Tag: Tomb Raider 2

Posted on in Film News

EXCLUSIVE: ‘Godzilla vs. Kong’ Cinematographer Ben Seresin Joins Jennifer Lopez Assassin Pic ‘The Mother’ Directed By ‘Mulan’s Niki Caro

Back in February, Deadline reported that Jennifer Lopez was attached to star/produce a new action film for Netflix. The Mother has a script penned by Misha Green (Tomb Raider 2, Lovecraft Country) and Andrea Berloff (Straight Outta Compton) it was described as being in the vein of Luc Besson’s The Professional and would see Lopez playing an assassin. 

Lopez will play a deadly female assassin who comes out of hiding to protect the daughter that she gave up years before, while on the run from dangerous men.

The Ronin can exclusively reveal that Kiwi cinematographer Ben Seresin has joined The Mother’s production team and should bring a striking visual flair after being behind Legendary’s Godzilla vs. Kong. Seresin’s other credits include World War Z, Pirates of The Caribbean At World’s End, Pain & Gain, Transformers: Revenge of The Fallen, Unstoppable, Tom Cruise’s The Mummy, and Chaos Walking. 

Fellow Kiwi, director Niki Caro (Mulan), has closed her deal to direct, and we can confirm that Canadian production designer Jean-Francois Campeau (Annie With An E, Bon Cop Bad Cop II) has also joined the production team. 

We’ve learned that filming will take place from early October to late January in Vancouver, British, Columbia, Canada.

Misha Green is currently attached to write and direct MGM’s Tomb Raider sequel starring Oscar-winner Alicia Vikander, she also signed an overall deal with Apple after HBO cancelled Season 2 of Lovecraft Country.

Lopez is coming off the heat from her stripper movie Hustlers and has wrapped on the action-comedy Shogun Wedding. You might remember her kicking serious ass in Steven Soderbergh’s Out of Sight opposite George Clooney, so it’ll be interesting to see her tackling a similar badass role.

HUSTLERS – Working as a stripper to make ends meet, Destiny’s life changes forever when she becomes friends with Ramona — the club’s top money earner. Ramona soon shows Destiny how to finagle her way around the wealthy Wall Street clientele who frequent the club. But when the 2008 economic collapse cuts into their profits, the gals and two other dancers devise a daring scheme to take their lives back.

Posted on in News

Amazon Officially Announces Agreement To Purchase MGM For $8.45 Billion – Will “Reimagine” Their Deep Catalog

It’s been reported for days that Amazon was looking to spend almost $9 billion to acquire MGM, a major Hollywood studio that has a heap of IP titles and legacy films. The studio also has a partnership with EON Productions for the James Bond franchise.

Well, the streaming giant made the merger official this morning and dropped a press release confirm it’s going ahead, paying an impressive $8.45 billion for MGM. The press release also mentioned Amazon’s intention to “reimagine” the deep catalog, which likely means turning properties into films and television shows.

“The real financial value behind this deal is the treasure trove of IP in the deep catalog that we plan to reimagine and develop together with MGM’s talented team. It’s very exciting and provides so many opportunities for high-quality storytelling,” said Mike Hopkins, Senior Vice President of Prime Video and Amazon Studios. 

Amazon (NASDAQ: AMZN) and MGM today announced that they have entered into a definitive merger agreement under which Amazon will acquire MGM for a purchase price of $8.45 billion. MGM has nearly a century of filmmaking history and complements the work of Amazon Studios, which has primarily focused on producing TV show programming. Amazon will help preserve MGM’s heritage and catalog of films, and provide customers with greater access to these existing works. Through this acquisition, Amazon would empower MGM to continue to do what they do best: great storytelling.

The studio’s film catalog includes 12 Angry Men, Basic Instinct, Creed, James Bond, Legally Blonde, Moonstruck, Poltergeist, Raging Bull, RoboCop, Rocky, Silence of the Lambs, Stargate, Thelma & Louise, Tomb Raider, The Magnificent Seven, The Pink Panther, The Thomas Crown Affair, and many films, over 4,000 of them. Not to mention 17,000 television shows as well.

MGM is already looking to soft-reboot RoboCop with RoboCop Returns from Aussie director Abe Forsythe (Little Monsters). The Russo Brothers are producing a new incarnation of the romantic crime flick Thomas Crown Affair led by Michael B. Jordan (Creed, Black Panther, Without Remorse) as the charming thief. Jordan is about to direct and star in Creed III, making his directorial debt on the boxing drama. A new James Bond is expected to be hired for Bond 26, once No Time To Die ends the Daniel Craig era. Alicia Vikander’s Tomb Raider reboot movie is set to get a sequel from director Misha Green (Lovecraft Country). Something like Stargate would be prime for a franchise reboot as it was a feature film that spawned multiple television shows. Those are just some examples that are just the tip of the iceberg and we should expect more projects announced in the coming weeks/months given the deep pockets of Amazon Studios/Prime Video.

Amazon getting their hands on a legacy Hollywood studio should help boost their film/television library but also allowing them to create new original IP content, allowing them to become more competitive against the Netflix originals and could see Amazon attempt theatrical distribution on a larger scale as they could add global box office to their revenue stream.

Some of the high-profile Prime Video shows on the horizon are the expensive Lord of The Rings that is expected to land at least five seasons and at least two seasons of Wheel of Time series led by Rosamund Pike that is based on the Robert Jordan fantasy novels.

SOURCE: AMAZON

Posted on in Film News

‘Tomb Raider 2’: ‘Lovecraft Country’s Misha Green Replaces Ben Wheatley As Director

Deadline reveals that MGM Studios has lost director Ben Wheatley on their Tomb Raider sequel starring Alicia Vikander, they’ve hired Lovecraft Country showrunner Misha Green to both write and direct Tomb Raider 2.

This will be Green’s feature film directorial debut after directing an episode of Lovecraft Country. Her HBO series produced by Jordan Peele and J.J. Abrams runs the gauntlet of genres between horror, action, thriller, crime, and science fiction. So, tackling the supernatural and action-adventure genre doesn’t seem like a huge stretch for Misha.

I do think fans are going to be puzzled why MGM was willing not to wait for someone like Ben Wheatley, who proved with his action-comedy Free Fire he really should be making more films within the action genre. He had recently signed-on to direct the sequel to Jason Statham’s The Meg for Warner Bros. and likely came into conflict with shooting Tomb Raider sequel.

Misha certainly has the writing chops to pen the film but given the scale of the film having her make a feature film debut might be scary to a lot of fans. I’m sure there is a reason why MGM selected her vision and didn’t go after a seasoned filmmaker to execute it.

SOURCE: DEADLINE

Posted on in Film News

Neon Distributing Ben Wheatley Horror Flick ‘In The Earth’ – Secretly Shot During The Pandemic

Neon, best known for the domestic release of Oscar-winner Parasite will be distributing a new horror film titled In The Earth directed by Ben Wheatley (Free Fire, Rebecca, A Field In England) secretly during the pandemic according to Deadline via the American Film Market.

As the world searches for a cure to a disastrous virus, a scientist and park scout venture deep in the forest for a routine equipment run. Through the night, their journey becomes a terrifying voyage through the heart of darkness, the forest coming to life around them.

In The Earth is said to be aiming for release sometime next year and I’ll be keeping my fingers-crossed that this pandemic project will a bit more tasteful than the Michael Bay-produced Songbird (feels super exploitative from the trailer).

It’s cast consists of Joel Fry, Ellora Torchia, Hayley Squires, and Reece Shearsmith.

The director is no stranger to horror tackling films such as Kill List and Sightseers, the latter skewing more in the realm of satire.

Ben Wheatley is attached to direct Tomb Raider 2 and The Meg sequel for Warner Bros. but when those will shoot is a little unclear.

SOURCE: DEADLINE

Posted on in Film News

Ben Wheatley To Direct Jason Statham In ‘The Meg 2’

According to The Hollywood Reporter, Rebecca director Ben Wheatley has been hired by Warner Bros. to direct their sequel to the shark action flick The Meg.

The studio has set filmmaker Ben Wheatley, whose updated version of Gothic tale Rebecca debuted this week, to direct the sequel to its 2018 giant shark thriller hit, The Meg.

The original earned an impressive $530.2 million globally on a budget of $130 million.

THE MEG – Previously thought to be extinct, a massive creature attacks a deep-sea submersible, leaving it disabled and trapping the crew at the bottom of the Pacific. With time running out, a visionary oceanographer recruits rescue diver Jonas Taylor to save the crew and the sea itself from an unimaginable threat — a 75-foot-long prehistoric shark known as the Megalodon.

Ben Wheatley is no stranger to action with his excellent R-rated action comedy Free Fire that focused on a Boston arms deal with the IRA that goes sour very quickly which starred Brie Larson, Cillian Murphy, Armie Hammer, and Sharlto Copley.

He was also tasked to direct the Tomb Raider sequel but we haven’t got many updates on that film recently from Warner Bros. or the trades.

Jason Statham is a busy bee lately as he filmed a thriller called Wrath of Man aka Cash Truck for director Guy Ritchie and will reunite with Ritchie for the spy flick Five Eyes.

SOURCE: THE HOLLYWOOD REPORTER