Tag: Wonder Woman 1984

Posted on in News, Television News

Marvel’s ‘Secret Invasion’ Enlists ‘Harry Potter’ & ‘Wonder Woman 1984’ VFX Supervisor John Moffatt

After Film London mentioning that production has begun this month on Marvel’s Secret Invasion series, it looks like the big project has nabbed a film industry veteran to handle the show’s extensive visual effects.

The Ronin has learned that visual effects supervisor John Moffatt has joined the series. Moffatt is best known for strictly film work with some impressive credits such as Harry Potter & The Half-Blood Prince, Harry Potter & The Deathly Hallows 1-2, Wonder Woman 1984, Life, The Brothers Grimsby, and Snow White & The Huntsman.

The impressive cast consists of Samuel L. Jackson as Nick Fury, Ben Mendelsohn as Skrull Leader Talos, Oscar-winner Olivia Colman (The Favourite, Hot Fuzz, The Crown), four-time Emmy nominee Emilia Clarke (Game of Thrones, Solo: A Star Wars Story), Kingsley Ben-Adir (One Night In Miami, Peaky Blinders) said to be playing a villain, and most recent addition to the Marvel series is character actor Christopher McDonald (Hacks, Happy Gilmore).

This would again suggest that Secret Invasion might be a bit bigger than previous Disney+ shows.

Secret Invasion is a big event in Marvel Comics, where it’s revealed that Skrulls have quietly replaced various leaders and even superheroes in a bid to invade Earth. As with other MCU adaptations, it’s assumed that the studio will have its own take on the source material for the live-action incarnation.

It’ll be interesting to see if they’ll indeed reveal that beloved characters were Skrulls the entire time or during the events of Infinity War/Endgame, which may or may not ruffle feathers depending on who they pick for that.

We previously confirmed Secret Invasion’s crew would include production designer Frank Walsh (Lost In Space) and cinematographer Sylvaine Dufaux (Solo: A Star Wars Story, Future Man).

Kyle Bradstreet (Mr. Robot) is the MCU show’s head writer with directors Thomas Bezhucha (Let Him Go) and Ali Selim (The Looming Tower) shooting episodes.

Samuel L. Jackson has already confirmed on Instagram that he’s shot scenes for Nia DaCosta’s The Marvels (currently in production at Longcross Studios), which further illustrates the expected cross-pollination between the casts given their similar shooting schedules and proximity as both are filming in the London area.

Secret Invasion is aiming to be ready for release on Disney+ sometime in 2022.

Posted on in Film News

WarnerMedia’s Hybrid Release Model Shaping Up To Become A $1 Billion Loss – Called A “Major Misstep”

In December, WarnerMedia announced plans to release all of their 2021 slate in theaters and on their streaming service HBO Max (free for one month with subscription) on the same day, the hybrid release model was controversial and led to reports of their partner Legendary Entertainment gearing-up for a lawsuit. Legendary attempted to sell-off Godzilla Vs. Kong to Netflix for a massive $200 million but Warner Bros. blocked the deal only to announce they would be giving the film away to HBO Max subscribers for free. Directors Christopher Nolan and Denis Villeneuve also were vocally upset that directors weren’t properly informed about the move and mentioned how harmful the hybrid release would be to the industry.

The plan seemed to be sacrifice the Warner Bros. Pictures slate to coax a boost in domestic subscriber numbers for the floundering HBO Max that launched last year, however, the numbers haven’t been stellar in comparison to other streaming competitors.

It’s now May, and it was recently announced there would be a WarnerMedia-Discovery merger with rumblings from business news outlets that WarnerMedia CEO Jason Kilar was kept in the dark about the deal and is getting ready to exit. There is also chatter that the merger could signal an easier sale of WarnerMedia in the future, however, no potential buyers have been mentioned.

New information suggests that the hybrid release model at Kilar’s direction wasn’t as lucrative as hyped-up to be, mentioned in an Variety report they state industry sources believe the hybrid model may end up a billion-dollar loss due to high license feeds paid and sluggish subscriber sign-up.

Moreover, industry sources say the strategic move that made such a splash last December — when WarnerMedia at Kilar’s direction opted for simultaneous releases in theaters and on HBO Max for Warner Bros.’ 2021 movie slate — is seen as a major misstep because it is shaping up to cost the studio over $1 billion in lost box office revenue, talent profit participation payments and in high license fees paid for the movies from HBO Max. Unless the pace of HBO Max subscriber additions pick up significantly in the coming months, the high cost of the movie content for the streamer will be hard to justify.

While WarnerMedia insists that other films such as Dune are still sticking to the hybrid release in October, there have been conflicting trade reports that we could see exclusive theatrical windows return before 2022.

SOURCE: VARIETY

Posted on in Film News

Patty Jenkins Officially Returning To Write & Direct ‘Wonder Woman 3’ – Will Have A Traditional Theatrical Release

Despite some wishy-washy comments made by Patty Jenkins during the promotion of Wonder Woman 1984 about possibly not coming back to make a third film, the filmmaker is officially returning for Wonder Woman 3, an announcement that been expected since the success of the first film. The studio adhering to her demand of a traditional theatrical release as well.

The announcement made by the studio hit multiple trade outlets including Variety.

Gal Gadot is also returning with Jenkins writing and directing the third installment of their trilogy.

There is still an expectation this third film will be set in the present as it had been rumored going back to the first film that the first two movies would be period projects with the third film using a contemporary setting. The scale could also be increased. It’ll be interesting to see if they will attempt to make a crossover with other DC Comics heroes since a bunch are running around in modern times and could open the door for Diana to team-up with Jason Momoa’s Aquaman or the film could even have a connection to Ava DuVernay’s New Gods movie via Granny Goodness.

Using the term “fast-tracking” is a little misleading as Jenkins is busy with her Cleopatra film for Paramount Pictures and recently was announced for Disney’s Star Wars: Rogue Squadron. The Star Wars pic is expected to being shooting in 2022 as it has a release date of December 22, 2023 and there could be a year’s worth of prep/development for that project giving it’s scale. Seeing Patty jump into making a massive studio film beforehand like Wonder Woman 3 when the pandemic is expected to continue well into 2021, seems like a fan wish rather than a reality given the logistical nightmare that would end up becoming.

In theory, Warner Bros. may have to wait until Patty has finished-up on Star Wars: Rogue Squadron since that deal seemingly was secured first.

However, this news should relieve fans that have caught the wave of comments from Jenkins about taking a pause on the Wonder Woman franchise.

SOURCE: VARIETY

Posted on in Film News

Patty Jenkins Would Hypothetically Want To Tackle Marvel’s ‘Spider-Man’ & ‘Black Widow’ If Given The Chance

If Patty Jenkins ever decided to tackle other superheroes beyond Wonder Woman, we now have a pretty good idea of who she’d want to use. As a fan on Twitter has asked Wonder Woman 1984 director Patty Jenkins that very question and her answer consisted of Superman, Spider-Man, and even Black Widow. 

JENKINS: “Thank you for the question. Probably Superman, Spiderman, or Black Widow! So much potential with all of them, always.”

You might remember that Patty Jenkins is currently assigned to direct Star Wars: Rogue Squadron for Lucasfilm making her part of that family of studios under the Disney umbrella. It’s expected to begin production sometime before the end of 2022 as the release date is set for December 22, 2023. 

There are a handful of examples of crossovers between Lucasfilm and Marvel Studios with Thor franchise’s Taika Waititi tackling both The Mandalorian and an untitled live-action feature film. Also, Ant-Man trilogy director Peyton Reed ended up directing two episodes in Season 2 even the emotional season finale. We can’t forget that Jon Favreau, who help usher-in the Marvel Cinematic Universe via Iron Man and Iron Man 2, spearheaded The Mandalorian series with Dave Filoni, producing three spinoffs that include The Book of Boba Fett, Ahsoka, and Rangers of The New Republic. Jon also continues to play the role of Happy Hogun, most recently appearing in the post-Avengers: Endgame film Spider-Man: Far From Home back in 2019. 

Despite rumors, there hasn’t been any official word of how Warner Bros. would like to pursue another Superman film beyond having the character potentially have cameos in other projects. There had been development on a Supergirl film but that seemingly has stalled.

Concerning Spider-Man, we don’t know if Sony/Marvel will extend their production deal despite some signals that could be happening behind closed doors as Olivia Wilde‘s Spider-Woman movie could be Sony/Marvel co-production. With Spider-Man 3 director Jon Watts announced for Marvel’s Fantastic Four reboot there is now an expectation he could be moving on to make a trilogy there making it less likely he’d return to make Spider-Man 4 and beyond leaving room for a new director to make a second trilogy, that’s if Sony/Marvel can play nice for another batch of movies. 

Having Patty get involved with Black Widow is an interesting proposition as it seems like Florence Pugh may end up taking that mantle as Yelena Belova in future MCU projects. Such as her reported involvement in the upcoming Hawkeye series that will be airing on Disney+ in late 2021. Yelena could lead a Black Widow franchise of films moving forward because of the death of Natasha during the events of Avengers: Endgame. 

I think it’ll be a long time before we know for sure if Patty will make Wonder Woman 3 or any other superhero films given the next couple of years will be dedicated to Star Wars: Rogue Squadron.

Posted on in Film News

Patty Jenkins and Gal Gadot Secured $10M+ Deals Before ‘Wonder Woman 1984’ Was Announced For HBO Max – WarnerMedia Left Others Out To Dry

Today hasn’t been a good day for WarnerMedia. This morning news broke about a possible lawsuit that could be coming from Legendary Entertainment stemming from last week’s HBO Max announcement (Warner Bros. 2021 film slate heading to the streamer) and the studio’s golden-child Christopher Nolan has less than enthusiastic statements concerning their move as well.

More bad news as The New York Times reports that while most directors and actors were notified about the announcement 90 minutes before it happened last week, one project got special treatment.

To prevent the news of the 17-movie shift from leaking (and to make the move speedily rather than get mired in the expected blowback), WarnerMedia kept the major agencies and talent management companies in the dark until roughly 90 minutes before issuing a news release. Even some Warner Bros. executives had little warning.

WarnerMedia and agencies managed to quietly secure deals for $10 million plus each for director Patty Jenkins and actress Gal Gadot ahead of the announcement of Wonder Woman 1984 going to HBO Max for Christmas Day, along with their cooperation they’d still help promote the film. I don’t think that this says anything about Patty or Gal, but it certainly looks bad for WarnerMedia being more concerned about the news leaking than speaking with the filmmakers and actors.

Last month, Warner Bros. quietly approached Hollywood’s two biggest talent agencies, William Morris Endeavor and Creative Artists.

With Wonder Woman 1984, agents argued that Ms. Gadot, Ms. Jenkins and the producer Charles Roven (among others) needed to be paid what they most likely would have received had the sequel been released in a traditional manner (an exclusive run in theaters before arriving online) and not during the height of a pandemic. After all, that was what they signed up for, and Warner Bros. and HBO Max, its corporate sibling, wanted their help in promoting the film, did they not? After a tense negotiation, Warner Bros., which is owned by AT&T, agreed that Ms. Gadot and Ms. Jenkins would each get more than $10 million, according to two people with knowledge of the deals, who spoke on the condition of anonymity to discuss private agreements.

Industry folks, the Director Guild of America, and other talent agencies weren’t entirely thrilled either.

The surprise move left agencies on a war footing. Representatives for major Warner Bros. stars like Denzel Washington, Margot Robbie, Will Smith, Keanu Reeves, Hugh Jackman and Angelina Jolie wanted to know why their clients had been treated in a lesser manner than Ms. Gadot. Talk of a Warner Bros. boycott began circulating inside the Directors Guild of America. A partner at one talent agency spent part of the weekend meeting with litigators. Some people started to angrily refer to the studio as Former Bros.

SOURCE: THE NEW YORK TIMES

Posted on in Features

‘Wonder Woman 1984’ Heading To HBO Max For Free Likely Means Warner Bros. Will Struggle To Turn A Profit

Yesterday, it was officially announced that the last big studio blockbuster of 2020 would be releasing December 25th on both HBO Max (free to subscribers) and in limited theatrical markets (unclear how many screens they’ll have), the latter still seems like a bonkers move considering the U.S. is on the brink of another hospital disaster as COVID-19 cases skyrocket. A home option is great but this puts Warner Bros. in position to take another loss as it’ll be extremely tough for the pricey film to recoup costs or even turn a profit at this point.

Obviously, WarnerMedia just wants to get the movie out there in the world and stop gobbling-up prime release dates in 2021 for 2020 movies collecting dust after already bouncing both Godzilla vs Kong and Dune out of the 2020 schedule. 2021’s lineup is already going to see multiple films bumped to 2022 and taking one more piece of the board will likely save them a bit money from a marketing standpoint.

It’s easy to assume that offering up Wonder Woman 1984 for free to subscribers is meant to avoid the bungled streaming release of Disney’s Mulan that had access only to Disney+ subscribers but they had to spend an extra $29.99 on top of their sub fees and only wait until December to get the film for free. Mulan had been hailed as a “success” early on by folks trying to do imaginary math, putting the cart before the horse, only later to be revealed as a bit of disaster for the studio and Disney took a massive loss then pivoted to allow larger access to purchase it digitally, a sign the Disney+ only access wasn’t terribly profitable.

Streaming doesn’t have a box office tally and the only real gauge will be how many subscribers HBO Max was able to keep and add in the weeks after Wonder Woman 1984 is added to the service. I don’t really imagine WarnerMedia is going share the drop-off numbers.

The problem is that HBO Max is mostly a U.S. based streaming service and there is a good chance that in countries where WarnerMedia has made deals with foreign media companies to distribute their content. To me, it feels like the company believes that offering the free for free will lead to a mass drive in new domestic subscriptions, sure, but that number could look inflated (streaming data is sketchy as it is) as we’ll likely won’t know how many people dropped their new subscriptions in the following months.

While adding more access in the United States is great they’re still limited on how many subscribers they could likely add by not being a bigger international player along with not really being able to compete with Netflix, Amazon, and Disney+ on the scale.

In my own case, I’m located in Canada and HBO Max isn’t here because WarnerMedia has had a longstanding deal with Bell Media’s Crave to distribute their HBO content along with the new HBO Max stuff as well. This means that people like myself with Crave might be getting Wonder Woman 1984 with zero dollars going to HBO Max directly, it’s not just Canada as these sort of foreign content deals have kept the streaming service out of multiple countries.

I wouldn’t be shocked if they eventually announce a third PVOD option because I don’t really see how they’re going to earn any money at the box office in late December and throughout early 2021. It’s worth reminding people that Warner Bros. only earned a poultry $56.3 million domestically from the release of their Christopher Nolan blockbuster Tenet and theaters are expected to be in rougher shape over the winter, not just domestically but globally. December and throughout January it doesn’t seem likely that the U.S., Canada, UK, Europe, and other markets will be in the kind of shape due to rising COVID-19 cases to even give the studio the international box office that Tenet saw months back which wasn’t great to begin with.

I’m not sure how many more box office hits Warner Bros. can take before something drastic happens concerning employees as WarnerMedia/AT&T is tinkering with their distribution of massive films (WW84’s budget is said to be in the $200 million range) leading to limited/zero profit on films that should be earning $600 million to a billion dollars is only going to lead to more damage to the studio side and could only get worse in 2021. They’ve already cut a bunch of jobs from the marketing department.

We don’t really know how consumers are going to ultimately react to Wonder Woman 1984 being added to the service outside of loyal fans of the franchise who likely already have HBO Max subscriptions, as do most die-hard DC Comics fans. It’s a single film and hardly comparable to something like an exclusive original ongoing series like The Mandalorian.

I also think it’ll be difficult for them to keep Wonder Woman 1984 from digital and PVOD given that access to HBO Max is limited internationally. I’m not even going to get into the obvious issue of having a pristine HD copy of a massive studio film hitting torrenting sites on the same day as it’s drop date, although, being free on HBO Max might cut down on domestic downloading but not on the international side.

This just feels like a short-term win for fans but at the expense of Warner Bros. ability to actually make money from the film and could add to the harm to the studio if 2021 doesn’t improve in a big bad way.

Posted on in Film News

‘Wonder Woman 1984’ Apparently Releasing Christmas Day On Both HBO Max and In Traditional Theaters

It looks like WarnerMedia has finally made a final decision concerning the release of Wonder Woman 1984 as they’ll both release on HBO Max (no extra charge for some reason) and theatrically on December 25th.

It’s worth noting that the original video this image was from captured from on YouTube has since been switched to private.

To me, this sounds like Warner Bros. giving up on a return from the film and looking to instead bolster subscriptions to HBO Max. However, it’s possible that this video has been set to private because the studio hasn’t decided on what they’re doing or that HBO Max addition isn’t even happening.

UPDATE: The Hollywood Reporter is backing up the HBO Max tidbit.

My concern is that December is expected to look even worse than November when it comes to the pandemic (less likely to turn any sort of profit via box office sales) and not charging an extra fee on HBO Max is essentially giving away a $200 million blockbuster, which sounds like an insane business tactic.

Warner Bros. releasing Tenet back on September 3rd in U.S. and August 26th in Canada led to extremely poor domestic turnout and it’ll be shocking if the $200+ million budgeted action film ends up making the a profit when the dust settles as it’s only managed to earn $353.7 million worldwide with only $56.3 million coming from domestic box office.

WONDER WOMAN 1984 – Fast forward to the 1980s as Wonder Woman’s next big screen adventure finds her facing two all-new foes: Max Lord and The Cheetah. With director Patty Jenkins back at the helm and Gal Gadot returning in the title role, “Wonder Woman 1984” is Warner Bros. Pictures’ follow up to the DC Super Hero’s first outing, 2017’s record-breaking “Wonder Woman,” which took in $822 million at the worldwide box office. The film also stars Chris Pine as Steve Trevor, Kristen Wiig as The Cheetah, Pedro Pascal as Max Lord, Robin Wright as Antiope, and Connie Nielsen as Hippolyta.

SOURCE: WARNER BROS.

Posted on in Film News

‘Dune’ Reportedly Delayed To 2021 – Takes Over ‘The Batman’ Release Date On October 1st

According to a report from Collider, Denis Villeneuve’s Dune movie will be released on Oct 1st, 2021 after been previously set for a date of December 18th by Warner Bros./Legendary.

The October date was originally meant for Matt Reeves’ The Batman.

This would mean that The Batman would be either given an earlier date or possibly delayed further. I have to imagine given how crowded 2021 has become and it hasn’t completed filming that pushing to a date in 2022 might be the right move. It’s possible it could nab the Black Adam’s release date of December 22nd, 2021 as that film is looking a delay after production was delayed due to Dwayne Johnson finishing up the Netflix film Red Notice.

I’m sure we’ll hear about a new release date very soon once Warner Bros. confirms that Dune is being bumped to 2021.

Wonder Woman 1984 moving to Christmas Day seemed to telegraph that they wanted to bump Dune to a later date, however, I wouldn’t be shocked if that film is pushed into 2021 as well.

Major American theater chain Regal has announced they will be closing their doors again, but some have speculated that the company might not reopen all (not enjoy evidence to support that). Then again, studios pulling their massive movies out of 2020 would give chains plenty of reason to close their doors again as No Time To Die, Black Widow, and now Dune haven’t left them with many options.

DUNE – A mythic and emotionally charged hero’s journey, Dune tells the story of Paul Atreides, a brilliant and gifted young man born into a great destiny beyond his understanding, who must travel to the most dangerous planet in the universe to ensure the future of his family and his people. As malevolent forces explode into conflict over the planet’s exclusive supply of the most precious resource in existence—a commodity capable of unlocking humanity’s greatest potential—only those who can conquer their fear will survive.

The film stars Oscar nominee Timothée Chalamet (“Call Me by Your Name,” “Little Women”), Rebecca Ferguson (“Stephen King’s Doctor Sleep,” “Mission: Impossible – Fallout”), Oscar Isaac (the “Star Wars” franchise) Oscar nominee Josh Brolin (“Milk,” “Avengers: Infinity War”), Stellan Skarsgård (HBO’s “Chernobyl,” “Avengers: Age of Ultron”), Dave Bautista (the “Guardians of the Galaxy” films, “Avengers: Endgame”), Stephen McKinley Henderson (“Fences,” “Lady Bird”), Zendaya (“Spider-Man: Homecoming,” HBO’s “Euphoria”), David Dastmalchian (“Blade Runner 2049,” “The Dark Knight”), Chang Chen (“Mr. Long,” “Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon”), Sharon Duncan-Brewster (“Rogue One: A Star Wars Story,” Netflix’s “Sex Education”), with Oscar nominee Charlotte Rampling (“45 Years,” “Assassin’s Creed”), with Jason Momoa (“Aquaman,” HBO’s “Game of Thrones”), and Oscar winner Javier Bardem (“No Country for Old Men,” “Skyfall”).

SOURCE: COLLIDER

Posted on in Film News

WB Moves ‘Wonder Woman 1984’ To Christmas and Keeps ‘Dune’ In December 18th Spot

This seems like a horrible idea but Warner Bros. has moved Wonder Woman 1984 to December 25th from it’s former October 2nd spot announced via The Hollywood Reporter. The interesting angle here is that the massive film Dune is still slated to be released on December 18th.

This would certainly hurt one or both films releasing them so closely to each other.

I suspect Warner Bros. will realize the issue and bump Dune to another date in 2021 and just hasn’t figured out where to place it.

The Wonder Woman 1984 move sounds like a direct response to Tenet’s weak domestic opening of $20.2 million (estimated) and they’ll be hopeful that things will be better in December.

WONDER WOMAN 1984 – Fast forward to the 1980s as Wonder Woman’s next big screen adventure finds her facing two all-new foes: Max Lord and The Cheetah. With director Patty Jenkins back at the helm and Gal Gadot returning in the title role, “Wonder Woman 1984” is Warner Bros. Pictures’ follow up to the DC Super Hero’s first outing, 2017’s record-breaking “Wonder Woman,” which took in $822 million at the worldwide box office. The film also stars Chris Pine as Steve Trevor, Kristen Wiig as The Cheetah, Pedro Pascal as Max Lord, Robin Wright as Antiope, and Connie Nielsen as Hippolyta.

SOURCE: THE HOLLYWOOD REPORTER

Posted on in Film News

DC FANDOME: Brand New ‘Wonder Woman 1984’ Trailer Reveals First Good Look At Cheetah

Director Patty Jenkins promises fans the film will be released in theaters, but doesn’t mention a release date. A possible hint that it will move again?

They also dropped a brand new trailer!

In the new footage we get a first on-screen look at the film’s villain Cheetah, but you won’t get more than a handful of glimpses.

Wonder Woman 1984 is currently slated for release on October 2nd, but could be pushed later in the year or to 2021.

Fast forward to the 1980s as Wonder Woman’s next big screen adventure finds her facing two all-new foes: Max Lord and The Cheetah. With director Patty Jenkins back at the helm and Gal Gadot returning in the title role, “Wonder Woman 1984” is Warner Bros. Pictures’ follow up to the DC Super Hero’s first outing, 2017’s record-breaking “Wonder Woman,” which took in $822 million at the worldwide box office. The film also stars Chris Pine as Steve Trevor, Kristen Wiig as The Cheetah, Pedro Pascal as Max Lord, Robin Wright as Antiope, and Connie Nielsen as Hippolyta.

SOURCE: DC FANDOME