New Line Cinema, producer James Wan, and writer/director Gary Dauberman are teaming up for a new feature film adaption of the Stephen King novel Salem’s Lot, which features vampires in a small town.
Salem’s Lot is a small New England town with white clapboard houses, tree-lined streets, and solid church steeples. A stranger had also come to the Lot, a stranger with a secret as old as evil, a secret that would wreak irreparable harm on those he touched and in turn on those they loved.Author Ben Mears returns to Salem’s Lot to write a book about a house that has haunted him since childhood only to find his isolated hometown infested with vampires. While the vampires claim more victims, Mears convinces a small group of believers to combat the undead.
There is finally some casting news to share on the project.
The Hollywood Reporter has revealed that the horror film’s protagonist, Ben Mears, will be played by Lewis Pullman (son of Bill Pullman), who is likely best known from Bad Times At The El Royale and will be seen in Tom Cruise’s Top Gun: Maverick.
Filming on Salem’s Lot begins next month in Boston, according to the report.
It’ll be interesting if they’ll end up hiring bigger names or seasoned actors to surround Pullman in the supporting cast.
You might remember that Gary Dauberman previously wrote the scripts for Andy Muschietti’s It and It: Chapter Two for director, another Stephen King adaptation. He’s also wrote stuff such as the Swamp Thing series, The Nun, Annabelle Comes Homes, Annabelle: Creation, and Annabelle.
The Ronin previously confirmed that cinematographer Michael Burgess would be the film’s director of photography. With extensive horror credits such as Annabelle Comes Home, The Nun, The Conjuring 2, The Curse of La Llorona, The Conjuring: The Devil Made Me Do It, and James Wan’s upcoming horror pic Malignant.
Filmmaker Joseph Kosinski finished the big Tom Cruise sequel Top Gun: Maverick, which simply waiting to be released by Paramount Pictures this fall and is in post-production stages with his Chris Hemsworth pic Escape From Spiderhead at Netflix.
After previously talking the science-fiction genre with Disney’s Tron: Legacy and the Tom Cruise action movie Oblivion, Kosinski is reportedly returning to the genre for a comic book adaptation, Chariot. The adaptation, according to Deadline, was won by Warner Bros. after the project went to auction.
The Chariot was a Cold War-era secret government project to provide its star agent with a weapon unlike any other in the form of a supercharged muscle car. It sank into the ocean decades ago, and the agent along with it. Now, a petty criminal looking to reform his life has stumbled upon the Chariot, and he’s about to find out that the agent’s consciousness is still controlling it in this synthwave thriller.
Julian Meiojas (Jack Ryan) adapted the sci-film’s script from the AWA Studios graphic novel written by comic book creator and screenwriter Bryan Edward Hill (American Carnage, Bitter Root) and drawn by Priscilla Petraites (Rat Queens).
From design standpoint, Chariot lucked-out landing at the feet of Joseph Kosinski as Tron: Legacy was pure eye candy and this new project could easily take similar visual cues, alongside a hip synthwave soundtrack. Sadly, Daft Punk have broken up and won’t likely get involved here.
With the popularity if the Fast & Furious franchise, picking up a high-octane driving genre movie based on a graphic novel doesn’t sound like the worst idea imaginable, hopefully, it doesn’t turn out as generic as Need For Speed did. Chariot certainly feels like it could be the fourth project for Kosinski and Tom Cruise, as Warner Bros. is also trying put together a sequel to Edge of Tomorrow with director Doug Liman but is reliant on schedules and might offer this up if things are delayed further.
Then again, it could be a good excuse for the director to reunite with Garrett Hedlund.
Today, Paramount Pictures has announced a huge adjustment to their Tom Cruise films on their feature film schedule. As they’ve delayed the releases of Top Gun: Maverick, Mission: Impossible 7, and Mission: Impossible 8.
The new dates are below.
Top Gun: Maverick – November 19, 2021
Mission: Impossible 7 – May 27, 2022
Mission: Impossible 8 – July 7, 2023
Mission: Impossible 7 has completed production according to writer/director Christopher McQuarrie with the supporting cast includes Esai Morales, Rebecca Ferguson, Simon Pegg, Vanessa Kirby, Shea Whigham, and Henry Czerny.
Mission: Impossible 8 was originally going to shoot back-to-back with the seventh installment but the studio decided against it as it was going to conflict with the summer press tour for Top Gun: Maverick. However, with Maverick being pushed to November it’s unknown if that will motivate them to start filming sooner than expected.
TOP GUN: MAVERICK – After more than thirty years of service as one of the Navy’s top aviators, Pete “Maverick” Mitchell (Tom Cruise) is where he belongs, pushing the envelope as a courageous test pilot and dodging the advancement in rank that would ground him. When he finds himself training a detachment of Top Gun graduates for a specialized mission the likes of which no living pilot has ever seen, Maverick encounters Lt. Bradley Bradshaw (Miles Teller), call sign: “Rooster,” the son of Maverick’s late friend and Radar Intercept Officer Lt. Nick Bradshaw, aka “Goose.”
While the original plan was to shoot the next two Mission: Impossible films back-to-back under the working title Libra, that seems to be on hold according to a report from Deadline. As the outlet states Paramount Pictures is going to need Tom Cruise to help promote Top Gun: Maverick for it’s July 2nd release, assuming the film doesn’t get pushed to the fall or winter, which means that filming will need to be placed on pause for a bit.
Sources said this is simply down to the shifting release calendar. Star Tom Cruise will now be needed on promotional duties by the studio for Top Gun: Maverick ahead of that film’s planned release on July 2, and will be out of action for a period.
This comes as Mission: Impossible 7 is heading back to London for some “finishing touches” according to writer/director Christopher McQuarrie on Instagram.
MCQUARRIE: “Now back to London for a few finishing touches. All aboard for our greatest challenge yet…”
Guardians of The Galaxy Vol.2 actress Pom Klementieff, who has a role in the films recently flew to Sydney, Australia to get ready to for the shoot of Marvel’s Thor: Love & Thunder. We have to assume this signaled that she had completed the filming for the first installment.
The rest of the cast includes Esai Morales, Rebecca Ferguson, Simon Pegg, Vanessa Kirby, Shea Whigham, and Henry Czerny.
Filming on the 7th installment hasn’t been all rainbows and sunshine, there had paused back in March of 2020 due to the pandemic that led to production hiccups and a viral audio clip of Tom Cruise chewing out crew members for not adhering to the strict on-set COVID-19 protocols. It’s possible that everyone just needs a break after spending over a year on this film.
Mission: Impossible 7 is slated for November 19th, 2021 and Mission: Impossible 8 is set for November 4th, 2022.
TOP GUN: MAVERICK – After more than thirty years of service as one of the Navy’s top aviators, Pete “Maverick” Mitchell (Tom Cruise) is where he belongs, pushing the envelope as a courageous test pilot and dodging the advancement in rank that would ground him. When he finds himself training a detachment of Top Gun graduates for a specialized mission the likes of which no living pilot has ever seen, Maverick encounters Lt. Bradley Bradshaw (Miles Teller), call sign: “Rooster,” the son of Maverick’s late friend and Radar Intercept Officer Lt. Nick Bradshaw, aka “Goose.”
In a shocking twist, Netflix (not Amazon) has landed the untitled spy series being developed by Skydance Television and Scorpion’s Nick Santora. The news coming from Deadline.
They’ve already set Arnold Schwarzenegger and Top Gun: Maverick’s Monica Barbaro as the show’s two main leads.
The project will see the action star return to the spy genre after tackling it in James Cameron’s True Lies and will be Arnold’s first real entry into scripted television/streaming. Arnold previously worked with Skydance on the last two Terminator installments.
It looks like Marvel Studios is neither finished filming or adding to the cast of their upcoming series The Falcon & The Winter Soldier.
The Hollywood Reporter has learned that Top Gun: Maverick actor Danny Ramirez has landed an unnamed but “pivotal role” in The Falcon & The Winter Soldier. Ramirez is best known mostly for television with credits that include Netflix’s On My Block. He isn’t a stranger to the world of Marvel Comics as he had a small role in Fox Television’s X-Men series The Gifted before the merger moved the X-Men rights over to Marvel Studios.
He plays a fighter pilot with the call sign “Fanboy” in Paramount’s Top Gun sequel titled Top Gun: Maverick set to be released on July 2nd, 2021.
TOP GUN: MAVERICK – After more than thirty years of service as one of the Navy’s top aviators, Pete “Maverick” Mitchell (Tom Cruise) is where he belongs, pushing the envelope as a courageous test pilot and dodging the advancement in rank that would ground him. When he finds himself training a detachment of Top Gun graduates for a specialized mission the likes of which no living pilot has ever seen, Maverick encounters Lt. Bradley Bradshaw (Miles Teller), call sign: “Rooster,” the son of Maverick’s late friend and Radar Intercept Officer Lt. Nick Bradshaw, aka “Goose.”
Danny isn’t the only actor from the upcoming Top Gun: Maverick that has landed a streaming series as Monica Barbaro is starring opposite Arnold Schwarzenegger’s upcoming father-daughter spy series for Amazon/Skydance Television.
It certainly feels a little late to be adding an actor to the cast with such a big role but it’s possible he was quietly hired and has been able to keep his casting a secret for multiple months.
The Ronin was the first outlet to report that Disney+ would be delaying the release of The Falcon series from late 2020 to sometime in 2021 back in mid-August. The company seemingly confirmed this after it recently left the MCU series out of their “Coming Soon In 2020” programming ad and their website had it listed for a TBA 2021 spot.
Originally, it was supposed to launch back in August before the Coronavirus pandemic paused production back in March and only recently resumed. Given the show is still filming it’s extremely unlikely it will be ready in December or would overlap with WandaVision’s episodes.
Ramirez joins a cast that already includes Anthony Mackie as Sam Wilson aka The Falcon, Sebastian Stan as James “Bucky” Barnes aka The Winter Soldier, Daniel Bruhl as Zemo, Wyatt Russell as John Walker aka U.S Agent, Emily VanCamp as Sharon Carton aka Agent 13, Georges St-Peirre as Batroc The Leaper, Desmond Chiam, Erin Kellyman, Veronica Falcon, Adepero Oduye, and Carl Lumbly.
The series will explore the transition between Steve Rogers handing over the Captain America mantle over to Anthony Mackie’s Sam Wilson in Avengers: Endgame only for the American government to install their own candidate with Wyatt Russell’s John Walker aka U.S. Agent.
Set photos have revealed that one of the locations in the show is most likely Madripoor, a fictional lawless South-East Asian island nation originally created in the pages of the X-Men comics and could be used in the future for X-Men projects along with setting up various villains from that corner of the Marvel universe. Since the island has connections to The Hand (villains connected to Wolverine, Daredevil, and Elektra), Ophelia Sarkissian aka Viper/Madame Hydra, Wolverine, and Psylocke. A gang member’s jacket spotted on the set used imagery of an X-Men character called Ogun, a Japanese villain connected to Wolverine and Kitty Pryde aka Shadowcat.
There have been plenty of rumblings that the series could introduce a version of The Thunderbolts which were led by Zemo in the comic books. It’ll be interesting if that actually comes together as there had been unsupported talk of a Thunderbolts project being kicked-around at Marvel at one point.
The Falcon & The Winter Soldier is expected to drop elusively on Disney+ sometime in 2021.
Last month it was reported that Arnold Schwarzenegger would be returning the spy genre with an untitled show at Amazon’s Prime Video from Skydance Television and Scorpion creator Nick Santora. That would focus on a father-daughter duo. Arnold previously worked with Skydance the last two Terminator installments, Terminator: Genisys and Terminator: Dark Fate.
Today, Deadline reports that Top Gun: Maverick actress Monica Barbaro has landed that lead role of Arnold’s daughter and the show’s second lead.
Monica plays the only female fighter pilot in the upcoming Tom Cruise sequel Top Gun: Maverick.
TOP GUN: MAVERICK – After more than thirty years of service as one of the Navy’s top aviators, Pete “Maverick” Mitchell (Tom Cruise) is where he belongs, pushing the envelope as a courageous test pilot and dodging the advancement in rank that would ground him. When he finds himself training a detachment of Top Gun graduates for a specialized mission the likes of which no living pilot has ever seen, Maverick encounters Lt. Bradley Bradshaw (Miles Teller), call sign: “Rooster,” the son of Maverick’s late friend and Radar Intercept Officer Lt. Nick Bradshaw, aka “Goose.”
While the Mission: Impossible sequels are going to eventually resume filming in the United Kingdom, writer/director Christopher McQuarrie spoke with Empire Magazine revealing that he was considering pushing the Jack Reacher into the realm of R-rated franchises if it was allowed to continue.
MCQUARRIE: “Tom and I were talking about, had the series continued, to take Reacher to a place where, in the post-Deadpool, post-Joker world, Reacher could have been an R-rated movie and an R-rated franchise and really fed into the brutality of those books. We were fully ready to lean into that.”
However, the Reacher franchise ended after Jack Reacher: Never Go Back flopped at the box office and instead is getting rebooted as a television series for Amazon Prime Video. The pair are seemingly still planning another R-rated project in the future, but Christopher is keeping mum concerning details while teasing it.
MCQUARRIE: “It’s a very un-Tom character, and we have plans for an even more un-Tom character that we’ve been talking about, which I’m hopeful about in the future. […] The franchise has moved on, and we haven’t. So we’ve now got stuff in the hopper. The [Jack Reacher] stuff we’re talking about now is tinker toys [compared to it], I’m actually very, very excited.”
McQuarrie and Tom have a longstanding working relationship as they will have worked on four Mission: Impossible films, Jack Reacher, and more recently Christopher did some rewrites on Top Gun: Maverick coming out on December 23rd.
It’ll be interesting to see what this project would ultimately be and if they’ll attempt to adapt existing IP or tackle something original.
THE RONIN 