Tag: Warner Bros

'Matrix 5': Drew Goddard Set To Write & Direct Next Installment Of Cyberpunk Action Franchise
Posted on in Film News, News

‘Matrix 5’: Drew Goddard Set To Write & Direct Next Installment Of Cyberpunk Action Franchise

We’re getting another installment of “The Matrix” franchise, and it’s coming from a unique place, writer/director Drew Goddard. The news announced earlier in the week via trades like The Hollywood Reporter revealed that Village Roadshow and Warner Bros. are reuniting on a fifth untitled “Matrix” movie with Lana Wachowski (the co-director of the original trilogy and helmer of “The Matrix Resurrections”) returning to produce.

Goddard is said to have impressed everyone with a “new idea” and is set to both write and direct “Matrix 5.” However, it’s unclear if any of the original cast or new additions seen in “The Matrix Resurrections” will be part of this new movie. The filmmaker is maybe best known for his satirical horror comedy “Cabin In The Woods” and also earned a Best Adapted Screenplay Oscar nomination for his work on Ridley Scott’s sci-fi dramedy “The Martian.”

Again, without knowing the direction or plan for this next installment, it’s really hard to know where they’ll be going. One hypothetical idea could be a prequel covering Humanity’s War With Machines that led to the creation of The Matrix after humanity eventually lost that global war. This world-shattering event was actually covered in “The Animatrix” shorts and didn’t exactly have a narrative structure allowing further exploration within that story; if Warners wanted to, that is. Then again, are audiences going to be thrilled about a prequel film that wouldn’t leave room for a return of Keanu Reeves‘ Neo or Carrie-Anne Moss‘ Trinity? That feels doubtful.

We’ve known for a while that Goddard has been trying to get his mitts on a Marvel Comics project after having attempted to direct episodes of the “Daredevil” series at Netflix, Sony’s “Amazing Spider-Man 2” spinoff movie “The Sinister Six,” an “X-Force” movie with Ryan Reynolds’ Deadpool (before the merger with Disney sort of threw it on the scrap heap), and has been rumored for months to be in the running to helm “Spider-Man 4” for Marvel Studios. It certainly feels like he’s been trying his darnedest to make an IP installment, but it just hasn’t been working out, given his bad luck.

Village Roadshow and Warners had been previously feuding, but it looks like between “Matrix 5,” the upcoming release of “Furiosa: A Mad Max Saga,” and that “Edge of Tomorrow” sequel looking to finally get made sooner rather than later, the two are starting to smooth things out behind the scenes as they continue to make blockbuster projects together.

SOURCE: THE HOLLYWOOD REPORTER

Posted on in Film News, News

‘The Dirty Dozen’: David Ayer Still “Trying To Find The Right Angle” For His Remake Of The 1960’s WWII Action Film

Back in 2019, it was first reported by Deadline that director David Ayer would be taking a shot at remaking the classic WWII action film “The Dirty Dozen.” A seemingly solid pairing given that the filmmaker had recently worked with Brad Pitt on the WWII thriller “Fury,” which focuses on a group of tank operators. While promoting his new Jason Statham-led actioner, “The Beekeeper,” Ayer gave Variety a brief update on the status of the project during a recent interview. Stating that the remake is still in active development but is having some trouble finding a good angle for it.

“They’ve been on the page a minute. I’m just trying to figure out where I’m going right now. ‘Dozen’ has been in development for a bit, and it’s just trying to find the right angle for that one.”

“It’s nerve-wracking, to be honest. I have so much respect for cinematic history, and these are all projects that I grew up loving before being a filmmaker. I think that’s always the challenge of these things: How do you modernize something and build it out for a modern audience, while at the same time keeping that DNA? You see how different filmmakers deal with the same problems in different ways.“

If you’re not familiar with the 1967 movie it focuses on a “suicide squad” if you will that sees Lee Marvin‘s character Major John Reisman recruit twelve condemned U.S. military prisoners during the Second World War and the group is offered the chance to avoid being hanged in jail for their crimes if they agree to volunteer for a deadly mission behind enemy lines to take out a key Nazi position and officers by any means necessary before the landing on D-Day. Marvin led the ensemble that featured Charles Bronson, Telly Savalas, John Cassavetes, Ernest Borgnine, Jim Brown, George Kennedy, and a baby-faced Donald Sutherland.

Maj. Reisman's Field Uniform in The Dirty Dozen » BAMF Style

The original directed by Robert Aldrich would go on to spawn three sequels with “The Dirty Dozen: Next Mission,” “The Dirty Dozen: The Deadly Mission,” and “The Dirty Dozen: The Fatal Mission.” Of course, it was the direct inspiration for things like the DC Comics team, “The Suicide Squad,” which has had two feature film installments with Ayer directing the first one and James Gunn handling the follow-up.

At one time, producer Joel Silver and director Guy Ritchie had been putting together their version of “The Dirty Dozen” at Warner Bros. (As well as a “Sgt. Rock” movie based on the DC hero) around the time of their success with “Sherlock Holmes.” However, once Quentin Tarantino announced he was moving forward with his big commando movie “Inglourious Basterds” (Another project highly influenced by “Dozen”) that would star Pitt the studio pumped the breaks and it never fully recovered as both exited the remake. Ritchie has pivoted back to the idea of making a WWII commando film as “The Ministry of Ungentlemanly Warfare” stars Henry Cavill and “Reacher” breakout Alan Ritchson in key roles.

“The Beekeeper” is now playing in theaters.

SOURCE: VARIETY