ryan series starring John Krasinski.
Since that Jack Reacher isn’t likely going to wrap until the summer (barring production delays) I wouldn’t assume that it would be ready to be released before the fall of 2021 or early 2022.
We now have confirmation from series creator and showrunner Eric Kripe that Season 3 of The Boys will indeed begin shooting this February in Toronto as he confirmed the scheduled start via Twitter.
However, with the province of Ontario and the country of Canada on the brink of a second shutdown due to COVID-19 there is a good possibility that they might have to delay the start if the government steps in to press pause on all production in Toronto.
Local sources indicate that filming will take place between February 1st and August 12th of next year barring any future delays in prep or COVID-related shutdowns.
On a more positive note, recent casting announcements include Supernatural’s Jensen Ackles as Season 3 villain Soldier Boy and Lord of The Rings actor John Noble taking the role of Billy Butcher’s father.
Amazon claims that Season 2 has been one of the popular originals they’ve ever released (take with a grain of salt) and have already started developing a spinoff series from Craig Rosenberg focusing on a college for supes run by Vought International.
The spinoff is set at America’s only college exclusively for young adult superheroes (or “supes”) that is run by Vought International. It is described as an irreverent, R-rated series that explores the lives of hormonal, competitive supes as they put their physical, sexual, and moral boundaries to the test, competing for the best contracts in the best cities. Part college show, part Hunger Games — with all the heart, satire and raunch of The Boys.
We’ll keep our fingers crossed they’ll be able to keep to their production schedule and release the next season on time.
I guess we won’t have to wait too long before getting access to Eddie Murphy’s long-awaited sequel to his 1988 hit Coming To America titled Coming 2 America.
Variety is reporting that Amazon in the process of purchasing the comedy sequel for a hefty $125 million from Paramount Pictures and is planning on dropping the film over the holidays, possibly on December 18th.
Prince Akeem is set to become king of the fictional country of Zamunda when he discovers he has a son he never knew about in America — a street-savvy Queens native named Lavelle. To honor the former king’s dying wish to groom his grandson as the crown prince, Akeem and Semmi set off to America.
Paramount had originally planned on releasing the film theatrically on August 7th before delaying it to December 18th, due to the Coronavirus pandemic.
Joining Eddie in the sequel directed by Craig Brewer includes James Earl Jones, Jermaine Fowler, Tracy Morgan, Leslie Jones, Arsenio Hall, and Wesley Snipes.
Brewer and Murphy had recently teamed on the Netflix film Dolemite Is My Name.
We could see more sales from studios looking to offload their delayed features to streaming services for some quick cash considering that many studios are having to push multiple films out of the 2020 slate entirely. Amazon had also recently acquired the Borat sequel and Paramount’s spy action flick Without Remorse starring Michael B. Jordan that takes place within the Jack Ryan universe created by Tom Clancy.
COMING TO AMERICA – Prince Akeem (Eddie Murphy) is the prince of a wealthy African country and wants for nothing, except a wife who will love him in spite of his title. To escape an arranged marriage, Akeem flees to America accompanied by his persnickety sidekick, Semmi (Arsenio Hall), to find his queen. Disguised as a foreign student working in fast food, he romances Lisa (Shari Headley), but struggles with revealing his true identity to her and his marital intentions to his king father (James Earl Jones).
Last month it was reported that Arnold Schwarzenegger would be returning the spy genre with an untitled show at Amazon’s Prime Video from Skydance Television and Scorpion creator Nick Santora. That would focus on a father-daughter duo. Arnold previously worked with Skydance the last two Terminator installments, Terminator: Genisys and Terminator: Dark Fate.
Today, Deadline reports that Top Gun: Maverick actress Monica Barbaro has landed that lead role of Arnold’s daughter and the show’s second lead.
Monica plays the only female fighter pilot in the upcoming Tom Cruise sequel Top Gun: Maverick.
TOP GUN: MAVERICK – After more than thirty years of service as one of the Navy’s top aviators, Pete “Maverick” Mitchell (Tom Cruise) is where he belongs, pushing the envelope as a courageous test pilot and dodging the advancement in rank that would ground him. When he finds himself training a detachment of Top Gun graduates for a specialized mission the likes of which no living pilot has ever seen, Maverick encounters Lt. Bradley Bradshaw (Miles Teller), call sign: “Rooster,” the son of Maverick’s late friend and Radar Intercept Officer Lt. Nick Bradshaw, aka “Goose.”
A while ago it was announced that Westworld’s Lisa Joy and Jonathan Nolan would be producing a brand new science fiction series The Peripheral, based on the William Gibson novel for Warner Bros. Television and Amazon Studios that will air on Prime Video with Scott B. Smith and Greg Plageman set to showrun.
Variety reports that Chloe Grace Moretz (Kick-Ass, Let Me In) has nabbed the role of Flynne Fisher in the show.
The series centers on Flynne Fisher (Moretz), a woman trying to hold together the pieces of her broken family in a forgotten corner of tomorrow’s America. Flynne is smart, ambitious and doomed. She has no future – until the future comes calling for her.
It’s certain one of the upcoming adaptations at Amazon I’m very interested in seeing come together.
William Gibson is credited as creating the cyberpunk genre as we know it starting with his seminal novel Neuromancer and his work has gone to influence things like The Matrix franchise, Altered Carbon, and the upcoming video game Cyberpunk 2077.
Chloe recently joined Miramax’s upcoming sci-fi flick Mother/ Android that will be written and directed by Mattson Tomlin (The Batman, Project Power).
THE RONIN 