Amazon Studios and John Wick creator Derek Kolsad are teaming up for an original action film.
Variety reports that Sterling K. Brown (This Is Us) will lead the pic titled Blue Coyote, which will see Brown playing a man on the run from a group of ruthless criminals, but as seen in other Kolstad projects he has a certain set of lethal skills that will be begrudging be used at some point against his would-be killers.
The story revolves around an everyman (Brown) who’s hunted by a ruthless criminal syndicate for his mysterious cargo, and now must navigate the treacherous terrain of Route 66 while unleashing his lethal set of skills in a fight for survival.
Coyote Blue will be the feature film debut for television director Hanelle M. Culpepper, who has worked on Star Trek: Discovery, Star Trek: Picard, Kung Fu, American Crime, Mayans M.C., Samuel L. Jackson’s Apple TV+ limited series The Last Days of Ptolemy Grey, and the upcoming Amazon series adaptation of Neil Gaimen’s Ansani Boys.
Sterling K. Brown is no stranger to action projects with credits such as Hotel Artemis, The Predator, The Rhythm Section, and had a brief role in Marvel’s billion-dollar hit Black Panther playing the father of Michael B. Jordan’s Erik Killmonger.
Kolstad was recently behind the Bob Odenkirk actioner Nobody (sequel in early development) and worked with head writer Malcolm Spellman on Marvel’s hit streaming series The Falcon & The Winter Soldier.
With Culpepper busy with Amazon’s Anasni Boys, it’s unknown when we can expect Blue Coyote to begin shooting.
Still, it’s interesting to see Sterling K. Brown make the big jump to action lead and should be a fun ride given how he’s grown as a solid actor over the years. We don’t normally see seasoned actors given these type of roles and Brown’s involvement should easily elevate the material, just like with Bob Odenkirk in Nobody.
While we know that Marvel’s Armor Wars series will see Don Cheadle’s War Machine finally getting his own solo project and will seemingly adapted the Iron Man storyline from the comics, we’re still sort in the dark concerning returning characters and who is exactly working on the show.
Don Cheadle recently spoke with Collider and mentioned they’re still only in the early development stage on Armor Wars.
“All I know is that we’re going to go into the room in a couple of weeks and actually start trying to break the spine of the story and figure out who, what, when, and where for all of it. It’s super early in the development stages so I couldn’t even spoil it if I wanted to. I don’t know what happens,” Don Cheadle said of Armor Wars’ current status at Marvel Studios.
The actor landed an Emmy nomination for his brief cameo in The Falcon & The Winter Soldier (has confused Don Cheadle just like the rest of us) and there is a good shot that we might see some connections to Armor Wars. At the end of the series, we see a villainous version of Sharon Carter revealed as The Power Broker, the show’s shadowy puppet master trying to get their hands on the super-soldier serum and willing to kill to get her hands on it.
Could The Power Broker move on to Stark Tech and armor suits?
Sharon Carter was able to keep her secret from the heroes and has now return to the U.S. with her access to government projects potential means that she’ll attempt to sell secrets/technology to whoever she was planning on selling the serum to before The Flag Smashers ended that. Interestingly enough, Carter and Rhodey have a connection of sorts. They both wore the Iron Patriot armor and the end scene could telegraph that she might want to get her hands on things like Stark technology and possibly doing a tight-rope act by trying to acquire stuff under the nose of the government and War Machine.
In the comics, the big antagonist is Sam Rockwell’s Justin Hammer and considering he was thrown in prison after the events of Iron Man 2, it’s unlikely that he’s been able to keep his government contract. But, Hammer could be the person Sharon Carter looks to build and repair the Stark Tech as he’s one of the few people that has got their hands on the suits when he was assigned by the government to put together War Machine in Iron Man 2.
They established Madripoor as a no-mans-land for all sorts of criminal enterprises and might be a location they could be building/selling armor suits to various high-end buyers looking to get their own advanced weapons systems. Carter moving between American and Madripoor could be extremely fun because that setting needs to be further explored along with how she operates over there.
I wouldn’t be that shocked if we see Carter and Hammer working together in Armor Wars, we’ll likely see Thunderbolt Ross and Val causing headaches as well.
Freaky director Christopher Landon has secured a high-profile project at Netflix with We Have a Ghost, which is based on the short story Ernest from Geoff Manaugh.
We Have A Ghost follows Kevin and his family, who find a ghost named Ernest haunting their new home and get turned into overnight social media sensations. But when Kevin and Ernest go rogue to investigate the mystery of Ernest’s past, they become a target of the CIA.
The news coming from The Hollywood Reporter adds that the fantastic cast consists of Anthony Mackie (Outside The Wire, The Falcon & The Winter Soldier), David Harbour (Stranger Things, Black Widow), Tig Nataro (Army of The Dead, Star Trek: Discovery), Jennifer Coolidge (Legally Blonde), Erica Ash (Survivor’s Remorse, Uncle Drew), Isabella Russo (School of Rock the Musical, Crashing), Niles Fitch (This Is Us), Faith Ford (Murphy Brown, Hope & Faith) and Steve Coulter (Shotgun Wedding, The Conjuring).
It’s not mentioned in the report, but Landon’s previous work has skewed more comedic/tongue-in-cheek and I guess we’ll have to assume that is the case with We Have A Ghost, given that Harbour and Mackie have done humorous roles in the past.
Christopher Landon took to Twitter to announced that film had officially started on Monday and confirmed that cinematographer Marc Spicer (Escape Room, Escape Room 2) will be behind the camera. Spicer has a wonderful eye and those Escape Room movies have an extremely slick look which should mean that We Have A Ghost will really have a strong visual edge to it.
The pairing of Mackie and Harbour is interesting as Marvel Studios head Kevin Feige suggested on Twitter (during a Black Widow watch party) recently he’d like to see Sam Wilson’s Captain America and Alexei’s Red Guardian come to blows at some point. It’ll be interesting if the two actors could reunite for an MCU project like Captain America 4.
Filming is underway on Paramount’s new Dungeons & Dragons movie but there is yet another casting announced that has arrived. Game Night directors John Francis Daley and Jonathan Goldstein are behind the project.
British actress Daisy Head, the daughter of Buffy’s Anthony Head, has landed a role in project led by Chris Pine, according to Deadline. Daisy is likely best known from Underworld: Blood Wars, the new Wrong Turn film, and the Netflix series Shadow & Bone.
A potential plot synopsis was spotted online and an Icelandic outlet confirmed last month the country is being used as a filming location. Other filming locales include Belfast and France.
An ex-Harper turned thief escapes from prison with his partner, a female barbarian, and reunites with a no-talent wizard and a druid new to their team in an effort to rob the cheating conman who stole all their loot from the heist that landed them behind bars, and used it to install himself as the Lord of Neverwinter. Only the traitor is allied with a powerful Red Wizard who has something far more sinister in store.
On the crew front there is another impressive addition.
Brad Martin confirmed on his Instagram account that he’s officially the second unit director and supervising stunt coordinator on the fantasy remake. He was the second unit director on the Underworld franchise and was the stunt coordinator on action flicks such as Underworld, Live Free or Die Hard, Tropic Thunder, The Other Guys, Safe, The Expendables 3, Gemini Man, Greenland, and Martin most recently tackled the stunts on Marvel’s series The Falcon & The Winter Soldier.
The rest of the fantasy film’s production team consists of cinematographer Barry Peterson (Game Night) and production designer Raymond Chan (The Falcon & The Winter Soldier).
Other Dungeons & Dragons cast members are Michelle Rodriguez (Avatar, F9, Alita: Battle Angel), Rege-Jean Page (Bridgerton, The Gray Man), Justice Smith (Detective Pikachu, Jurassic Park: Fallen Kingdom), Sophia Lillis (It), Chloe Coleman (Avatar 2, Gunpowder Milkshake) and Hugh Grant (The Gentlemen, Five Eyes) is reportedly playing a villain.
Paramount will unleash Dungeons & Dragons on March 3, 2023.
Last Friday, there was a scoop from The Hollywood Reporter that revealed Marvel Studios was already moving forward with Captain American 4 hiring screenwriters Malcolm Spellman and Dalan Musson to begin working on a script.
This new was coming off the success of the Disney+ series Falcon & Winter Soldier, where Spellman was the head writer. That 6-episode series followed the journey of Anthony Mackie’s Sam Wilson transforming into the new Captain America alongside acknowledging the dark-side of the super-soldier program via Isiah Bradley’s history of being the first black Captain America, but his story being kept from the public and his subsequent 30 year imprisonment. It’s been all but confirmed that Mackie would end up leading Captain America 4 and potential further installments.
However, this has yet to be announced by Marvel/Disney and Malcolm Spellman doesn’t give a strong impression the project is a lock. When asked about the report by Comic Book, Malcolm has seemingly downplayed how involved he currently is with Captain America 4 and points back to Kevin Feige being the one that makes these things official.
SPELLMAN: “Who said it? Did Kevin say it? I would not put faith in anything you do not hear directly from the man himself!”
While we’ll have to wait for some official confirmations about Captain America 4, Falcon & Winter Soldier director Kari Skogland has revealed to Cinemablend’s Reel Blend podcast that she would be game if the offer came her way.
SKOGLAND: “I think if Marvel called me to do anything, if they called me to film the phone book, I would do it. … The Marvel characters are all very, very rich. I’ve become friends with Anthony and Sebastian, and I really enjoyed working with them. And Emily and Daniel Bruhl. I mean, I’ve worked with them for a couple of years, so of course, I have a special place in my heart. But as I said, if Kevin (Feige) picked up the phone, I would answer it.”
I’m pretty sure we’ll end up seeing some cross-pollination between Don Cheadle’s Armor Wars and Captain America 4, given that the heroes and villains are essentially mingling in similar government circles.
MAJOR SPOILERS AHEAD FOR THE FALCON & THE WINTER SOLDIER
Marvel’s The Falcon & The Winter Soldier has finally ended it’s six episode run and while I feel the last episode was a little long for my liking, it did seem to streamline an ending that opens a bunch of doors for multiple character returns.
We see Baron Zemo conducting super-soldier busting while being behind a cell in Thunderbolt Ross’ super-max prison The Raft, killing four of the captured Flag-Smashers while they were on their way to The Raft as Zemo’s butler seemed to be the one that executed them with a bomb.
Only time will tell if we’ll see Daniel Bruhl return to the role in some Thunderbolts project down the line.
The cat is finally out of the bag and it’s been revealed that Emily VanCamp’s Sharon Carter is indeed The Power Broker, something that has been long suspected and the actress even commented on the theory not too long ago. While this turn might have perplexed some assuming that she was being given a second shot at a heroic run in the MCU, it’s not that dissimilar to that of other S.H.I.E.L.D. agents such as Jasper Sitwell, who seemed level-headed good guys until they were outed as HYDRA cohorts hiding within the ranks of S.H.I.E.L.D. in Captain America: The Winter Soldier.
To suggest that Sharon had a strong character arc in the Captain America films would be disingenuous and while people might not like the angle Marvel took with her in Falcon, it finally gave the actress something to do outside of being a glorified cameo doing random things off-screen only to be completely forgotten when it came to Avengers: Infinity War and Avengers: Endgame.
Luckily for Sharon, she killed Batroc The Leaper before he was able to expose her secret and also shoots Karli Morgenthau. In the wake of the assassination attempts in New York City, Sharon Carter is given a full pardon in a post-credit scene and is speaking with someone that she now has access to intel/government weapons programs now that she is officially back on U.S. soil.
Could this hint to Sharon Carter’s involvement in Armor Wars?
While Sam Wilson’s costume (via Wakanda) reveal was spoiled by the toys it was interesting to see how faithful to the comic book design it was and that he’s decided not to take the super-soldier serum, which should be interesting moving forward given that Captain America is now going to be a tech-based superhero. I’m guessing everything he’s wearing is vibraium which should at least protect him from most weapons.
Another interesting thing is that we see Sam return to the home of Isaiah and Eli Bradley taking them to Smithsonian to reveal that Isaiah’s story will be told and history will remember him as he gets his own exhibit alongside Steve Rogers. While there had been rumblings Eli joining a Young Avengers project, there doesn’t seem to be any signs that he has any superpowers in his current state.
I have to assume that with Sam’s new super-suit and being established as the new Cap, we’ll get some sort of announcement concerning Captain America 4 moving forward at the studio.
We see Bucky make amends crossing-off the last name on his list and ending his therapy. I wouldn’t be shocked if he has a supporting role in future Captain America films alongside Mackie or is given a solo project at some point.
John Walker’s time as U.S. Agent begun as Julia Louis-Dreyfus’ Val has outfitted him with a new costume and is giving him a second chance, however, her true intentions haven’t been revealed or who she is ultimately working for. Val seeming makes a statement suggesting she’s aware of how bonkers things will be getting with the Skrulls/Secret Invasion but doesn’t elaborate.
There are still some loose ends going on as we don’t know if Joaquin Torres is going to follow in Sam’s footsteps as the new Falcon and if Steve Rogers is really dead, it’s been suggested twice he’s on the Moon. Given S.W.O.R.D.’s upcoming presence in Captain Marvel 2 and Secret Invasion, I wouldn’t be shocked if they’ve established a base on the surface of the Moon leading to believe he’s up there. Nobody seems to talk about Steve being dead or a funeral, given we saw on-screen funerals for Peggy Carter and Tony Stark they would unlikely do that off-screen. Leaving things open is likely being done on purpose.
What did you think about the series and it’s finale?
MASSIVE SPOILERS FOR EPISODE 5 OF THE FALCON & THE WINTER SOLDIER
We’re down to one more episode of The Falcon & The Winter Soldier and it seems to be a bit of a super-soldier showdown. Interestingly enough, while a big cameo was teased for this current episode they sort have delivered on that front when the teases for WandaVision were mostly smoke to confuse fans.
The big cameo in Episode 5 aka Truth wasn’t what I think a lot of people were expecting as Julia Louis-Dreyfus revealed herself as Contessa Valentina Allegra de Fontaine aka Agent 14. Traditionally, a S.H.I.E.L.D. Agent that was for a time secretly joined HYDRA as a version of Madame Hydra.
I personally wouldn’t be shocked if she turned out to be the secret Power Broker, given her interest in John Walker and knowledge of the super-soldier serum. If she turns out to be the MCU’s version of Madame Hydra/Viper it would also make perfect sense as the Ophelia Sarkissian incarnation for a time ruled Madripoor. There is also a connection to Sharon Carter via Femme Force, so having the two linked-up wouldn’t be a stretch either.
It’s interesting to see a Seinfeld cast member given all the working titles to Marvel projects honoring the series, including Taika Waititi’s Thor: Love & Thunder going under The Big Salad during filming. A direct nod to a title of an episode. Jon Watt’s Spider-Man films have also honored the show with The Summer of George and Fall of George/Bosco on the first two movies.
Vanity Fair has also revealed that Julia’s Contessa Valentina Allegra de Fontaine was supposed to first show up in Scarlett Johansson’s Black Widow and potentially reveal herself as being some sleeper Russian agent connected to the Black Widow Program, not unlike Rachel Weisz’s Iron Maiden. Not to mention that Marvel is said to have “big plans” for her character.
According to sources close to the production, Louis-Dreyfus was slated to first appear in the Black Widow film which, in a pre-Covid world, was scheduled to debut in theaters May 1, 2020. But Marvel, reportedly, has even bigger ambitions for Louis-Dreyfus’s villainous figure.
They’re still unsure if she’ll still appear in Black Widow or not along with teasing the possibility of a link to The Thunderbolts too. It wouldn’t be surprising if both Walker and Zemo end up on the Thunderbolts lineup alongside Florence Pugh’s Yelena Belova. We see Walker building his own shield after the real one was taken away and Zemo is being sent to Thunderbolt Ross’ super-prison The Raft, the latter feels like a huge nod that The Thunderbolts are coming in the future.
Black Widow has been pushed to July 9, 2021 and Marvel really didn’t have a choice to delay Falcon given the demand for original content for Disney+. The final episode of the series will be released next week.
As fans attempt to figure out who the mysterious Power Broker is in Marvel’s The Falcon & The Winter Soldier. The Hollywood Reporter was able to speak with actress Emily VanCamp on the “theory” that former S.H.I.E.L.D. Agent Sharon Carter is in fact the villain dealing in super-soldier serum.
VANCAMP: “I think that’s a great theory. (Laughs.) I obviously can’t say anything. I’ve also been saying, ‘Yes, there are three episodes left, but there are characters yet to be seen, which is also exciting.’ But I think it’s great that there are things swirling out there. Can I confirm that? No, 100 percent not. But you never know.”
Sharon Carter certainly has reasons to be angry with both the U.S. government and the Avengers, as she mentioned in Episode 3 that she had been on the run since the events of Captain America: Civil War. In that film, Carter aided international fugitives and we didn’t see what she was up to between Civil War and Endgame, a lot of things could have happened to her in this period of time. Hiding out in Madripoor and suddenly being aware the trio arrived on the island seemed a little too convenient, unless she was tipped off by someone else.
I have my suspensions the Power Broker could end up being Tim Roth’s Emil Blonsky aka Abomination, given he’s expected to have a major role in the She-Hulk series and has taken the super-soldier serum himself in The Incredible Hulk. Blonsky would also seemingly be aware of the serum supply that Thunderbolt Ross (Ross gave him the serum) has and potentially could have acquired classified information about people like Isaiah Bradley over the years.
Although, someone like Tim Blake Nelson’s Dr. Samuel Sterns aka The Leader could just easily be interested in the serum too. Tim recently starred in HBO’s hit sequel series Watchmen.
With Daniel Bruhl reprising the role of Baron Zemo in Marvel’s The Falcon & The Winter Soldier, we’ve been extremely curious if we’ll see the villain end up taking a leadership role via The Thunderbolts. A super-team made up of Marvel villains and anti-heroes, led at one point by Zemo himself.
Speaking exclusively with our pals over at Espacio Marvelita, Daniel responded to a question about seeing Zemo leading the Thunderbolts. It sounds like Daniel doesn’t see Zemo as a team player and suggests that he’s too smart to take a leadership role.
(A rough translation of Spanish to English via Google)
BRUHL: “Obviously. And there is only one team, there is only one Team Zemo, there should be no other (laughs). No, I don’t know, what’s up. He’s a very smart and very manipulative guy, and that has always been a lot of fun for me. We must not trust Zemo at any time and to see where it will end up, it is not known. But the question of being a leader, is still too smart to be a leader, because leaders also always end, they end badly, so he is one of those characters who always continues to manage things behind the curtain. He’s a Machiavelli, it’s the book he’s reading in the series. And these guys always have a lot of power. It’s like in the past, the one who was always whispering into the king’s ear. He’s one of these guys you have to be very careful with.”
While I enjoyed Captain America: Civil War I didn’t find that incarnation of Daniel’s Zemo that terribly compelling or interesting. What we recently saw with Episode 3 of The Falcon & The Winter Soldier was a fun and charismatic version of Zemo (how can you not love those dance moves?), someone I think we all want to see more of in the future. However, while there are plenty of signs that Marvel Studios is building up to an MCU version of The Thunderbolts it remains to be seen if Zemo will be ultimately part of that roster.
Zemo being allowed to develop into fixture of the MCU wouldn’t be terribly shocking with Loki and Bucky being given second chances to play the roles of heroes after being main villains in previous projects.
Episode 4 of The Falcon & The Winter Soldier drops tomorrow on Disney+.
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.
THE RONIN 