Tag: StudioCanal

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Karen Gillan’s Action Pic ‘Gunpowder Milkshake’ Already Has A Sequel In Early Development

The other day, a heap of a announcements and production updates made by StudioCanal revealed a bunch of projects on the horizon including Paddington 3, Benedict Cumberbatch’s WWII drama War Magician, and one interesting tidbit that just caught our eye was that Karen Gillan’s action pic Gunpowder Milkshake has a sequel in early development.

Gunpowder Milkshake hasn’t even released as it’ll debut on Netflix in the U.S. next week on July 14.

The action pic was helmed by Big Bad Wolves co-director Navot Papushado with a fantastic supporting cast that includes Lena Headey (Dredd, Game of Thrones), Paul Giamatti (Billions, Sideways, Shoot Em Up), Chloe Coleman (Avatar 2-5), Michelle Yeoh (Avatar 2-5, Shang-Chi, The Witcher: Blood Origin, Crazy Rich Asians), Angela Bassett (Strange Days, Black Panther, Black Panther: Wakanda Forever), and Carla Gugino (Spy Kids, The Lookout, Sin City, Watchmen).

We’re a wave of John Wick inspired female led action projects with Gunpowder Milkshake alongside things likes Mary Elizabeth Winstead’s Kate and Kate Beckinsale’s Jolt (taking cues from Jason Statham’s Crank films as well) also on their way soon.

GUNPOWDER MILKSHAKE – Sam (Karen Gillan) was only 12 years old when her mother Scarlet (Lena Headey), an elite assassin, was forced to abandon her. Sam was raised by The Firm, the ruthless crime syndicate her mother worked for. Now, 15 years later, Sam has followed in her mother’s footsteps and grown into a fierce hit-woman. But when a high-risk job goes wrong, Sam must choose between serving The Firm and protecting the life of an innocent 8-year-old girl – Emily (Chloe Coleman). With a target on her back, Sam has only one chance to survive: Reunite with her mother and her lethal associates, The Librarians (Michelle Yeoh, Angela Bassett, and Carla Gugino). These three generations of women must now learn to trust each other, stand up to The Firm and their army of henchmen, and raise hell against those who could take everything from them.

SOURCE: STUDIOCANAL VIA THR

Posted on in Film News

Colin Trevorrow’s WWII Movie ‘War Magician’ Officially Set To Begin Shooting In 2022; Benedict Cumberbatch Will Fight Nazis With Magic

Benedict Cumberbatch has been busy shooting scenes for Marvel’s Spider-Man: No Way Way alongside his Doctor Strange sequel, Doctor Strange In The Multiverse of Madness, that will be directed by Sam Raimi (Evil Dead, Army of The Dead, Darkman, Spider-Man 1-3) and co-starring Elizabeth Olsen as the actress reprises the Scarlet Witch role.

He’ll continue to be busy next year as French studio StudioCanal has announced via The Playlist that production on the WWII film, War Magician, will begin in 2022. Colin Trevorrow (Jurassic World, Jurassic World: Dominion) will be directing from a script penned by E. Nicholas Mariani that is based on the novel by David Fisher. The movie focuses on the real-life magician and illusionist Jasper Maskelyne (playe by Cumberbatch) was enlisted by the British Army to help fight the Nazis during WWII.

Jasper Maskelyne was a world famous magician and illusionist in the 1930s. When war broke out, he volunteered his services to the British Army and was sent to Egypt where the desert war had just begun. He used his skills to save the vital port of Alexandria from German bombers and to ‘hide’ the Suez Canal from them. He invented all sorts of camouflage methods to make trucks look like tanks and vice versa. On Malta he developed ‘the world’s first portable holes’: fake bomb craters used to fool the Germans into thinking they had hit their targets. His war culminated in the brilliant deception plan that won the Battle of El Alamein: the creation of an entire dummy army in the middle of the desert.

Colin Trevorrow had famously been developing the ninth Star Wars film under the tile Star Wars: Duel of The Fates, only to exit and most of his work scrapped as J.J. Abrams and Chris Terrio put together Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker.

A release date for War Magician wasn’t mentioned but I’m sure they’re hoping for an awards friendly fall/winter spot.

SOURCE: STUDIOCANAL VIA THE PLAYLIST

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Jake Gyllenhaal & Vanessa Kirby To Play A Couple In The Survival Thriller ‘Suddenly’ From ‘Rust & Bone’ Screenwriter

Another interesting project has come up at the Cannes Film Market this week as Jake Gyllenhaal (Nightcrawler) and Vanessa Kirby (Pieces of A Woman) are attached to play a couple in a new Studiocanal thriller from Rust & Bone screenwriter Thomas Bidegain, according to Deadline. The project is based on the novel Soudain Seuls by French author Isabelle Autissier and will focus on a couple that is stranded on an island. Suddenly sounds like it could be a solid character-focused film for the acting duo.

A couple who becomes stranded on an island in the South Atlantic and must fight for survival when their dream journey becomes a nightmare. 

Bidegain was previously behind the French gangster film A Prophet and wrote on the Gyllenhaal’s The Sister Brothers.

Gyllenhaal has been busy lately completing production on Michael Bay’s Ambulance, leading the Antoine Fuqua-directed 911 dispatch thriller The Guilty, and is still attached to co-star with Jessica Chastain in a feature film adaptation of the video game The Division for Netflix with Red Notice director Rawson Marshall Thurber recently replacing David Leitch (Bullet Train, Atomic Blonde, John Wick). It’s unknown if we’ll see Jake Gyllenhaal return to the Marvel Cinematic Universe as Quentin Beck as he died in Spider-Man: Far From Home and his death is being used to frame Peter Parker for murder, it’s possible the death was staged but we’ll have to watch Spider-Man: No Way Home to know for sure.

Kirby has been getting praise for her dramatic work in Pieces of A Woman and The World To Come. She’s been recently shooting the high-octane action sequel Mission: Impossible 7 for writer/director Christopher McQuarrie during the pandemic and is expected to return for Mission: Impossible 8 as well. There is an assumption that Vanessa Kirby could reprise the Hattie Shaw role in a potential sequel to Hobbs & Shaw, when/if Universal Pictures decides to announce those plans officially.

RUST & BONE – Ali (Matthias Schoenaerts), a former boxer and single father, meets Stephanie (Marion Cotillard) when he saves her from a brawl at the nightclub where he works as a bouncer. Their casual acquaintance develops into something much more after Stephanie, who trains killer whales at a marine park, suffers a horrible accident and loses both her legs above the knee. As Stephanie draws on Ali’s physical strength, an unexpected courtship slowly comes to life.

SOURCE: DEADLINE

Posted on in Film News

John Boyega Officially Returns To Kick More Alien Ass In Joe Cornish’s ‘Attack The Block 2’

Folks might be unfamiliar with how British actor John Boyega developed his career in Hollywood and it all started with Joe Cornish’s alien invasion comedy Attack The Block, the 2011 R-rated parody saw a group of London toughs led by Boyega’s Moses as animal-like alien invade their estate block. The group of hoodlums pivot to become protectors of fellow residents when it’s clear the aliens aren’t terribly friendly.

Attack The Block had a similar tone to Edgar Wright’s fantastic zombie flick Shaun of The Dead, which wasn’t that surprising as Edgar was a producer and has a longstanding working relationship with Joe Cornish. You might remember that the pair once co-wrote the original script of Marvel’s Ant-Man only to exit over creative differences.

The success of the cult film helped push John towards the chase for a franchise role as he had teased an interest in playing Marvel’s Blade in Attack The Block press interviews, taking the mantle from Wesley Snipes, almost a decade before Mahershala Ali was announced as the new Eric Brooks. It ultimately led to John auditing for J.J. Abrams and Lucasfilm to play Finn in Star Wars: The Force Awakens officially launching his career to a completely different level.

There has been talk from director Joe Cornish was considering about making Attack The Block 2 and there is now confirmation by Deadline that Boyega is set to return with Joe also returning to write and direct the mature sci-fi comedy. Edgar Wright is back as producer as well via Complete Fiction Pictures.

The original co-starred Nick Frost (Shaun of The Dead, Hot Fuzz) and Jodie Whittaker (Doctor Who), but it remains to be seen if they’ll reprise their roles.

It’s unknown when they’ll want to begin production as Joe is a tad busy shooting the Netflix series Lockwood over the summer.

ATTACK THE BLOCK – Trainee nurse Sam is walking home to her flat in a scary South London tower block when she’s robbed by a gang of masked, hooded youths. She’s saved when the gang are distracted by a bright meteorite, which falls from the sky and hits a nearby parked car. Sam flees, just before the gang are attacked by a small alien creature that leaps from the wreckage. The gang chase the creature and kill it, dragging its ghoulish carcass to the top of the block, which they treat as their territory. While Sam and the police hunt for the gang, a second wave of meteors fall. Confident of victory against such feeble invaders, the gang grab weapons, mount bikes and mopeds and set out to defend their turf. But this time, the creatures are bigger. Much bigger. Savage, shadowy and bestial, they are hunting their fallen comrade and nothing will stand in their way. The estate is about to become a battleground. And the bunch of no-hope kids who just attacked Sam are about to become her and the block’s, only hope.

SOURCE: DEADLINE

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Benedict Cumberbatch To Star In WWII Drama ‘War Magician’ Directed By ‘Jurassic World’s Colin Trevorrow – British Illusionist Uses Magic To Defeat The Nazis

Deadline reports that Doctor Strange actor Benedict Cumberbatch is set to star in a new WWII drama, titled War Magician, that focuses on Jasper Makelyne who used illusions/magic to defeat the Nazis. The StudioCanal film will be directed by Colin Trevorrow best known for Jurassic World and the upcoming sequel Jurassic World: Dominion. The script was adapted from the David Fisher book by screenwriter E. Nicholas Mariani. Previous drafts were penned by Richard Cordiner and Gary Whitta.

Based on the wild story of Jasper Maskelyne, a British illusionist who used magic to defeat Erwin Rommel in World War II. Trevorrow’s take features an international “magic gang” from Africa, Europe and the Middle East who conspired with Maskelyne and a female military intelligence officer to defeat the Nazis.

It sounds similar to the American counterpart project Ghost Army that had Ben Affleck (Argo, The Town) attached to direct. That film is based on the real-life group that had American military overseas during WWII creating fake tanks and mock forces to fool the Germans thinking that the allies were advancing in greater numbers. It’s not magic but there is still an illusion element to trick the enemy.

Benedict Cumberbatch has worked on plenty of war films in the past including Sam Mendes’ 1917, Steven Spielberg’s War Horse, the WWII drama The Intimidation Game, and the Cold-War era drama Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy. The actor has been recently shooting Marvel’s Spider-Man: No Way Home and Doctor Strange In The Multiverse of Madness.

It’s unclear when War Magician will begin shooting.

SOURCE: DEADLINE

Posted on in Film News

Lily James Starring In Thriller ‘The Paris Trap’ – Production Eyeing Start In Early 2021

Another project announced at the Cannes Virtual Market via Deadline is a Paris-set thriller titled The Paris Trap from director Pablo Trapero (ZeroZeroZero, The Chain) with British actress Lily James (Baby Driver, Cinderella, Rebecca) set to take the lead role.

The Paris Trap has a script penned by Daniel Taplitz with rewrites from Michael Lesslie.

The Hitchcockian thriller revolves around a young American woman on a visit to Paris who becomes the victim of mistaken identity. Caught up in a secret international government operation, she must play the part to save her own life. James will play the young woman whose character is thrust to the center of the operation and must find her way out of the “trap,” helped by her handler. That role, the co-lead of the film, will be cast shortly.

Pablo’s current work includes the Amazon series ZeroZeroZero and Spanish-language thriller The Clan.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cV4jSwCrR44

Lily’s most recent projects include Baby Driver, Darkest Hour, Yesterday, and Ben Wheatley’s Rebecca for Netflix. James had just signed-on for Phillip Noyce’s bank robbery film Peggy Jo, where she’ll be playing a female criminal that disguised herself as a man to commit crimes.

Filming on The Paris Trap is expected to begin sometime early next year in Paris, France.

SOURCE: DEADLINE