Tag: Watchmen

Posted on in Film News, News

Yahya Abdul-Mateen II & ‘Transformers: Rise Of The Beast’ Director Steven Caple Jr. Team For Warner Bros. Dystopian Thriller ‘By All’

Warner Bros. and actor Yahya Abdul-Mateen II (Candyman, HBO’s Watchman) have been working together on a consistent basis with Aquaman, The Matrix 4, Aquaman & The Lost Kingdom, and will begin shooting George Miller’s Furiosa soon in Australia.

Well, Warner Bros. has just picked up another project that stars the rising talent, according to The Hollywood Reporter. They’re just acquired the dystopian thriller By All that will be led by Yahya Abdul-Mateen II and has director Steven Caple Jr. (Creed II) attached.

The story kicks off in the aftermath of a tragic event and follows Donte, a man struggling to make ends meet who is forced to go on the run in a world without police, where justice is crowd-sourced. The studio and the actor sparked to the action thriller given its provocative and timely premise about the imbalance of power in communities and how it warps the sense of responsibility, family, and friendship.

The filmmaker is deep into production on Paramount’s Transformers: Rise of The Beast.

Yahya’s next big release will be the Candyman soft-reboot from director Nia DaCosta (The Marvels) and producer Jordan Peele, finally heading to theaters on August 27.

CANDYMAN – For as long as residents can remember, the housing projects of Chicago’s Cabrini Green neighborhood were terrorized by a word-of-mouth ghost story about a supernatural killer with a hook for a hand, easily summoned by those daring to repeat his name five times into a mirror. In present day, a decade after the last of the Cabrini towers were torn down, visual artist Anthony McCoy (Yahya Abdul-Mateen II; HBO’s Watchmen, Us) and his girlfriend, gallery director Brianna Cartwright (Teyonah Parris; If Beale Street Could Talk, The Photograph), move into a luxury loft condo in Cabrini, now gentrified beyond recognition and inhabited by upwardly mobile millennials.

SOURCE: THE HOLLYWOOD REPORTER

Posted on in Film News

‘Watchmen’ & ‘Batman v Superman’ Cinematographer Larry Fong Returns To The Superhero Genre With Paramount’s ‘Secret Headquarters’

The Ronin can confirm that veteran cinematographer Larry Fong is indeed finally returning to the superhero genre with Paramount Pictures’ Secret Headquarters, which is currently in-production and is produced by Jerry Bruckheimer via Bruckheimer Films.

A high-concept family action movie about a kid who discovers the secret headquarters of the world’s most powerful superhero hidden beneath his home and must defend it with his group of friends when villains attack.

Fong’s list of credits include big studio projects such as Watchmen, 300, Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice, Kong: Skull Island, The Predator, Sucker Punch, Super 8, and the upcoming Chris Pratt sci-fi action flick The Tomorrow War.

If you kept your eyes peeled during Zack Snyder’s latest effort, Army of The Dead, you would have noticed a cheeky not to his longtime cinematographer, who happened to have worked on the magician franchise Now You See Me. Snyder decided to be his own director of photography on the action-packed zombie movie.

Secret Headquarters stars comedic actor Owen Wilson (Loki, The Life Aquatic, Wedding Crashers) and will be directed by Project Power’s Henry Joost and Ariel Schulman. The directing duo is also attached to helm a feature film adaptation of the Mark Millar comic book, Nemesis, for Warner Bros. with a script penned by Oscar-winning screenwriter Emerald Fennell (Promising Young Woman).

It has an original story and script from Christopher Yost (The Mandalorian, Thor: Ragnarok), the latest draft was worked on by Joost, Schulman, and Josh Koenigsberg.

Owen Wilson can be seen next starring alongside Tom Hiddleston in the highly-anticipated Marvel Studios series Loki, set to debut on Disney+ tomorrow.

Posted on in Film News

Regina King To Direct Monster Movie ‘Bitter Root’ For Legendary & Producer Ryan Coogler – Based On Image Comics Property

It doesn’t look like we’ll be seeing Regina King direct Blade, The Vampire Hunter or the new black Superman film that is being developed by Warner Bros./Bad Robot, she’s decided another comic book project altogether.

After directing the Oscar-nominated film, One Night In Miami, she’s landed a high-profile feature adaptation of the Image Comics property Bitter Root for Legendary and producer Ryan Coogler. The news comes from The Hollywood Reporter and sounds a little similar to Lovecraft Country.

Bitter Root is set in 1924 during the Harlem Renaissance and tells of the Sangeryes, a family of once-great monster hunters, who face an evil that descends upon New York.

Screenwriter Bryan Edward Hill (Power Rangers) is behind the film’s script.

It’s unknown when Legendary wants Bitter Root to begin shooting but this likely means she could be too busy to tackle films for Marvel Studios or DC Films at this time. Allowing other names floated by trades to tackle Blade and Superman as it looks like the two projects are eyeing a production start in 2022.

Ryan Coogler is about to begin shooting on Black Panther: Wakanda Forever this July with a spinoff series for Disney+ also in the works.

SOURCE: THE HOLLYWOOD REPORTER

Posted on in News

Zack Snyder Says He’s Developing Arthurian Project – “Faithful Retelling of That Arthurian Mythological Concept”

While Zack Snyder has been suggesting he’ll be moving on from DC Comics projects in the future, that doesn’t seem to have stopped his fans from demanding he return to the franchise after the release of his version of Justice League heading to HBO Max on March 18th. However, a new non-DC project was apparently revealed by Snyder during a chat with Minutemen (spotted by CBR). As the director, who is a big fan of John Boorman’s 1981 film Excalibur, has teased early development on his own project covering the iconic Arthurian mythology.

SNYDER: “I’m working on something but we’ll see. I’ve been thinking about some kind of retelling, like, real sort of faithful retelling of that Arthurian mythological concept. We’ll see. Maybe that will come at some point.”

It will be interesting to see if the project lands at Netflix, where Zack Snyder was able to sell Army of The Dead after he couldn’t secure a proper budget for the horror-action flick elsewhere. Netflix is keen on the fantasy genre with two projects taking place within the world of The Witcher and they recently landed the film/television rights to Robert E. Howard’s Conan The Barbarian.

Given that the Arthurian stuff is in the public domain it could allow Snyder to find a comfortable home for the project and getting the budget he needs to make it properly without having to worry about it being a studio IP.

John Boorman made his R-rated Excalibur after he couldn’t get his mature Lord of The Rings film together and was instead turned into an animated feature by Ralph Bakshi. Another mature feature set within the Arthurian mythology is eventually going to be released by A24 with David Lowery’s The Green Knight.

Warner Bros. attempted to launch a King Arthur/Knights of The Round Table franchise starting with the Guy Ritchie film but it failed to connect with audiences killing development of the multiple films they had been planning for each of the Knights.

I’ll be curious to see if Snyder actually wants to attempt a real fantasy project or some sort of genre hybrid. 300 has been the closest thing to a fantasy project from Zack but also happened to be a comic book adaptation.

SOURCE: MINUTEMEN

Posted on in Film News

‘Watchmen’ Director Nicole Kassell Tapped For ‘The Wonderful Wizard of Oz’ – Will It Become A Film Franchise For New Line Cinema?

Deadline reports that New Line Cinema has hired Watchmen director Nicole Kassell to direct a new Wizard of Oz project based on the Frank L. Baum American fantasy novel The Wonderful Wizard of Oz. Kassell recently worked on the HBO series Watchmen where she directed three episodes of the limited series including it’s powerful pilot that explored the real-life Tusla race massacre.

The novel published in 1900 is in the public domain which would explain why Disney was able to make the super scary Return To Oz and Sam Raimi’s prequel Oz, The Great & Powerful. However, since the 1939 is owned by Warner Bros., elements they invented for the film were their intellectual property such as the ruby slippers (silver in the book).

They also note that previous screenplay drafts were written by Darren Lemke and the duo of Neil Widener and Gavin James.

It’s kind of nuts that New Line Cinema and Warner Bros. had been sitting a potential franchise that could be on par with Harry Potter/Narnia as Frank L. Baum wrote fourteen books for source material and has always been a build-in franchise waiting to be made. There is a treasure trove of characters New Line Cinema can explore.

SOURCE: DEADLINE

Posted on in Film News

‘Blade, The Vampire Hunter’: Marvel Selects ‘Watchmen’ & ‘Hunters’ Writer Stacy Osei-Kuffour To Pen Their Reboot

Yesterday, it was revealed by The Hollywood Reporter that Marvel’s search for screenwriters to tackle their upcoming Blade reboot (seemingly now titled Blade, The Vampire Hunter) has ended as the studio has reportedly selected writer Stacy Osei-Kuffour to tackle the reboot’s script. The studio is said to have been looking for black writers for the last six months that could jump onto their new incarnation.

Stacy is no stranger to comic book or genre project as she previous worked on HBO’s Watchmen and Amazon’s Nazi-hunter exploitation homage Hunters. A perfect choice if you ask me given those her credits. This will make her the first black female writer to work on a Marvel Studios feature film.

Oscar-winner Mahershala Ali is taking over the role of Eric Brooks aka Blade made famous by Wesley Snipes starting in 1998. The success of that first film led to two sequels along with messy live-action televisions that aired on Spike TV. It also predates the release of Fox’s X-Men by two years and proved that feature film adaptations based on Marvel Comics characters could connect with audiences, and make money.

Blade is a half-vampire which allows him to be immune to sunlight leading to his nickname, The Daywalker. He has the strength and speed of a vampire along with their thirst for blood. In the films, he used a serum to keep his thirst at bay. It remains to be seen how much of the established film lore will survive the new MCU version.

We’ll have to wait and see what their angle for the reboot as the trilogy (Blade: Trinity was produced by Kevin Feige) is best known as an R-rated genre hybrid of martial arts action and horror. If Marvel Studios is keen to keep Deadpool 3 an R-rated film there is a likelihood that Blade, The Vampire Hunter could be targeted towards adult audiences given that kids really don’t identify the character or for certain age groups even know he exists.

The next big step will be hiring a director.

While no names have been circulated to be in the running, I’d love to see Rick Famuyiwa to be considered as his work on Lucasfilm’s Star Wars series The Mandalorian has proven he can play within a large established sandbox and also contribute to it at the same time.

As they’ve only just announced a screenwriter, I don’t think the Blade reboot is going to be shooting in 2021 as Marvel is currently busy with productions such as Spider-Man 3, Doctor Strange In The Multiverse of Madness, and Thor: Love & Thunder filming in Atlanta, London, and Sydney respectively. They’re also expected to begin shooting Ant-Man 3, Captain Marvel 2, and Black Panther 2 later in the year.

A release date for Blade, The Vampire Hunter has yet to be announced.

SOURCE: THE HOLLYWOOD REPORTER

Posted on in Film News

‘Gucci’: Jeremy Irons Joins Ridley Scott Crime Drama Starring Lady Gaga – Releasing November 24th, 2021

The Hollywood Reporter along with other outlets are reporting that veteran actor Jeremy Irons has taken a role in Ridley Scott’s next feature film Gucci, a true-crime drama based on novel The House of Gucci with Lady Gaga in the lead role of Patrizia Reggiani.

The fashion-focused true-crime drama, based on the book The House of Gucci: A Sensational Story of Murder, Madness, Glamour, and Greed, will focus on the murder of fashion trailblazer Maurizio Gucci, with Gaga playing Patrizia Reggiani, Gucci’s ex-wife who was convicted of orchestrating his hit after he had an affair.

Irons has previously worked with Scott on the underrated film Kingdom of Heaven and most recently had a supporting role in HBO’s Watchmen series. Other actors zeroing-in on deals to appear include Adam Driver, Jared Leto, Al Pacino, Jack Huston, and Reeve Carney.

Jeremy will play Rodolfo Gucci, the father of Adam Driver’s Maurizio Gucci.

Ridley Scott had only just wrapped on the period drama The Last Duel after the pandemic paused production that was taking place in France and Ireland.

Filming is expected to take place in Italy and MGM has set the release date for November 24th, 2021.

SOURCE: THE HOLLYWOOD REPORTER

Posted on in Film News

Netflix WWII Spy Thriller ‘Munich’ Adds ‘Watchmen’s Jeremy Irons and ‘1917’s George MacKay – Filming Underway

The Hollywood Reporter has learned that Netflix’s thriller Munich has landed an interesting cast that includes Jeremy Irons (Watchmen), George MacKay (1917), Jannis Niehwöhner (Mute), Liv Lisa Fries (Babylon Berlin), Erin Doherty (The Crown), Sandra Hüller (Toni Erdmann), August Diehl (A Hidden Life), Robert Bathurst (Downton Abbey), Marc Limpach (Bad Banks), and Martin Wuttke (Inglourious Basterds).

The Crown’s Christian Schwochow will be directing the thriller that takes places on the eve of WWII based on the Robert Harris book being adapted by Ben Power

The spy thriller is set in fall 1938 as Europe stands on the brink of World War II. As Adolf Hilter prepares to invade Czechoslovakia, British Prime Minister Neville Chamberlain (Irons) is desperate to find a peaceful solution.  British civil servant Hugh Legat (McKay) and German diplomat Paul von Hartmann (Niehwöhner), travel to Munich for an emergency conference. As they see if war can be averted — and at what cost — the two old friends find themselves at the center of a political plot, with their own lives in danger.

Filming is said to be underway with an expectation it will drop sometime in 2021 on Netflix.

SOURCE: THE HOLLYWOOD REPORTER

Posted on in Television News

Regina King and Yahya Abdul-Mateen II Win Emmys For Their Performance In HBO’s ‘Watchmen’ – Series Nabbed A Total of 11 Primetime Emmys

HBO’s Watchmen did extremely well at the Primetime Emmy Awards this year which saw it win an impressive 11 Emmys including for Best Limited Series. 

The key prizes were that Regina King won Best Actress In A Limited Series or Movie and her co-star Yahya Abdul-Mateen II landing Supporting Actor In A Limited Series or Movie. Along with Damon Lindelof and Cord Jefferson winning for Best Writing In A Limited Series or Movie. Trent Reznor and Atticus Ross also won for Best Score which has them now inching the pair closer to earn an EGOT. 

Other awards the show earned included Sci-Fi/Fantasy Costumes, Cinematographer (Limited Series), Casting (Limited Series), Single-Camera Picture Editing (Limited Series), Sound Mixing (Limited Series), and Sound Editing (Limited Series). 

Damon Lindelof has been adamant about not returning for a second season which may end up not end up moving forward at all without him, but only time will tell. 

I loved the series and it was extremely prescient despite the unwarranted backlash for the infusion of race and politics, I mean, Alan Moore did the exact thing with his original graphic novel. 

WATCHMEN – From Damon Lindelof and set in an alternate history where “superheroes” are treated as outlaws, this drama series embraces the nostalgia of the original groundbreaking graphic novel of the same name while attempting to break new ground of its own. The cast includes Regina King, Jeremy Irons, Don Johnson, Jean Smart, Tim Blake Nelson, Louis Gossett Jr., Yahya Abdul-Mateen II, Hong Chau, Andrew Howard, Tom Mison, Frances Fisher, Jacob Ming-Trent, Sara Vickers, Dylan Schombing, and James Wolk.