Tag: Solo: A Star Wars Story

Posted on in News, Television News

‘Lando’: Lucasfilm Hires Donald & Stephen Glover To Write ‘Star Wars’ Series As Justin Simien Exits

Back in December 2020, Lucasfilm had first announced early plans to develop a new Disney+ series that would focus on Donald Glover‘s incarnation of Lando Calrissian from “Solo: A Star Wars Story.” An infamous smuggler pilot and card shark turned businessman that first appeared as a former acquaintance of Han Solo in “The Empire Strikes Back.” Affectionally titled “Lando,” there really hasn’t been much in the way of updates on the streaming series until now.

Yesterday, it was revealed by a report from Variety that the show is very much still alive as Lucasfilm has replaced Justin Simien (“Haunted Mansion,” “Dear White People”) after the creative had exited the “Star Wars” spinoff series. They’ve now hired Glover and his brother Stephen Glover (“Swarm,” “Atlanta”) to write the series, which isn’t that entirely shocking since the pair are currently working together over at Amazon as part of the overall deal which includes the upcoming “Mr. & Mrs. Smith” series at Prime.

While there is going to be plenty of speculation of the series being a sequel surrogate to “Solo,” it’s unclear if some or any of those characters will make their grand return to the “Star Wars” universe. The show is expected to mainly focus on Lando’s own adventures and potentially explore how he ends up running Cloud City, an iconic franchise location that is a tibanna gas mining colony on the planet of Bespin.

Given that show is starting with new writers it’s unlikely going to begin shooting anytime soon given the writers’ strike is still ongoing. “Ahsoka” is the next big “Star Wars” show to debut on Disney+ next month on August 23.

SOURCE: VARIETY

Posted on in Television News

EXCLUSIVE: Marvel’s ‘Secret Invasion’ Adds ‘Future Man’ Cinematographer Sylvaine Dufaux

The Ronin has been able to confirm that Marvel Studios’ big Skrull crossover event series Secret Invasion has added French-Canadian cinematographer Sylvaine Dufaux (Future Man) to the production team as they continue to assemble the cast. Dufaux also did various camera/director of photography work on films such as Solo: A Star Wars Story, Source Code, The Fountain, Destin Daniel Cretton’s The Glass Castle, X-Men: Days of Future Past, X-Men: Apocalypse, John Wick: Chapter 2, and The United States vs. Billie Holiday.

You can check out some of her recent work on Season 3 of the Hulu sci-fi comedy series Future Man below.

In the comics, Secret Invasion focuses on the reveal that multiple people in power and even superheroes have been replaced with an alien race with the ability to shape-shift, called the Skrulls. They were first introduced in Captain Marvel as peaceful cosmic refugees and covered for Nick Fury and Maria Hill while they were seemingly off-world having a space station built (for S.W.O.R.D.?), as seen at the end of Spider-Man: Far From Home.

We previously revealed the Disney+ show’s working title will be Jambalaya, while shooting in the United Kingdom. Other Marvel projects confirmed to shoot across the pond are Moon Knight, The Marvels, Ant-Man & The Wasp: Quantumania, and Guardians of The Galaxy Vol.3.

Secret Invasion’s impressive cast already consists of Samuel L. Jackson as Nick Fury, Ben Mendelsohn as Skrull leader Talos, Oscar-winner Olivia Colman (The Favourite, Hot Fuzz, The Crown), four-time Emmy nominee Emilia Clarke (Game of Thrones, Solo: A Star Wars Story), Kingsley Ben-Adir (One Night In Miami, Peaky Blinders) said to be playing a villain, and most recent addition to the Marvel series is character actor Christopher McDonald (Hacks, Happy Gilmore).

I wouldn’t be shocked if cast members from The Marvels ended up appearing in Secret Invasion, given the two projects are expected to have S.W.O.R.D. playing a major role in them.

The show’s head writer is Kyle Bradstreet with directors Thomas Bezhucha (Let Him Go) and Ali Selim (The Looming Tower) recently announced.

Secret Invasion will debut on Disney+ sometime in 2022.

Posted on in Film News

Phoebe Waller-Bridge Officially Joins Harrison Ford In ‘Indiana Jones 5’ – John Williams Returns To Score

Breaking news!

Disney and Lucasfilm has officially announced today that British actress Phoebe Waller-Bridge and composer John Williams have joined James Mangold’s untitled Indiana Jones 5. The news was first mentioned on the Indiana Jones Twitter account with a tweet that you can see below.

Phoebe is likely best known from her series Fleabag and was part of the main cast of Lucasfilm’s Solo: A Star Wars Story. She wrote on No Time To Die and is said to be also working on developing the story/script for the untitled Bond 26, the latter is expected to have a new actor in the role of James Bond. Another interesting project on the horizon is an Amazon Prime Video series reboot of Mr. & Mrs. Smith with Phoebe reuniting with Solo co-star Donald Glover, as the two will take on the roles previously played by Brad Pitt and Angelina in the Doug Liman film.

James Mangold is writing and directing Indiana Jones 5, having previously worked on the X-Men franchise with The Wolverine and Hugh Jackman’s final outing Logan. His other films such as Cop Land, Ford v Ferrari, and Walk The Line have been more grounded which would suggest he’s been brought in to help elevate the final film that will star Harrison Ford.

Details about the film or Phoebe’s role haven’t been shared by Disney. Although, director James Mangold has teased the film will take place the 1970’s.

Production is said to begin sometime this summer.

As stated in the tweet, Indiana Jones will be released on July 29, 2022 going head-to-head with Dwayne Johnson’s DC Comics film Black Adam.

SOURCE: LUCASFILM

Posted on in News

Erin Kellyman Keen To Reprise Her ‘Star Wars’ Character Enfys Nest – “I Would 100% Do It”

Erin Kellyman is having quite the career thanks to Disney as the British actress has appeared in Solo: A Star Wars Story as Enfys Nest, is currently seen playing Karli Morgenthau on Marvel’s The Falcon & The Winter Soldier, and has a lead role in the Willow sequel series at Disney+ that is filming in Wales.

The young actress is doing some press for The Falcon & The Winter Soldier when she was asked by Screen Rant about the possibility of reprising the role of Enfys Nest in a future Star Wars project. In her response, admitting she hasn’t spoken to the studio about it but would be willing to play her again.

KELLYMAN: “I would love if that was the case. I haven’t heard anything, but I would love to play Enfys Nest again. If Disney came to me and said, ‘Will you play her again?’ I would 100% do it. She was such a fun character to play.”

While the Obi-Wan Kenobi limited series takes place around the events of Solo: A Star Wars Story (follows Han Solo over multiple years), her other commitments to Willow would likely prevent her from appearing even if that was an option. However, depending when the upcoming Lando series is set within the Star Wars timeline, it could allow Kellyman to at least cameo as Nest down the road.

A much older version of the character could appear in The Mandalorian era shows on Disney+, but would likely mean they’d have to hire an older actress or keep Nest in the helmet.

We’ll have to wait and see if Lucasfilm ultimately has her return to the Star Wars universe.

SOURCE: SCREEN RANT

Posted on in Television News

‘Solo’ Co-Stars Donald Glover & Phoebe Waller-Bridge Reuniting For A ‘Mr. & Mrs. Smith’ Series Coming To Amazon In 2022

Yesterday, it was announced by Amazon Studios that Donald Glover would be reuniting with Phoebe Waller-Bridge for a series remake of the action-comedy Mr. & Mrs. Smith, the Doug Liman-directed flick that starred Brad Pitt and Angelina Jolie.

Phoebe and Donald previously worked together on the Lucasfilm prequel Solo: A Star Wars Story.

The new series from co-creator and showrunner Francesca Sloane is expected to debut on Amazon Prime Video in 2022.

MR. & MRS. SMITH – John (Brad Pitt) and Jane Smith (Angelina Jolie), a couple in a stagnating marriage, live a deceptively mundane existence. However, each has been hiding a secret from the other: they are assassins working for adversarial agencies. When they are both assigned to kill the same target, Benjamin Danz (Adam Brody), the truth comes to the surface. Finally free from their cover stories, they discover that they have been assigned to kill each other, sparking a series of explosive attacks.

SOURCE: AMAZON

Posted on in Television News

‘Star Wars’ Actress Erin Kellyman and Others In Negotiations For Lead Roles In Lucasfilm’s ‘Willow’ Series

Deadline reports that Lucasfilm’s Disney+ series Willow, a sequel based on the original 1988 film, is in negotiations with a trio of actresses to take lead roles in the fantasy series from Solo: A Star Wars Story screenwriter Jonathan Kasdan and co-showrunner Wendy Mericle with star Warwick Davis expected to reprise the role of Willow.

Erin Kellyman (The Falcon & The Winter Soldier, Solo: A Star Wars Story, The Green Knight) is said to be up for the role of Jade, Cailee Spaeny (Pacific Rim: Uprising, Bad Times At The El Royale) playing Kit and English actress Ellie Bamber (Nocturnal Animals) as Dove.

They also included some character information which you can see below which sounds like the show will be mostly female driven.

According to circulated casting information for the series, it revolves around a group on a mission to save a kidnapped prince. The members of the team include Dove (Bamber), whose backstory resembles that of Willow from the movie. Dove is an unassuming kitchen maid who proves that she is the “chosen one” as she embarks on the journey. She is joined by Kit (Spaeny), the princess whose twin brother was abducted. She is destined to be a leader and ultimately the queen. Kellyman plays Jade, a servant who is Kit’s best friend and moral compass. She is on her way to becoming the best young warrior in the kingdom. Also part of the group is a guy who echoes Val Kilmer’s character in the movie. A thief and liar, he joins the quest in exchange for getting out of prison.

Erin did her scenes in Solo: A Star Wars Story alongside Willow lead Warwick Davis.

Disney officially announced the series was moving forward last month in a press release.

Filming will be taking place in Wales with Jon M. Chu (Crazy Rich Asians) set to direct the pilot.

WILLOW – Enter the world of “Willow.” Journey to the far corners of your imagination, to a land of myth and magic, where dream and reality live side by side … to a place that never existed, a time that never was. It is a world where a young man named Willow lives out an adventure that explodes beyond the boundaries of his own hopes and fears.

SOURCE: DEADLINE

Posted on in Film News

Marvel’s ‘Ant-Man 3’ Adds Production Designer Will Htay – Worked On Multiple ‘Star Wars’ Projects and ‘No Time To Die’

The Ronin has learned that Marvel Studios has added Will Htay as the production designer of Peyton Reed’s upcoming Ant-Man 3 and could speak to the scale of the film.

Will’s impressive credits on massive blockbusters as a concept designer includes films such as Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker, No Time To Die, Rogue One: A Star Wars Story, Solo: A Star Wars Story. His work on Star Wars isn’t relegated to just feature films as has been part of the production design team on Disney+ series Kenobi and the untitled Cassian Andor show.

Reed is no stranger to Star Wars either as he directed Chapter 10 of The Mandalorian.

Returning cast members include Paul Rudd, Evangeline Lilly, Michael Douglas, Michelle Pfeiffer, and Emma Fuhrmann

Lovecraft Country’s Jonathan Majors is reportedly playing the villain Kang The Conqueror in the sequel which suggests the scale of the Marvel Comics sequel.

We’ve been hearing for months that filming on Ant-Man 3 will be taking place mainly on the stages of Pinewood Studios UK in Buckinghamshire, England and they’ll have access to The Volume/StageCraft for their shoot. The facility was used for upcoming Marvel films Black Widow and Eternals, the latter finishing up their reshoots.

Sam Raimi’s Doctor Strange In The Multiverse of Madness is currently shooting at Longcross Studios in Surrey, England with Elizabeth Olsen suggesting she’ll join them next month.

Ant-Man 3 is without an official release date but is coming out sometime in 2022.

Posted on in Film News

George Lucas Wanted Darth Maul and Darth Talon To Be Villains of The ‘Star Wars’ Sequel Trilogy

One of the biggest issues a lot of fans of myself with the prequel trilogy is that it never really had a menacing villain and once they killed off Darth Maul, who at the time felt like was going to become the next Darth Vader was dispensed so quickly it felt like a horrible mistake on the part of George Lucas. Neither Darth Sidous and Count Dooku really measured up “great villains” feeling like Maul was wasted potential.

Well, it sounds like Lucas had plans on bringing him back for his version of the sequel trilogy that was never used by Lucasfilm/Disney.

During a interview for a new retrospective book on the prequels titled The Star Wars Archives: 1999-2005, George states that he wanted to use both Darth Maul and Darth Talon (Legends/Expanded Universe character) as the villains in the new trilogy with the latter becoming the new Vader of those films.

What looks like a page from the book with these details leaked on Reddit.

LUCAS: “Darth Maul trained a girl, Darth Talon, who was in the comic books, as his apprentice. She was the new Darth Vader, and most of the action was with her. So these were the two main villains of the trilogy. Maul eventually becomes the godfather of crime in the universe because, as the Empire falls, he takes over.”

Darth Maul got a bit of redemption from his wasted use in The Phantom Menace in The Clone Wars and Rebels becoming more of a developed character. Then reappearing in a brief cameo at the end of Solo: A Star Wars Story as a crimelord in Crimson Dawn, which seemed to mirror what Lucas had in mind for the new trilogy. Despite unverified rumors it doesn’t seem likely we’ll see the character return in the live-action realm anytime soon given that Darth Maul actor Ray Park may have posted revenge porn on his Instagram account.

The inclusion of Darth Talon is interesting since we’ve seen her pop-up in a lot of places in the Star Wars mythology and development.

Darth Talon from Star Wars: Legacy published by Dark Horse Comics

Darth Talon originally came from the Dark Horse Comics run but under Disney wouldn’t be part of canon anymore allowing Lucasfilm to use the character however they’d like. There had been development on a Darth Maul game titled Battle of The Sith Lords that included Talon in concept artwork but the project was ultimately killed after Disney acquired the company.

Darth Maul & Darth Talon concept artwork from Battle of The Sith Lords

Her journey didn’t seem to end with Disney there as unused concept artwork from Star Wars: The Force Awakens confirms that someone at Lucasfilm considered using Darth Talon in the new films but for whatever reason J.J. Abrams or Kathleen Kennedy decided against it.

Darth Talon concept art from Star Wars: The Force Awakens

Asajj Ventress, a key figure in The Clone Wars happened to be based on a rejected Sith design from the prequels but got second life in the animation side of things. It sounds like Lucas wanted the same thing for Talon on the live-action side, but it was never fully realized.

I’d personally love to see Talon get her own series which could be in the cards as Disney+ seems to be keen to develop various Star Wars shows.

SOURCE: THE STAR WARS ARCHIVES 1995-2005

Posted on in Television News

Lucasfilm’s ‘Willow’ Series Officially Moving Forward At Disney+ With Jon M. Chu Directing The Pilot – Production Will Return To Wales

A series sequel based on the 1988 Ron Howard and George Lucas fantasy film Willow has been in the works for a while now from Solo: A Star Wars Story screenwriter Jonathan Kasdan. Disney has announced they’ve finally greenlit the sequel series for Disney+.

They also confirmed that production will be returning to Wales where the original film was shot.

Crazy Rich Asians director Jon M. Chu will handle the the first episode and he commented on the news via Twitter. Ron Howard will return to executive produce the series with Jonathan Kasdan and Wendy Mercile set as the showrunners.

Here is the official press release from Disney.

The magical world of George Lucas’ “Willow,” the epic fantasy adventure set in an age of swords, sorcery, myths and monsters, will be returning in a Disney+ series slated to begin production next year.

Jon M. Chu (“In The Heights,” “Crazy Rich Asians”) is set to direct the pilot, and will serve as executive producer along with showrunners Jonathan Kasdan (“Solo”) and Wendy Mericle (“Arrow”). Jonathan Kasdan wrote the pilot.

The series, which is Lucasfilm’s first venture into non-Star Wars storytelling since 2015, takes place years after the events of the original “Willow” film. It introduces all-new characters to the enchanted realm of fairy queens and two-headed Eborsisk monsters, and welcomes back its namesake hero, Willow Ufgood, performed once again by the unmatchable Warwick Davis.

Kathleen Kennedy, Michelle Rejwan, Jon M. Chu, Jonathan Kasdan, Wendy Mericle, Ron Howard and Imagine Television will serve as executive producers, with Roopesh Parekh and Hannah Friedman as co-executive producers. Additionally, Bob Dolman will serve as consulting producer with Julia Cooperman as producer.

The production plans to return to the dramatic and enchanted landscapes of Wales, where much of the original film was shot.

You might remember that Chu was lobbying a while back to direct a Rose Tico series starring Kelly Marie Tran.

The Willow series is said to be a direct sequel to the original film and is expected to focus specifically on Warwick Davis’ titular character Willow Ufgood. It remains to be seen if they’ll attempt to resurrect any of the other characters from the original film.

WILLOW – Enter the world of “Willow.” Journey to the far corners of your imagination, to a land of myth and magic, where dream and reality live side by side … to a place that never existed, a time that never was. It is a world where a young man named Willow lives out an adventure that explodes beyond the boundaries of his own hopes and fears.

SOURCE: DISNEY

Posted on in Film News

‘Indiana Jones 5’ Screenwriter David Koepp Alludes To Steven Spielberg Exiting Due To Script Issues

There seems to have been some major script issues on Indiana Jones 5 that has been key to the film’s hiccups and delays. Den of Geek was able to speak with screenwriter David Koepp, who revealed he was brought back to work on the sequel after Lucasfilm hired Solo: A Star Wars Story screenwriter Jonathan Kasdan to tackle some rewrites before focusing on his Willow sequel series.

Adding that the third go-around seemed to have led Steven Spielberg to exit the film with James Mangold being hired in February to replace him and then Koepp mentioning he stepped aside too.

KOEPP: “I tried a couple different versions with Steven and they all had some good stuff about them and they all had some stuff that didn’t work, which happens. But it was just very hard to have everybody come together and have all the elements — Steven, Harrison (Ford), the script and Disney — come together at once. And it didn’t.”

“When James Mangold came in and Steven stepped out, that was a pretty logical breaking point,” Koepp says. “It’s a gracious time to step out the door because I think the last thing a new director wants is the old director’s writer. I mean, that’s a drag. The last thing you need is some guy sitting around with his arms folded saying, ‘Well, the way Steven would have done it is…’ I had one nice friendly conversation with him and then I’m sure he wanted to be able to move on anyway. Everybody was pretty polite, I thought.”

The outlet speculates that the reason we haven’t heard about a new screenwriter is likely because new director James Mangold (Logan, Ford v Ferrari) is most likely tackling it himself, although, this is not confirmed. I wish James all the luck to get the project across the finishing line.

Back in February, Lucasfilm’s Kathleen Kennedy confirmed to the BBC that Indiana Jones 5 was still having script issues and reaffirmed it would be a continuation after there had been persistent rumors of a franchise reboot.

KENNEDY: “We’re working away getting the script where we want it to be and then we’ll be ready to go…Oh, Harrison Ford will be involved, yeah. It’s not a reboot, it’s a continuation…He can’t wait he absolutely is.”

The film’s current release date of July 22nd, 2022 would suggest that Lucasfilm is aiming to begin shooting sometime in 2021.

SOURCE: DEN OF GEEK