Director Jon Watts has been spending a good chunk of the last ten years working on a Spider-Man trilogy for Marvel Studios, after making waves with his thriller Cop Car. He’s currently putting the finishing touches on Spider-Man: No Way Home and during that post-production process has been shopping around a massive package deal that has almost every studio/streamer in the Hollywood drooling.
Watts will write and direct an untitled thriller starring Brad Pitt and George Clooney as two lone wolf fixers given the same assignment.
Deadline reports after a large bidding war, Apple Studios has surfaced as victorious, however, not mentioning how much the deal is worth. The film will get a theatrical release which is not as common when streamers get their mitts on original projects.
The group vying for the film include Sony Pictures, Lionsgate, Annapurna, MGM Studios, Universal Pictures, Warner Bros., Apple, Netflix, and Amazon.
It’ll be interesting to see when the thriller begins shooting as Watts has been attached to direct Marvel’s Fantastic Four reboot since last December, but is one of the few MCU films still waiting on an official release date.
At this point, we shouldn’t expect Fantastic Four to begin shooting before 2023.
Watts’ film Cop Car is very much recommended if you’ve only seen his work at Marvel.
COP CAR – When two rebellious young boys stumble across an abandoned cop car hidden in a secluded glade they decide to take it for a joyride. When the small town sheriff (Kevin Bacon) goes looking for his missing car, the boys find themselves in the center of a deadly game of cat and mouse and the only way out is to go as fast as their cop car can take them.
Black Panther: Wakanda Forever has been filming over the summer in Atlanta with Ryan Coogler back as director and co-writer. The sequel will be released on July 8, 2022, with a returning cast that consists of Danai Gurira as Okoye, Letitia Wright as Shuri, Daniel Kaluuya as W’Kabi, Winston Duke as M’Baku, Lupita Nyong’o as Nakia, Florence Kasumba as Ayo, Angela Bassett as Romonda, and Martin Freeman as Everett K. Ross.
Oscar-winning production designer Hannah Beachler is officially back for the sequel and The Ronin can confirm she’ll get help from veteran supervising art director Brad Ricker.
The art director’s extensive credits include a solid amount of action projects such as The Tomorrow War, Christopher Nolan’s Inception, Spider-Man: Homecoming, Michael Bay’s Bad Boys II, J.J. Abrams’ Mission: Impossible III, Suicide Squad, and a portion of Ghost In The Shell.
Fellow Oscar winners Ruth E. Carter (Coming 2 America) and Swedish composer Ludwig Göransson (Turning Red, The Mandalorian) are set to return too.
Loki’s director of photography, Autumn Durald Arkapaw, will take over duties from Rachel Morrison.
Dominique Thorne (Judas & The Black Messiah) will make her MCU debut as Riri Williams (getting her own Disney+ series Ironheart) alongside new additions to the cast like Michaela Coel (I May Destroy You, Black Mirror) and Tenoch Huerta (Narcos: Mexico) their roles have yet to be officially named by the studio.
Online rumors have suggested that Namor McKenzie and The Kingdom of Atlantis will feature heavily in the movie. Wakanda and Atlantis have fought each other in the comic books, so it makes sense from that standpoint.
There have been teases that Julia Louis-Dreyfus’ character Valentina Allegra de Fontaine will make an appearance in the new film after showing up in The Falcon & The Winter Soldier and in a button scene from Black Widow.
One glaring issue is how Marvel Studios and the writers will deal with the death of star Chadwick Boseman, as the studio has stated they won’t be bringing him back with CGI or recasting the T’Challa role. A common assumption is that the film will feature the choosing of a new king/queen and Black Panther.
A Wakanda focused Disney+ series is also on the way from Ryan Coogler.
BLACK PANTHER – After the death of his father, T’Challa returns home to the African nation of Wakanda to take his rightful place as king. When a powerful enemy suddenly reappears, T’Challa’s mettle as king — and as Black Panther — gets tested when he’s drawn into a conflict that puts the fate of Wakanda and the entire world at risk. Faced with treachery and danger, the young king must rally his allies and release the full power of Black Panther to defeat his foes and secure the safety of his people.
Director Sam Raimi has returned to the world of Marvel Comics, after tackling the original Spider-Man trilogy, with Doctor Strange In The Multiverse of Madness.
We’ve learned of yet another Spidey connection to the Marvel Studios sequel.
The Ronin has been able to confirm that seasoned visual effects supervisor Janek Sirrs is working on Doctor Strange In The Multiverse of Madness. The name might sound familiar since he worked on Spider-Man: Homecoming, Spider-Man: Far From Home, The Avengers, Iron Man 2, Batman Begins, Terminator Genisys, and The Matrix Reloaded.
Here’s an impressive effects heavy scene from Spider-Man: Far From Home that pushes more in the horror realm and might be what they’ll be going for in the Doctor Strange sequel.
The cast of Doctor Strange In The Multiverse of Madness far consists of Benedict Cumberbatch as Doctor Stephen Strange, Elizabeth Olsen as Wanda Maximoff aka Scarlet Witch, Benedict Wong as Wong, Chiwetel Ejiofor as Baron Mordo, Rachel McAams as Dr. Christine Palmer, and newcomer Xochitl Gomez as America Chavez.
We first reported Sam Raimi’s production team would include cinematographer John Mathieson (Logan, X-Men: First Class) and production designer Charles Wood (Black Widow, Avengers: Endgame).
Spider-Man composer Danny Elfman confirmed back in February to Inverse he’d be reuniting with Raimi.
The team of stunt coordinators consists of seasoned vets such as Jo McLaren (Overlord, Annihilation) and Brycen Counts (Spider-Man: Homecoming, Spider-Man: Far From Home, Ant-Man & The Wasp) with Liang Yang (Morbius, Wonder Woman 1984) taking the role of fight coordinator.
Filming took place at Longcross Studios in Surrey, England and is the current stage facility being used for Nia DaCosta’s Captain Marvel sequel, The Marvels.
While unconfirmed, we’ve assumed for almost a year that Tom Holland might be showing up in the film as Spider-Man. There is a strong possibility he may have shot scenes already as he recently stated that he’s fulfilled his contractual obligations with Spider-Man: No Way Home. Originally, when Disney and Sony made-up it was reported by trades Holland had two more movies to make with one for Sony (No Way Home) and one for Disney/Marvel (In The Multiverse of Madness?).
Doctor Strange In The Multiverse of Madness is set for release on March 25, 2022 (baring any further release delays) and Cumberbatch’s Doctor Strange will be seen next in Spider-Man: No Way Home on December 17.
SPIDER-MAN: NO WAY HOME – For the first time in the cinematic history of Spider-Man, our friendly neighborhood hero is unmasked and no longer able to separate his normal life from the high-stakes of being a Super Hero. When he asks for help from Doctor Strange the stakes become even more dangerous, forcing him to discover what it truly means to be Spider-Man.
Filming on Paramount/eOne’s Dungeons & Dragons (working tile Chainmail) is expected to begin sometime in the spring with locations set to include Belfast, Northern Ireland and various spots in France. It was recently confirmed that Game Night cinematographer Barry Peterson would be reuniting with directors Jonathan Goldstein and John Francis Daley. The director of photography has been location scouting in 2020 getting ready for production to take place in 2021.
The Hollywood Reporter has learned that Chris Pine is now in talks to take an unnamed lead role in the fantasy flick. We still don’t have a good picture of what type of film they’re going for as people could easily be sucked into a game or it simply might explore the mythology of Dungeons & Dragons as straight fantasy film. There is an expectation since the adventure game is played with a group of people that Pine will be part of an ensemble of actors playing the lead roles.
The iconic table-top game was a huge hit in the 1980s and recently got a resurgence thanks to Netflix’s Stranger Things popularizing it with a new generation. It’s mostly a hodgepodge of fantasy elements and creatures either created via the Monster Manuel or influenced by existing material pulled from various literary sources.
Pine is likely best known globally for his lead roles in the Star Trek and Wonder Woman films making him an obvious franchise player in the eyes of a studio. This wouldn’t be the first time Chris has swung a sword as he played Scottish historical hero Robert The Bruce in the Netflix film The Outlaw King from director David Mackenzie.
I watched it recently and was quite impressed with Pine’s accent.
THE OUTLAW KING – The untold, true story of Robert The Bruce who transformed from defeated nobleman, to reluctant King, to outlaw hero over the course of an extraordinary year. Forced into battle in order to save his family, his people and his country from the oppressive English occupation of medieval Scotland, Robert seizes the Scottish crown and rallies a ragtag group of men to face off against the wrath of the world’s strongest army lead by the ferocious King Edward 1 and his volatile son, the Prince of Wales.
Directors Jonathan Goldstein and John Francis Daley made waves with their comedy Game Night, but also penned Marvel’s successful Spider-Man: Homecoming and led the duo being hired to direct The Flash for Warner Bros. only for them to eventually exit.
Dungeons & Dragons currently has a release date of May 27, 2022.
Spider-Man 3 will officially see it’s score composed by Michael Giacchino!
The composer announced his return on his Twitter account yesterday and used the first official set photo that had been previously shared by franchise star Tom Holland. Michael will now secure scoring an entire Spider-Man trilogy.
We are hearing that there is an expectation that Giacchino will be back for Doctor Strange In The Multiverse of Madness after tackling the first film’s score. Both films are currently in production with Spider-Man 3 shooting in Atlanta under the working title The November Project and Doctor Strange 2 filming at Longcross Studios in Surrey, England.
Jon Watts is directing a cast that includes Tom Holland, Benedict Cumberbatch, Jamie Foxx, Zendaya, Jacob Batalon, Marisa Tomei, Tony Revolori, Angourie Rice, Jon Favreau, and J.K. Simmons.
There have been rumblings that we could learn the film’s title in the coming weeks/months. We do know the film is will follow the events of Spider-Man: Far From Home where Peter Parker is outed publicly by J. Jonah Jameson as Spider-Man along with being framed for the murder of Quentin Beck aka Mysterio. The extent of those consequences or Parker going on the run or being captured are currently a mystery.
Questions remain about the inclusion of Jamie Foxx’s Electro and if this will become an MCU incarnation of the Spidey villain rather than a resurrection of the same character from Amazing Spider-Man 2 via The Multiverse. J.K. Simmons’ reprisal of J. Jonah Jameson is clearly a new soft-reboot of the character for the franchise and is expected to cross into the other Sony/Marvel films like Morbius. The Jared Leto film has already had it’s connection to Spider-Man: Homecoming outed with it’s trailer including Michael Keaton’s Vulture.
The deal between Marvel Studios and Sony Pictures expires after one more Marvel film that most likely will be the Doctor Strange sequel given that Benedict is confirmed to appear in Spider-Man and could easily lead to Peter Parker showing up in Doctor Strange’s “solo” film as these installments are quickly become quasi Avengers movies because of the team-up nature of them.
I have to assume that Disney and Sony will eventually come back to the negotiating table to work together on more movies as it is an increasingly beneficial situation for both companies.
Olivia Wilde is reportedly directing a Spider-Woman film but it remains to be seen if Kevin Feige/Marvel Studios will be involved with that project. It’s been assumed they will be, as Marvel has access to Jessica Drew the alter ego that is traditionally known as Spider-Woman. The heroine debuting outside the Spider-Man comics and happens to be an agent of S.W.O.R.D. that is firmly set within the MCU via WandaVision along with other upcoming projects.
Sony Pictures has given Spider-Man 3 a release date of December 17th, 2021.
The Ronin has spotted some Instagram posts from cinematographer Barry Peterson (21 Jump Street, 22 Jump Street, Game Night, Zoolander) that has him location scouting for the upcoming shoot of the new Dungeons & Dragons movie in Belfast, Northern Ireland and France.
The Hasbro fantasy property is based on a beloved tabletop game that also integrated fantasy author Fritz Leiber’s City of Lankhmar from his Fafhrd & The Gray Mouser stories that take place in the world of Nehwon. It’s an expansive IP with decades worth of material to pull from for a film franchise.
These posts would confirm that he’ll be reuniting with Game Night directors John Francis Daley and Jonathan Goldstein. The pair of directors had been previously attached to direct The Flash for Warner Bros. and co-wrote the screenplay for Spider-Man: Homecoming.
Production designer Owen Paterson (The Matrix, Godzilla, Captain America: Civil War, Godzilla vs Kong, V For Vendetta, Speed Racer, The Matrix Reloaded, The Matrix Revolutions) is also part of the fantasy film’s crew. Owen happened to work on George Miller’s failed DC Comics film Justice League: Mortal.
The film’s working title during production was previously confirmed to be Chainmail.
They’ve been casting for ages which means that we should start hearing about actors soon as production is finally coming together in Northern Ireland.
Dungeons & Dragons is set to be released on May 27th, 2022 by Paramount Pictures.
Isaac Asimov’s Foundation series of novels are considered some of the best examples of the science fiction genre and is getting a series adaptation at Apple TV+ that will begin airing in 2021.
Check out the upcoming show’s teaser trailer below.
Based on the award-winning novels by Isaac Asimov, Foundation chronicles a band of exiles on their monumental journey to save humanity and rebuild civilization amid the fall of the Galactic Empire
Before there was a show, director Roland Emmerich (Stargate, Independence Day) attempted to make a feature film version for Sony Pictures that ultimately didn’t come together.
Production designer Oliver Scholl has posted a bunch of Foundation concept artwork on his website that was created between 2010-2011.
Scholl’s credits as a production designer include Venom, Edge of Tomorrow, Spider-Man: Homecoming, Independence Day, Godzilla 1998, The Man From U.N.C.L.E., and Suicide Squad. He also worked in the art department on sci-fi films such as Stargate, Mission To Mars, Titan A.E., and A.I. Artificial Intelligence.
The artwork certainly has a scale that we’re not really used to from Roland and does have an Avatar feel to it.
Artwork by Manuel Plank, James Clyne, Steve Burg, The Aaron Sims Company, with the help of Michael Meier, Oliver Scholl
On the heels of the news that Spider-Man spinoff film Kraven The Hunter is indeed moving forward at Sony Pictures with Deadline reporting that Triple Frontier director J.C. Chandor is in talks with the studio, it looks like the script will have new writers as well.
Richard Wenk (The Equalizer, The Expendables 2) wrote the original draft of Kraven and it seems that the studio has brought in some seasoned comic book screenwriters with Art Marcum and Matt Holloway as mentioned in Deadline’s report.
The writing duo is behind the first Iron Man, Punisher: War Zone, Men In Black: International, and fellow Spider-Man spinoff Morbius. They most recently worked with Sony on the Tom Holland and Mark Wahlberg video game adaptation Uncharted, currently filming in Germany.
Sergei Kravinoff aka Kraven The Hunter is a Russian game hunter that crosses paths with multiple Marvel Comics heroes over the years but is primarily known as a Spider-Man villain, which has led to some speculation that Kraven could be showing up in Marvel Studios’ Spider-Man 3 and because of comments from director Ryan Coogler assumptions he may appear in Black Panther 2 as well.
Neither rumors have been confirmed in any substantial way but there is a shot that Sony will attempt to add Tom Holland to this new Kraven spinoff according to previous comments made by the film’s original screenwriter Richard Wenk.
Speaking with Discussing Film (via SlashFilm) in the fall of 2018, Kraven screenwriter Richard Wenk suggested that Spider-Man would be part of the film.
WENK: “I’m just starting it. It’s an interesting world. A great character. It’s going to adhere very closely to the lore of Kraven the Hunter. And he is going to come face to face with Spider-Man. I’m just beginning it, beginning the process, and because it’s a big IP, Marvel world, there’s lots of hurdles to overcome before you can start writing, to crack the right story and to get the right tone. It’s a new world for me. But what’s nice about it is it’s a very grounded character, he doesn’t have a lot of crazy superpowers and things like that so he’s more grounded and that fits what I like to do. That’s as much as I know.”
Hiring new writers could put into question if we will ultimately see Holland’s Peter Paker being part of the film as that version may have changed since subsequent rewrites from Marcum and Holloway.
However, there are clear signs that these Sony-made Marvel films already connect directly to the Marvel-made solo Spider-Man films suggesting a crossover with Holland’s Spidey is only a matter of time.
Morbius is confirmed to be directly tied to the MCU Spider-Man films after the trailer revealed that Michael Keaton’s Vulture from Spider-Man: Homecoming is showing up in the film during some jailbreak sequence with Jared Leto’s Michael Morbius linking Homecoming to Morbius.
It also gave a direct nod to the final scene in Spider-Man: Far From Home when Parker’s identity is revealed and is framed for the murder of the villainous Quentin Beck aka Mysterio, as Morbius walks past a Spider-Man poster with “murderer” painted on it.
J.K. Simmons confirmed to SiriusXM that he filmed another J. Jonah Jameson cameo possibly for Morbius or Venom: Let There Be Carnage along with a plan to do another. Jameson could be another character that moves between the MCU and Sony-made films.
SIMMONS: “There is one more JJJ appearance in the can and from what I’m hearing there is a plan for yet another one. Hopefully, JJJ will continue now and forever.”
Kraven’s half-brother may have actually cameoed in Spider-Man: Far From Home, as Numar Acar played Nick Fury (Talos) associate Dimitri, who may or may not be a version of Dimitri Smerdyakov aka The Chameleon.
We’re yet to see Venom: Let There Be Carnage have any real significant crossover stuff as they have yet to release a trailer for the upcoming sequel, unless they’ve snuck a cameo from J.K. Simmon’s newly revived J. Jonah Jameson.
Kraven is yet another part of Sony’s greater plans for its splinter Marvel cinematic universe with the unfortunate corporate name Sony Pictures Universe of Marvel Characters, yes that is the official name they’re going with.
Here is a rundown of the other Marvel projects in the works and releasing from Sony Pictures.
The studio recently moved Morbius to a release date of March 19th, 2021, and placed the Venom sequel Venom: Let There Be Carnage to June 24th, 2021.
Spider-Man 3 from director Jon Watts is supposed to begin shooting this winter with a December 17th, 2021 release date but there is a likelihood that production starts in early 2021. The combination of COVID-19, multiple filming locations, and the Uncharted shoot will likely be determining factors if they’ll be able to start or finish on schedule.
A potential Spider-Woman film will be directed by Olivia Wilde according to Deadline with a script from Wilde and Katie Silberman, a previous script was penned by Gary Spinelli (American Made, Chaos Walking). If the film is indeed Spider-Woman, it would focus on Jessica Drew and suggests the project could be handled by Marvel Studios in another co-production deal because Marvel has access to Drew as she didn’t originate in the pages of Spider-Man comics.
Madame Web will be directed by S.J. Clarkson but the report from Variety stressed that while a screenwriter hadn’t been chosen the studio was interested in casting Amy Adams and Charlize Theron, then building a script around that actress.
Jackpot is another female-led superhero project at Sony that will have a script from Marc Guggenheim (Green Lantern, Arrow), a director has yet to be announced though.
A Sinister Six film was being developed during The Amazing Spider-Man era with Drew Goddard (The Martian) attached to write and direct. It also crumbled to pieces when Sony decided to reboot the character for a second time scrapping the project in the process. Franchise producer Amy Pascal has voiced some interest in circling back to Goddard and Sinister Six at some point.
Black Cat and Silver Sable could end up getting solo movies after their team-up film Silver & Black saw it’s production halted and was split into two solo projects instead. There haven’t been many updates on the progress of either film. It’s possible that multiple character and plot leaks contributed to Sony ultimately putting the film in ice.
Nightwatch and Silk might also eventually get their own films, but again there haven’t been recent updates on their status at the studio.
Back in March, The Wrap reported that screenwriter Roberto Orci was attached to write an untitled Spider-Man spinoff for Sony, but the information hasn’t been supported by other outlets or what that project will be. There had also been rumors from The Iluminerdi that characters such as Man-Wolf and Solo could be getting their own films as well, this has yet to be supported by the trades. Either could end up being this potential untitled Orci project.
Marvel’s standing deal with Sony for Spider-Man allows them to make Spider-Man 3 keeping it within the MCU and they’ll have access to Spidey for another undisclosed Marvel Studios film. It’s a strong possibility that Disney and Sony could re-up the deal in the not too distant future.
We’ll have to wait and see what projects ultimately go in front of cameras and are released by the studio. It’s worth noting that a production timeline for Kraven The Hunter andOlivia Wilde’s film seemingly hasn’t been locked-down.
THE RONIN 