Murphy's Multiverse

Author: Joseph Aberl

  • RUMOR: ‘Persona 3 Portable’ and ‘Persona 4 Golden’ Remasters In Development

    RUMOR: ‘Persona 3 Portable’ and ‘Persona 4 Golden’ Remasters In Development

    Persona is a series I hold near and dear to my heart, but I sadly never got a chance to play all the major entries. My introduction to the series was with Persona 4 its unique take on what it means to be a JRPG. The Golden edition, similar to Persona 5 Royal, added many new elements to make it stand out even from the original that already offered a lengthy experience. Sadly, it and Persona 3’s remake were made only available on PlayStation Portable and never found their way to consoles. Luckily, if a new rumor is to be believed, they might be rectifying that fact.

    Zippo, who is a well-known leaker for Nintendo products, was one of the few to announce early on that Persona 4 Arena Ultimax was getting a remaster back in July. Not many believed it until the announcement subtlety appeared during the Video Game Awards. Now, he has shared that there are more remasters in the works including console versions of Persona 3 Portable and Persona 4 Golden.

    There have been theories about these two games getting remasters since Joker joined Super Smash Bros. It was the first hint that Atlus was expanding, which was then highlighted when Persona 5 Strikers was released on Nintendo Switch alongside the other consoles. It was a strange decision due to the original only being available on PlayStation, but it was a motivating direction. So, here’s hoping these remasters turn out to be true and get announced in the near future.

    Source: ZippoSpeaks, ZippoSpeaks (Ultimax), ZippoSpeaks (P3P)

  • Warner Bros. TV’s ‘Goonies’ Project Finds New Home on Disney+

    Warner Bros. TV’s ‘Goonies’ Project Finds New Home on Disney+

    At one point, writer Sarah Watson created a pitch for Fox, which explores the story of a teacher and her students recreating the classic The Goonies film. The network passed on the project due to it aiming for a younger audience, but the now-titled Our Time project is being given a second life at Disney+. The original production companies, The Donner Company and Amblin, of the childhood classic, are also on board. VP and Head of Development, Clancy Collins White, opened up on the series move to Disney+.

    Sarah worked nonstop to deliver this incredible script, we had our table read, and then the world shut down for COVID. So we came back many months later and finished the beautiful pilot, and it was an incredible cast, but unfortunately a little bit too young for Fox. And so we immediately swung into high gear and hit the town with it.

    Clancy Collins White

    In the piece by Variety, we get the confirmation that the deal wasn’t struck right after Fox moved on from the project, but it seems they were inspired to ensure this project finds its audience.

    We did not yet have anything in development at Disney Plus. It’s been another example of being able to carve a pathway where there wasn’t one by virtue of a great story, a great pilot, a great series. The deal has taken a while to make, but we’re really excited to be moving forward.

    Clancy Collins White

    Writer Sarah Watson, who created the project, shared her excitement for the project moving forward on Twitter.

    https://twitter.com/sarahwatson42/status/1471211141447618561?s=21

    The series includes The Jackal Group’s executive producers Gail Berman and Hend Baghdady. Lauren Shuler Donner and Amblin TV’s Darryl Frank, as well as Justin Falvey, have joined the production. The irony of a series inspired by the film that coined the “never say die” term would get a second life like this seems quite fitting. There have been various series lately getting a second life through streaming services and it’s a showcase how the new streaming market has helped many creators bring passion projects to life.

    Source: Variety, Twitter

  • Warner Bros. Committed to Theatrical Releases in 2022

    Warner Bros. Committed to Theatrical Releases in 2022

    Warner Bros. shook the market when they decided to go for day-and-date releases of all their 2021 films. While some directors have openly discussed their disappointment in the decision, it made sense given the uncertainty of how long the pandemic would continue to drag on. Now, we’re about to enter the next year, and Warner Bros. CEO, Ann Sarnoff, has opened up on if they had considered also tackling a similar release for 2022 even with the pandemic still an issue for many. When interviewed at a conference by Bloomberg Wednesday, she discussed how they are now committed to theatrical releases in the new year.

    Have we thought about going back to day and date? Sure, we thought about it, but we have made our commitments to the theaters to the agents to the talent. Everyone was hoping we would be on the other side of the pandemic by now

    The releases would affect projects like The Batman, which they are definitely expecting to fill out theaters once it releases in March. The Secret of Dumbledore, which continues the ever-popular Harry Potter franchise, will follow in April as both kick-offs a strong year for the company. As things are calming down somewhat, it’s great that studios are committing to once again promoting theatrical releases and ensure the media moving forward.

    The good balance lies in the new release windows. Those that miss out on a theatrical release will get access to it on HBO Max within a faster time, a similar strategy we’ve seen Disney+ tackle with their releases like Encanto already going out during Christmas. It’ll be interesting to see how this new direction might change our understanding of cinema and streaming moving forward.

    Source: The Hollywood Reporter

  • ‘No Way Home’ The Highest Rated Live-Action Spider-Man Film on Rotten Tomatoes

    ‘No Way Home’ The Highest Rated Live-Action Spider-Man Film on Rotten Tomatoes

    It’s never easy to finish a trilogy. There are high expectations on how you end what would normally be the final part of your series and build upon what came before. First reactions and early reviews hinted at Spider-Man: No Way Home being one of the few threequels to manage exactly that. And now, the film has become the highest-rated live-action adaptation of Spider-Man on Rotten Tomatoes with 95%. It’s not the highest-rated project overall, as that title still belongs to Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse at 97%, but it seems that multiversal storylines featuring the webhead are critical darlings.

    to put that into comparison, the last two MCU entries featuring the webhead were also rated fresh by the service. Homecoming was the highest-rated for some time with 92% while its sequel Far From Home stands at 80%. Tobey Maguire’s trilogy saw a stronger one with its third entry, as the first one stands at 90%, the much-beloved sequel Spider-Man 2 has a 93% rating while the final one dropped down to a still-fresh rated 63%.

    Andrew Garfield‘s run didn’t have a strong high with the first entry from 2012 starting at 72% while its sequel dropped down and is currently the only non-fresh rated live-action Spider-Man film with 52%. As Sony is definitely thinking about a future for Tom Holland’s run as the character, it’ll be interesting to see if it can carry over the momentum.

    Source: Rotten Tomatoes

  • Michael Starrbury to Adapt David F. Walker’s ‘The Hated’ for Netflix

    Michael Starrbury to Adapt David F. Walker’s ‘The Hated’ for Netflix

    Netflix’s main strategy has been to purchase various existing IPs to bring them to life. While they’ve seen quite a bit of success through their original adaptations, it never deterred the streamer from finding that property that’ll put them on the map in new ways. Well, it seems their next project will be an adaptation of David F. Walker‘s comic The Hated as a Western series. Michael Starrbury, who worked on When They See Us and Black & White.

    He’ll take on the role of executive producer alongside Prime Universe Films’ Adrian Askariah, David F. Walker, and Sean Owolo. The project is part of Starrbury’s multi-year deal with the streamer, as he’s also bringing out a comedy The Come Up soon. The series will take place during a post-Civil War revisionist history, where we follow the bounty hunter Araminta Free. The U.S. didn’t unite but separated and she’s one of the few people specialized in crossing the border. It’ll be interesting to see this different take on history and how they tackle the project.

    Source: Deadline

  • ‘Hawkeye’s Latest Episode Confirms [SPOILER] as Maya’s Uncle

    ‘Hawkeye’s Latest Episode Confirms [SPOILER] as Maya’s Uncle

    The fifth episode of Hawkeye has finally arrived and includes quite a few great moments. Florence Pugh‘s return as Yelena Belova is quite the highlight as we get to spend some time with her, but she isn’t the only major return of the episode. While a bit underwhelming, as it was through a surprisingly bad quality video – Val should get Yelena a better burner phone – we finally got the confirmation that all the teases so far were indeed for the reveal of Vincent D’Onofrio‘s Wilson Fisk. He even seems to be wearing an outfit similar to the one he had in Daredevil‘s third season. He also seems to be holding a cane in his hand, which he frequently had in the comics.

    When we first heard his chuckle in the third episode, it seemed that his return was a definite at some point in Hawkeye. The actor sharing the series and his excitement for it also helped add more to his potential return. While we still have to wait a week until he has a speaking role (hopefully), it’s great to finally get a confirmation and it’s quite the tease. Interestingly enough, Hawkeye doesn’t mention Fisk by his name but by the name many comic fans know, the Kingpin. While it was strange we didn’t get a post-credit sequence, I did quite enjoy the visual of him hanging over our two heroes to highlight the danger he represents.

    It’s going to be a lot in the finale and here’s hoping the series can tie it all together, especially with D’Onofrio getting quite a bit more attention after all that build-up. As what Kate got from Yelena was a video, it seems very likely that we’ll start off the next episode watching the video alongside them. We did get quite a few flashbacks in this series. So, perhaps we’ll also get one teasing Fisk’s involvement in the past and it’ll be interesting to see how the watch storyline might connect to the bigger picture.

  • Amazon Studios Adapting Olivie Blake’s ‘The Atlas Six’

    Amazon Studios Adapting Olivie Blake’s ‘The Atlas Six’

    It looks like TikTok has become quite the jumping-off point for some new talent, as there were quite a few bidders for the rights to adapt TikTok sensation The Atlas Six. The book by author Alexene Farol Follmuth, also known as Olivie Blake, alongside the production company that brought The Crown to life, Brightstar. Amazon won the bidding war for the rights and will release it on its streaming platform as a series.

    It’ll adapt the story of six young magicians who are selected to become part of The Alexandrian Society, a secret society of the world. Each decade, only six are chosen to join as trust and eventual betrayal develops between the participants to join the elusive ranks. It was self-published through Kindle Digital Publishing but became viral on the social media platform, which led to a publishing bidding war. Tor is currently working on a revised and edited version to release in March 2022.

    Follmuth will act as an executive producer alongside Brightstar founders Tanya Seghatchian and John Woodward. It’s quite interesting to see how Amazon Studios is trying to create a niche with fantasy productions to combat the likes of Netflix’s The Witcher adaptation. They just recently released The Wheel of Time to critical acclaim and are in no way slowing down.

    Source: Deadline

  • Sony Expecting a $150M Domestic Opening for ‘Spider-Man: No Way Home’

    Sony Expecting a $150M Domestic Opening for ‘Spider-Man: No Way Home’

    We’ve been covering the box office for quite some time now. It’s been a rough year with the pandemic closing down cinemas for extended periods. After 2020, the new year started with a bang as Godzilla vs. Kong, F9: The Fast Saga and Black Widow started the return for the local box office to recover. So far, only Venom: Let There Be Carnage managed to inch close to it with around $90M in October. It seems like Spider-Man: No Way Home is pretty much set to break pandemic records, but it seems there’s some debate between predictions.

    Sony seems to be taking a more conservative route, which makes sense. You never know how the box office may play during these uncertain times. As such, Sony is going in with a more conservative approach and predicting the film will make at least $100M with a potential high at around $150M. If you remember, we’ve shared predictions that saw the film even managing upward of $250M even during earlier predictions. Exhibitor Relations’ Jeff Bock, a senior analyst, believes that the impressive aspect will be its legs going into the new year:

    Spider-Man: No Way Home’ isn’t just the most anticipated movie of the holiday season, it’s the most anticipated movie of the year. As we’ve seen from countless other superhero flicks in 2021, audiences will not only break the box office opening weekend, but have legs for months

    Jeff Bock

    Some time ago, early predictions and pre-sales already had the film en route to pass the $200M benchmark, which would be quite impressive even during non-pandemic times. Spider-Man: Homecoming made $117M back in 2017 with Spider-Man: Far From Home gaining $92M. Yet, even with a weaker opening weekend, the film managed to surpass the previous entry and even race past the $1B mark. Still, in these times it’s difficult to say if No Way Home would even manage a similar feat. You can be sure everyone’s going to keep a close eye on its release.

    Source: CNBC, The Numbers

  • Marvel Unveils Their New Sorcerer Supreme in New ‘Strange’ Comic Series

    Marvel Unveils Their New Sorcerer Supreme in New ‘Strange’ Comic Series

    It looks like Marvel Comics has found its new Sorcerer Supreme. Doctor Strange has recently passed away and someone new has taken on the mantle. It turns out that person will be the Mistress of the Dark Dimension, Clea, who will lead her own comic titled Strange. Jed MacKay is set to write the new series right after his work on Death of Doctor Strange with Marcelo Ferreira bringing his Amazing Spider-Man artistic talents to the project. Marvel has shared the following synopsis:

    Haunted by her recently returned memories, Clea longs to bring Stephen Strange back from the dead! But when a mysterious group attacks the magical realm, Clea, now the sole protector of Earth against magical threats must rise to the duties of Sorcerer Supreme. Don’t miss the shocking twists, new villains, and unbelievable magical feats as Clea takes Marvel magic to places it’s never gone before!

    It’s a great direction for the character, and MacKay highlights that “there’s a new Sorcerer Supreme in residence at 177A Bleecker Street, and a new Doctor Strange—Clea Strange. And she’s got her work cut out for her—when she’s not fighting off the magical gangsters of the Blasphemy Syndicate, or battling undead super-monsters, she’s going after what’s hers: the late Stephen Strange.” So, her fight with the need to revive the one she lost will put her into a very different situation from the previous holder of the mantle and we’ll see what her struggle might mean for the future of the Marvel universe. The comic is going to release on March 2nd.

    Source: Marvel

  • James Cameron Offers Updates and First Look at ‘Avatar’ Sequels

    James Cameron Offers Updates and First Look at ‘Avatar’ Sequels

    We’ve been long waiting for an update on 2009’s Avatar film. No, not The Last Airbender but James Cameron‘s science fiction space opera that he was working on for many years. It’s been over ten years and the ambitious director teased that he’s not only working on one but four sequels of the original. The brand is now under the Disney umbrella after they purchased 20th Century Fox. After a long bout of silence, Cameron has finally opened up on the sequel and even offered some insight into the upcoming projects.

    It sounds kind of nuts, the process. I mean, if Avatar hadn’t made so much damn money, we’d never do this — because it’s kind of crazy

    James Cameron

    While we still don’t have an official title, the story of the first sequel will take place 14 years after the original. Jake Sully (Sam Worthington), in his new homegrown Na’vi body, has settled down with Neytiri (Zoe Saldana) and has started a family. The film this time around will be less bout them but their children. Producer Jon Landau shared that family will be at the heart of these sequels moving forward:

    AVATAR 2

    Ultimately, the sequels are a story about family, and the lengths parents will go through to keep that family together and keep them safe. I always say that Jim’s movies have universal themes — and really, there’s no more universal theme than family

    Jim Landau

    The long-held rumors are true as the first two entries will focus on the ocean and introduce a clan of reef-dwelling Na’vi, who goes by the name Metkayina. The Titanic director is well known for his work in ocean conservation. So, he wanted to combine his love of filmmaking and exploring the ocean into one project. The reason production took so long was that their performance-capture technology wouldn’t work underwater, which they had to adapt.

    AVATAR 2

    Production has wrapped on the first two entries of the franchise with Avatar 3 heading for a 2024 release. The reasoning it’s still planned to release this late is due to the focus on giving Weta enough time to bring the effects to life. The last two entires won’t release until 2026 and 2028 respectively.

    What we are doing now, from a story standpoint and a world standpoint, is on a much larger scale. That’s both exciting and challenging. We are putting much more detail, first and foremost, into the performances of the cast, but we’re [also] putting much more detail and diversity into the world that we are creating.

    Jim Landau

    Cameron has shared his fear that the films may not make the money he hopes they will, especially with how much money they’ll cost to make. Yet, 20th Century Fox and subsequently Disney have put a lot of trust into the director to bring four high-budget sequels together. Avatar was surpassed by Avengers: Endgame as the highest-earning film of all time only to take it back with a China re-release. It’ll be interesting to see if the wait was well worth it for everyone involved.

    Source: Entertainment Weekly