Tag: Star Wars

Posted on in Television News

Disney+ Will Continue Dropping Original Series Episodes On Wednesdays & Original Films On Fridays

When Marvel’s Loki series moved from the traditional Fridays to Wednesdays, it felt like a shift in how Disney+ would be dropping original programming as Fridays had been traditionally meant for their big Star Wars and Marvel shows.

However, Deadline is reporting that the streaming is planning to keep original shows for Wednesdays as Fridays will be for original films. The news seems to stem from a new press release of show release dates.

Going forward, the streamer will drop all of its originals on Wednesdays. This will include all original scripted, unscripted and animated series. ..Disney+ Original Movies will continue to premiere on Fridays.

I have to assume this will include Premier Access films are continuing to stick with Fridays such as Marvel’s Black Widow and other projects that will be heading to that added pay service in the future. I’m slightly curious if this means they’ll be aiming to release a greater number of original films weekly and could suggest some stuff that was meant for the big screen could be tossed on Disney+ instead, like the last two Pixar films, Soul and Luca.

Upcoming Disney+ original series coming in the not too distant future include Willow, What…If?, Ms. Marvel, The Book of Boba Fett, Hawkeye, She-Hulk, Moon Knight, Andor, Obi-Wan Kenobi, Secret Invasion, Armor Wars, The Guardians of The Galaxy Holiday Special, Ironheart, Echo, and much much more.

SOURCE: DEADLINE

Posted on in Film News

EXCLUSIVE: Daisy Ridley Thriller ‘The Marsh King’s Daughter’ Adds ‘Sunshine’ & ‘Hanna’ Cinematographer Alwin Küchler

The Ronin can confirm that German cinematographer Alwin Küchler has joined the upcoming Neil Burger-directed thriller The Marsh King’s Daughter. The pic begins shooting this month in Toronto with Star Wars actors Daisy Ridley and Ben Mendelsohn (Animal Kingdom, Killing Them Softly) taking main roles.

Helena Pelletier has a loving husband, two beautiful daughters, and a business that fills her days. But she also has a secret: she is the product of an abduction. Her mother was kidnapped as a teenager by her father and kept in a remote cabin in the marshlands of Michigan’s Upper Peninsula. Helena, born two years after the abduction, loved her home in nature, and despite her father’s sometimes brutal behavior, she loved him, too…until she learned precisely how savage he could be. More than twenty years later, she has buried her past so soundly that even her husband doesn’t know the truth. But now her father has killed two guards, escaped from prison, and disappeared into the marsh. The police begin a manhunt, but Helena knows they don’t stand a chance. Knows that only one person has the skills to find the survivalist the world calls the Marsh King–because only one person was ever trained by him: his daughter. 

His feature film credits include Joe Wright’s Hanna, Neil Burger’s Divergent, Danny Boyle films Sunshine and Steve Jobs alongside additional photography for Netflix’s Project Power. Alwin recently worked on the MARV Films’ video game development biopic Tetris directed by Jon S. Baird (Filth) and stars Taron Edgerton (Rocketman, Eddie The Eagle, Kingsman 1-2).

Writers Mark L. Smith (Overlord, The Revenant, The Midnight Sky) and Elle Smith adapted the Karen Dionne novel for the screen. Mark was also working with Quentin Tarantino to develop a Star Wars film for Paramount that seemingly has stalled.

Mendelsohn will reprise his Marvel Cinematic Universe role, Talos, in the Disney+ series Secret Invasion. The Marvel sci-fi show will focus on the shape-shifting Skrulls replacing superheroes as the aliens attempt to invade Earth. It’s possible he’ll also appear in Nia DaCosta’s Captain Marvel sequel, The Marvels.

A release date for The Marsh King’s Daughter hasn’t been set.

Posted on in Television News

Liam Neeson Says Lucasfilm Didn’t Approach Him To Reprise Jedi Qui-Gon Jinn In The ‘Obi-Wan Kenobi’ Series

Production is underway on the Obi-Wan Kenobi show in California but it sounds like we might not see the return of Liam Neeson’s Qui-Gon Jinn despite The Phantom Menace star’s previous interest in reprising the Jedi Knight, even as just a force ghost.

The Irish actor appeared on Jimmy Kimmel Live! to promote his upcoming action film The Ice Road and was directly asked about appearing in the Star Wars series.

Liam Neeson responding with the following statement after being asked if he would show up, “I heard Ewan McGregor was gonna do a series. No, I don’t think so. No, I haven’t been approached.”

The story begins 10 years after the dramatic events of Star Wars: Revenge of the Sith where Kenobi faced his greatest defeat, the downfall and corruption of his best friend and Jedi apprentice, Anakin Skywalker turned evil Sith Lord Darth Vader.

Thinking Neeson would return isn’t coming out of the blue, as fallen Jedi have been known to return as force ghosts and Star Wars: Revenge of The Sith directly mentioned that Qui-Gon Jinn had learned this ability to communicate from beyond the grave before he was killed at the hands of Darth Maul in Star Wars: The Phantom Menace.

The cast already consists of Ewan McGregor as Obi-Wan Kenobi aka Ben Kenobi, Hayden Christensen as Anakin Skywalker/Darth Vader, Indira Varma, Kumail Nanjiani, Sung Kang, O’Shea Jackson Jr., Benny Safdie, Rupert Friend, Joel Edgerton as Uncle Owen, Moses Ingram, Bonnie Piesse as Aunt Beru, Maya Erskine, and Simone Kessell.

The inclusion of Uncle Owen and Aunt Beru has all but confirmed we’ll see a young version of Luke Skywalker.

Deborah Chow (The Mandalorian) is directing with Joby Harold (Army of The Dead) acting as the showrunner.

There is an expectation that Obi-Wan Kenobi will debut on Disney+ sometime in 2022 and has seen it’s episode count bumped to six.

SOURCE: JIMMY KIMMEL LIVE!

Posted on in Television News

‘The Book of Boba Fett’: Temuera Morrison Confirms Robert Rodriguez Directed Episodes & Explores The Bounty Hunter’s Past

At the end of Season 2 of The Mandalorian, it was announced that we would be getting a spinoff series The Book of Boba Fett, as there was a sequence with Fett taking over the criminal syndicate on Tatooine after the events of The Rescue. The scene also confirmed that Temuera Morrison and Ming-Na Wen would be reprising their roles.

We were shocked when Lucasfilm announced it would be the next live-action Star Wars series and it was eventually revealed that The Mandalorian Season 3 would be taking a back seat as Deborah Chow’s Obi-Wan Kenobi started production on those same California stages and The Volume located at Mahattan Beach Studios.

It had all been assumed when Robert Rodriguez (Planet Terror, Desperado, Alita: Battle Angel) was announced as part of the producing team he would be directing as well. Actor Temuera Morrison has now confirmed this while speaking with Rotten Tomatoes and mentioned how the Star Wars series would tackle the Bounty Hunter’s past.

“Well, we can’t say too much, but we’re going to see his past and where he’s been since The Empire Strikes Back. Somebody pointed out he’s been kind of stuck in this one place, and now’s the time to actually go back in time and check out his journey and find out more about him.They brought Robert back in to direct a few more. There’s some wonderful directors involved,” Morrison told Rotten Tomatoes.

There is a previous assumption that Favreau and Filoni have helmed episodes too.

Filming has wrapped on The Book of Boba Fett as revealed on Twitter by Fennec Shand actress Ming-Na Wen showing off some wrap gifts. I guess we’ll have to wait patiently for confirmation about who will be appearing from The Mandalorian and what new actors have joined the Star Wars project.

Disney announced that The Book of Boba Fett will debut later this year.

SOURCE: ROTTEN TOMATOES

Posted on in Television News

‘Andor’ Series Will Have Forest Whitaker Reprising His ‘Rogue One’ Character Saw Gerrera

Lucasfilm is still shooting the 12-episode run of of their Rogue One: A Star Wars Story prequel series, Andor, focusing on the Rebellion spy played by Diego Luna.

There is now news that a familiar face from Rogue One is indeed returning.

Actor Stellan Skarsgard has revealed in a new interview with Swedish radio station Sverige Radio (spotted by The Playlist) that Rogue One’s Forest Whitaker will reprise the role of Saw Gerrera in the Andor series and the two will share some screen time together. If you’re confused, Andor takes places years before the events of Rogue One allowing the character to return for the series.

Whitaker also reprises the Gerrera role in the video game Star Wars Jedi: Fallen Order.

Joining Luna and Skarsgard in the Star Wars show will be Adria Arjona (Morbius), Denise Gough, Genevieve O’Reilly as Mon Mothma, Robert Emms (Chernobyl), Fiona Shaw, and Kyle Soller. 

Toby Haynes (Sherlock, Doctor Who, Utopia, Black Mirror) will be directing with a writing team that includes Tony Gilroy (Rogue One: A Star Wars Story), Dan Gilroy (Nightcrawler), Beau Willimon (House of Cards), and Stephen Schiff (The Americans).

Andor’s 12-episode run will debut on Disney+ sometime in 2022.

SOURCE: SVERIGE RADIO

Posted on in Television News

‘Star Wars’ Spy Series ‘Andor’ Adds Robert Emms From ‘Chernobyl’

Lucasfilm is deep into production in England on their Star Wars series starring Diego Luna as the rebellion spy Cassian Andor from Rogue One: A Star Wars Story, but there has been another addition to the show’s cast. British actor Robert Emms has nabbed a mystery role in the Disney+ series according to a report by Deadline. He’s been seen in things such as His Dark Materials, Chernobyl, and War Horse.

Joining Diego Luna will be Adria Arjona (Morbius), Denise Gough, Genevieve O’Reilly as Mon Mothma, Stellan Skarsgard (Thor, Dune, Girl With The Dragon Tattoo), Fiona Shaw, and Kyle Soller. Originally, Alan Tudyk was announced to reprise his role as the smart-mouthed droid K-2SO, but had recently revealed to Collider that he was unlikely going to be involved with Season 1 due to changes made by Tony Gilory when he joined the project and rewriting episodes. He also inadvertently teased Andor would be getting multiple seasons.

TUDYK: “They’re shooting it right now, I’m not in it. But, if it stays on the air, stories keep getting told, I’ll end up in there.I’m going to be in the show. It’s just that the story that Tony [Gilroy] is telling doesn’t involve K-2SO until later on… I can’t be too specific, but I can definitely say that I’m not going to be in the first season.”

Given the show’s setting is five years before Rogue One, this could allow them to cover multiple seasons exploring the Rebellion spy.

Toby Haynes (Sherlock, Doctor Who, Utopia, Black Mirror) will be directing with a writing team that includes Tony Gilroy (Rogue One: A Star Wars Story), Dan Gilroy (Nightcrawler), Beau Willimon (House of Cards), and Stephen Schiff (The Americans).

Some photos from the set of Andor in England have made their way online and confirm that the Shoretroopers, introduced in Rogue One: A Story Story, will be making their return on the show, which takes place five years before the events of Rogue One. The well-designed troopers had previously appeared briefly on Season 2 of The Mandalorian.

Andor’s 12-episode run will debut on Disney+ sometime in 2022.

SOURCE: DEADLINE

Posted on in Film News

‘Predators’ Actress Alice Braga Joins Ben Affleck In Action Thriller ‘Hypnotic’ Directed By Robert Rodriguez – Shoots This September In Austin

Director Robert Rodriguez is in high demand these days after helming Alita: Battle Angel for James Cameron, then jumping into the world of Star Wars with Season 2 of The Mandalorian and then being behind the Boba Fett spinoff series The Book of Boba Fett for Lucasfilm.

His next big project is an action thriller, titled Hypnotic, that stars Ben Affleck as a “detective who becomes entangled in a mystery involving his missing daughter and a secret government program while investigating a string of high-end crimes.”

Deadline has a casting update mentioning that Brazilian actress Alice Braga has taken a role in the film. Braga has a connection to Rodriguez as she had a lead role in Predators, the third film in the Predator franchise was developed and produced by the filmmaker. Her other credits include I Am Legend, Repo Men, New Mutants, Queen of The South, and James Gunn’s The Suicide Squad.

They also state that production will begin again on September 20 in Austin, Texas, where Robert’s own studio facility, Troublemaker Studios, is located.

Affleck is currently working on The Flash, reprising his Batman/Bruce Wayne role alongside fellow Caped Crusader alumni Michael Keaton. He also wrapped work on the George Clooney-directed drama The Tender Bar.

SOURCE: DEADLINE

Posted on in Film News

EXCLUSIVE: Patty Jenkins’ ‘Star Wars: Rogue Squadron’ Adds ‘Wonder Woman’ Production Designer Aline Bonetto

The Ronin has been able to confirm that Lucasfilm’s next big Star Wars film, Star Wars: Rogue Squadron, has added production designer Aline Bonetto. Director Patty Jenkins was announced for the project back in December and has since revealed to IGN that Rogue Squadron won’t be based on existing books or video games.

JENKINS: “[In the Star Wars: Rogue Squadron movie] we’re doing something original with great influence from the games and the books. There’s a lot of things being acknowledged and understood about the greatness of all of those things, but yes, it’s an original story and I’m so psyched to do it.”

Oddly enough, a screenwriter hasn’t been officially announced.

The next Star Wars feature film will be Rogue Squadron — directed by Patty Jenkins (Wonder Woman franchise). The story will introduce a new generation of starfighter pilots as they earn their wings and risk their lives in a boundary-pushing, high-speed thrill-ride, and move the saga into the future era of the galaxy.

Bonetto previously worked with director Patty Jenkins on Wonder Woman and Wonder Woman 1984.

We wouldn’t be terribly shocked if Wonder Woman cinematographer Matthew Jensen also joined the new Star Wars film after recently working on Season 2 of The Mandalorian. Jensen was the cinematographer for episodes such as The Believer, The Siege, and The Heiress.

Filming is assumed to be taking place at Pinewood Studios UK, the previous primary filming location of the Disney-era Star Wars films. Jenkins isn’t a stranger to productions made in England as she shot the last two Wonder Woman movies at Warner Bros. Studios Leavesden in Watford, England.

With Rogue Squadron in pre-production, casting the latest Star Wars film is going to be the studio’s next big challenge.

Jenkins is still attached to direct Wonder Woman 3 as well, but Star Wars: Rogue Squadron is going to be shot next.

The Star Wars franchise is also currently focusing on a wave of new television shows such as The Book of Boba Fett, Andor, Obi-Wan Kenobi, Ahsoka, Lando, The Acolyte, and Rangers of The New Republic. Thor: Love & Thunder director Taika Waititi is writing and directing his own untitled Star Wars film and Rian Johnson is said to be still involved with developing a trilogy of original films.

Disney has officially given Star Wars: Rogue Squadron a release date of December 22, 2023.

Posted on in Film News

Zack Snyder Says His ‘Seven Samurai’ Inspired ‘Star Wars’ Movie Idea Is Being Reworked “As A Sci-Fi Thing” Outside of That Universe

In the early days of Disney acquiring Lucasfilm and the Star Wars rights, there were various reports that the studio was open to multiple film pitches from filmmakers. One of those pitches was reportedly from Army of The Dead director Zack Snyder and would have been a possible Jedi film inspired by the works of Akira Kurosawa’s Seven Samurai. Akira’s film The Hidden Fortress had been a notable inspiration to the original trilogy, so going back to those classic samurai films for ideas sort of sounded appealing at the time.

Here is how that original report from Vulture described the project back in 2013, alluding to the project being an anthology project similar to things like Rogue One: A Star Wars Story and Solo: A Star Wars Story.

He is in fact developing a Star Wars project for Lucasfilm that is set within the series’ galaxy, though parallel to the next trilogy. It will be an as-yet-untitled Jedi epic loosely based on Akira Kurosawa’s 1954 classic Seven Samurai, with the ronin and katana being replaced by the Force-wielding knights and their iconic lightsabers.

If you’re unfamiliar with the iconic Japanese film, it follows a group of ronin (former samurai that no longer serve a master/lord) that come together to save a poor village of farmers against relentless bandits in an attempt to restore their honor. Seven Samurai was famously remade as the equally popular Hollywood western, The Magnificent Seven.

The project ultimately wasn’t made and Snyder instead established the DCEU with Man of Steel, Batman v Superman, and Justice League. However, Snyder has confirmed to the Happy Sad Confused podcast (via The Playlist) that he indeed was trying to get that project going at Lucasfilm (prior to the Disney acquisition) but has instead pivoted to rework the idea as something else outside of the Star Wars universe, but will still be set within the science-fiction genre.

SNYDER: “We talked about it, but it never [happened]. I’ve been working on it away from the ‘Star Wars’ universe, on my own, as a sci-fi thing…It’s still a sci-fi thing. It’s the same story. Now, I’m just going to let ‘Star Wars’ be ‘Star Wars.’”

“The 11-year-old me still wants to make that, and now, I know how to. So, maybe we’ll see that someday.”

Could Netflix end up giving Zack Snyder the money to make the project? It’s possible as the streaming giant is keen on continuing the working relationship with the filmmaker as they build a franchise around his zombie film Army of The Dead, after Warner Bros. passed on it.

SOURCE: HAPPY SAD CONFUSED PODCAST

Posted on in Film News

‘Star Wars’: J.J. Abrams Reflects On Planning The Sequel Trilogy – “There’s Nothing More Important Than Knowing Where You’re Going”

There has been some criticism from Star Wars fans that Lucasfilm, J.J. Abrams, and Rian Johnson jumped into making the sequel trilogy without a concrete plan and potentially led to some contradictory moments between the three massive movies.

This was highlighted when director Colin Trevorrow’s unmade version of Episode IX, Star Wars: Duel of The Fates, was pretty much scrapped by the studio for something completely different from Abrams and screenwriter Chris Terrio with Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker. Concept artwork and the script for Duel of The Fates made it’s way online placing a spotlight on those scrapped plans, reinforcing the narrative that the studio didn’t have a master plan for this trilogy from the start.

Abrams was doing a round of press interviews to help promote the 4K UHD Blu-Ray home release of his alien adventure film Super 8, where he was asked by Collider if they should have had a plan for the Star Wars trilogy beforehand. The filmmaker gave a mixed repose giving the pros and cons of both.

ABRAMS: “There are projects that I’ve worked on where we had some ideas but we hadn’t worked through them enough, sometimes we had some ideas but then we weren’t allowed to do them the way we wanted to. I’ve had all sorts of situations where you plan things in a certain way and you suddenly find yourself doing something that’s 180 degrees different, and then sometimes it works really well and you feel like, ‘Wow that really came together,’ and other times you think, ‘Oh my God I can’t believe this is where we are,’ and sometimes when it’s not working out it’s because it’s what you planned, and other times when it’s not working out it’s because you didn’t [have a plan].”

“You just never really know, but having a plan I have learned – in some cases the hard way – is the most critical thing, because otherwise you don’t know what you’re setting up. You don’t know what to emphasize. Because if you don’t know the inevitable of the story, you’re just as good as your last sequence or effect or joke or whatever, but you want to be leading to something inevitable.”

The main quote mentioned at the top of the interview piece suggests that Abrams laments not having a plan with their Star Wars movies.

ABRAMS: “I do think that there’s nothing more important than knowing where you’re going.”

J.J. Abrams has since moved to WarnerMedia with a massive deal to develop films/television series for the media company and Lucasfilm is looking beyond the Skywalker Saga with Patty Jenkins directing Star Wars: Rogue Squadron as the next big Star Wars release for December 2023. Other films in development stages are coming from Taika Waititi and Rian Johnson, neither are expected to continue the Rey Skywalker journey.

SOURCE: COLLIDER