Murphy's Multiverse

Author: Joseph Aberl

  • ‘Mission Impossible 8’ Delayed by a Year, New Name Potentially

    ‘Mission Impossible 8’ Delayed by a Year, New Name Potentially

    The strikes are turning 2024 into a wasteland at this rate. While some projects were pushed back, the hope that perhaps everything gets cleared in time to promote major releases is becoming a major issue. Marvel Studios is still sticking to its The Marvels release but it’s not been rosy for theaters looking towards the next year, or even 2025.

    Still, it seems Tom Cruise’s next major entry in the Mission: Impossible franchise has been delayed by an entire year as Paramount has also pushed A Quiet Place: Day One back around two months. Seems they are being quite cautious going into next year. The other bizarre decision is that Dead Reckoning Part Two is going to get its own title. That is kind of a weird way to react after already naming the previous one Dead Reckoning Part 1.

    It seems production wasn’t finalized on the film, which has now been bumped back to May 23rd, 2025 from its initial June 28th, 2024 release. There’s also a high expectation of other major releases getting pushed back even further. Even Spongebob Squarepants’ new film has been pushed back to December 19th, 2025, as it gave its release date to Mission Impossible. We’ll have to see what remains of next year’s slate.

    Source: Hollywood Reporter

  • ‘The Marvels’ Box Office Tracking Towards Potential $75M+ Opening

    ‘The Marvels’ Box Office Tracking Towards Potential $75M+ Opening

    The headlines surrounding The Marvels are surprisingly harsher than you’d expect from a tentpole summer release like The Flash. DC’s general struggle this summer has led to some mixed feelings on what the future has in store for the superhero genre yet other releases seem to hint that the genre isn’t fully out. At the same time, there are enough examples throughout the entire summer that blockbuster fatigue is a bigger issue looming over cinemas going into a strike-affected 2024.

    The current projection for The Marvels have been a bit all over the place. Box Office Pro has a more subdued $50M with a high point of $70M. Its pre-sales trackings are quite a bit behind other Marvel tentpoles, especially 2023 releases. It also simply be a showcase that the frontloading era these films have enjoyed fizzled out early on, as even Elemental proves there are still some legs for Disney releases.

    Projections by The Hollywood Reporter are a bit more positive with a potential high of $80M for the Marvel Studios release, which may be quite a bit behind the initial Captain Marvel with its $153.4M. Three female leads are a big selling point of the project, especially after the success of Barbie a few months back It also grew from its initial $70M prediction but word-of-mouth is going to be the deciding factor here. However, the fact that its leads can’t actually promote the film is likely a huge factor.

    What also seems to be easily forgotten is that Captain Marvel enjoyed the build-up towards Avengers: Endgame and her potentially major role in that franchise “ender” as some claim it was. So, we might be seeing what the film originally might have opened to plus the name-change could also be a factor that people aren’t seeing it necessarily as a sequel even if trailers try to highlight that aspect (to be fair, barely any MCU entry acts like a true sequel but rather just an additional chapter for a specific character).

    Is it the end of Marvel Studios? Who knows at this point, but they are still holding on better than DC is with a questionable reboot. What everyone believed was the “biggest flop” of the year with Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania turned out to be a high bar barely any major release would reach. Even after the summer blockbuster, the film remains the eight highest-grosser of the year domestically.

    The Super Mario Bros. Movie and Barbie were the exceptions rather than the rule this summer which saw major franchises like The Flash, Dungeons & Dragons, Shazam, Transformers, Indiana Jones, Blue Beetle, and even Mission Impossible fizzle out with huge post-COVID budgets. Exhibitors should be more scared that going to the movies is becoming a rarer occurrence and relying on two or three tentpoles per year is not going to keep the box office afloat long-term; even if some are hailing the end of superhero movies and its fatigue discussions.

    Source: Box Office Pro, The Hollywood Reporter, The Numbers

  • Live-Action ‘Gargoyles’ in Development for Disney+

    Live-Action ‘Gargoyles’ in Development for Disney+

    It seems that the iconic Disney cartoon from the 1990s is making its way to Disney+ once more, but this time as a live-action series. According to The Hollywood Reporter, Gary Dauberman and James Wan’s Atomic Monster is set to help develop the series based on the iconic series that featured, you guessed it, Gargoyles living in modern-day facing unlikely enemies. It’s in early development and it seems Wan alongside Michael Clear is attached to executive produce while Dauberman will act as showrunner and writer on the series. This also signifies the WGA contract moving Disney+ away from their head writer experiment.

    Gargoyles ran for three seasons between 1994 to 1997, which saw a bunch of gargoyles end up in modern-day New York. They are released from a thousand-year curse and end up becoming the protectors of the city at night, as they are but simple statues during the day. Greg Weisman originally created the series and it became an iconic part of 90s’ cartoon culture alongside X-Men: The Animated Series and Batman: The Animated Series with is more adult themes.

    It seems that Disney considered an adaptation back in 2010 but after the flop of The Sorcerer’s Apprentice, they did not move along anymore. Dauberman is a big get given his success with horror franchise Annabelle and his involvement with The Conjuring. He also made his directorial debut with Annabelle Comes Home, which opens up the possibility that he’ll also act as director on the series in some format, but that has not been confirmed in any way.

    Source: The Hollywood Reporter

  • New Report Hints at ‘Aquaman 2’ Drama and New Claims against Jason Momoa

    New Report Hints at ‘Aquaman 2’ Drama and New Claims against Jason Momoa

    There’s something bizarre about the DCEU at this point. Ever since the beginning under the supervision of Zack Snyder, the entire franchise seems to be riddled with issues and questionable decisions on many levels. While he had an initial plan, it got derailed at every possible step along the way, and even with new heads James Gunn and Peter Safran, it seems the franchise isn’t on a path to full recovery.

    After The Flash’s ongoing drama, it seems that the other remnant of the original DCEU is also facing some massive troubles. Aquaman and the Lost Kingdom is seemingly filled with a lot of drama surrounding its main stars Jason Momoa, Amber Heard, and surprisingly Elon Musk as well. The production has been another major tentpole release that ballooned to a $215M budget. All these revelations seemingly came from Heard’s own therapist that fans paid to get access to as part of the trial.

    Early on, the Johnny Depp-Heard trial was all over the news and cast doubt that she’d have a role in the film. As it turned out, Momoa was also against her being on set and seemingly dressed up like Depp in a drunken stupor. It established a hostile environment and he was actively trying to push her out of the film, where she was set to return as Hera. Though DC spokesperson has made a statement that this wasn’t the case. Some even testifying against the claims.

    Jason works his ass off, likes to have a beer once in a while like everyone, but doesn’t show up drunk to set. And he isn’t dressing like Johnny Depp. He has always dressed in that bohemian style.

    It’s hard to say what is and isn’t true from all this, but more reports also hint that the relationship with director James Wan wasn’t the best either. He supposedly treated her “like a pariah” due to the limitations set on the production due to the court case. There are also reports that Heard was nearly fired from the production but an unlikely person came to ensure she could keep the role. That was her ex-boyfriend Elon Musk, who sent a “scorched-earth letter to Warner Bros. threatening to burn the house down” to ensure she could remain in production.

    Source: Variety

  • ‘Loki’ is Disney+’s Second Biggest Premiere of 2023

    ‘Loki’ is Disney+’s Second Biggest Premiere of 2023

    It looks like the god of mischief remains a major player for Disney+ even if The Mandalorian still holds the crown. The streaming service is highlighting that the second season of Loki pulled in 10.9m views worldwide in its first three days. As such, it managed to have around 512M minutes watched. While Ahsoka was touted with 14M views recently, those numbers were a five-day tally which means that Loki is only behind The Mandalorian in 2023’s big number game.

    The first season still remains one of the most-watched series on the streaming service and the anticipation for a sequel season was quite high even if marketing was a bit more subdued. Though that is likely still more reflective of Marvel not trying to rock the boat too much given people’s ongoing discussions of fatigue surrounding the genre and franchise, but that didn’t seem to stop Loki one bit going into its sophomore season.

    At the end of the day though, it’s always difficult to say if these shows are breaking any records. The reactions to Loki have been more positive when compared to The Mandalorian’s third season. So, who knows if the coming weeks might help the show grow? There’s definitely potential and we still don’t know how big Secret Invasion was earlier this year outside of third-party analysis pointing to it being a smaller release when compared to others. So, we’ll see if Disney is willing to share any more data moving forward.

    Source: The Hollywood Reporter

  • ‘One Piece’ Season 2 Will Explore the “Challenge of Leadership”

    ‘One Piece’ Season 2 Will Explore the “Challenge of Leadership”

    While it’s been revealed that the scripts for the second season are not ready as initially revealed by One Piece’s producer, they do have some outlines ready. As such, Deadline used the opportunity to at least ask showrunner Matt Owens what the overarching theme might be going into the second season. The first had a strong emphasis on One Piece’s core theme of chasing your dreams but it seems they want to expand on that a bit more.

    Without saying too much, and speaking to any new characters that we might meet, I would say a major theme that we’re working with in Season 2 is the challenge of leadership. From Luffy’s perspective, he’s got his crew now, and they are setting out to the Grand Line. They’re doing the thing, and there are a lot of challenges that come with that responsibility. And that theme ties into some other stories and characters that I won’t give away just yet. But the challenge and leadership is a big theme for us in Season 2.

    Matt Owens

    The Grand Line is a treacherous environment where survival isn’t as simple as one would think going by the run time of the series. So, it’s a perfect opportunity to explore what it means to be a leader, which also ties into some of the strongest moments from the Arabasta arc. The contrast between one major pirate crew that we’ll be introduced to has already been hinted at in the first season.

    Plus, we know that Smoker has a major role and would also have a leadership role for his marine squad. so, there’s a lot of potential to build upon the contrast between the various major players in this theme and it feels like a natural continuation of what we saw with Luffy in the Baratie episodes as well. Here’s hoping the wait won’t bee to long.

    Source: Deadline

  • Live-Action ‘One Piece’s Writers Room Opened for Season 2 Again

    Live-Action ‘One Piece’s Writers Room Opened for Season 2 Again

    The WGA strike has come to an end and as such developments on some projects are moving forward again. The Hollywood strikes aren’t over quite yet as actors are still fighting for a fair deal, but there’s hope that those will be finalized soon. For now, the big movement forward is that the writers room for One Piece has opened according to showrunner Matt Owens.

    The writers room is up and running, yes, getting scripts done so that we can get into design work, scheduling and pre-production, all of that kind of stuff.

    Matt Owens

    While discussing where they currently stand, he also highlights that they won’t start any castings or actor-related developments before the SAG strike has come to an end; such as highlighting the hiring of Jamie Lee Curtis as Dr. Kureha as a favorite.

    In the same interview, Owens also highlighted that scripts for the second season aren’t done. Tomorrow Studios producer did reveal that they should already be ready to release the series as soon as possible but with the strike they seemingly only have an outline ready for now.

    We did start our Season 2 writers room for a little bit before the strike. We didn’t get much further than starting to plan out what the season is going to be and got a couple of outlines done. But that’s as far as we got. So there are not actually any scripts for the season that are done. It’s still going to take some time.

    Matt Owens

    Looking at the positives of the current developments, Owens highlights that they can take in all the feedback the series released. They also already had talks with series creator Eiichiro Oda on potentially where they are heading going into the second season.

    And of course, now that the show has come out, there are things to look at and lessons to learn as we move forward. We’ve got some outlines, and we have a really solid plan that we had communication with Oda about. Part of my trip in April was to talk to him about some of the early ideas that we had, talking to him about things that I want to include to just make sure that our ideas are in line with what he thinks.

    Matt Owens

    So, one thing is for sure: development has started in the second season. It’s hard to say if they will manage to start production next year but depending on how far they come in the next few months, we will hopefully get a clear case of One Piece’s second season will be released in 2025 or 2026.

    Source: Deadline

  • ‘One Piece’ Showrunner Shares He Couldn’t Finish the Show Himself Due to WGA Strikes

    ‘One Piece’ Showrunner Shares He Couldn’t Finish the Show Himself Due to WGA Strikes

    Due to studios not paying their writers and actors, the WGA and SAG strike left its scars on many productions that were slowly wrapping up. Yet, some still managed to work their way towards a release, such as the big release of One Piece in August. We didn’t know just how hard the live-action adaptation was affected by the strikes.

    In an interview with Deadline after the WGA deal had finally been made, showrunner Matt Owens was finally able to talk about the show and also offered some insight into how it affected his work on the project. As it turns out, he was not able to truly finish the project but was “very close” to a final version. As such, most of the team had to carry on with the work while Eiichiro Oda was still supervising the project.

    We were very close. I had just gotten to Tokyo to meet with Oda again in April and have conversations with him about where the cuts were, some things that he wanted to see. So we were back in post when the strike hit. We were picture-locked on most things, there was still a lot of visual effects, final music; it was mostly finals. I’d seen stages of the majority of it, which was another heartbreaking thing about it — I didn’t get to finish the show. But luckily, my post-production team, the effects team, they know me, and they know the show. So for having to step away, I still felt like the show was in the best possible hands. And Oda was still involved, even though we were not communicating about the show.

    Matt Owens

    That is a shame but also highlights just how much love from everyone involved was poured into this series, as the lack of an active showrunner could’ve shown its fangs in other ways. The praise to the team working on the show is definitely a good sign of how far they managed to carry on even without Owens actively being able to be involved while supporting fair wages in the industry. Though, he also had some fun getting to see how some things turned out once the final reveal came.

    It was exciting because I had never seen the final final cuts of this show until the rest of the world did, so I did feel like there were some little surprises for me to discover, Oh, that’s how that turned out, that’s f*cking great, things like that.

    Matt Owens

    Here’s hoping that going into the second season, the production will be able to be part of the full journey this time around. That makes the renewal even sweeter, as it gives him the chance to fully be part of the process he started and what he invested five years of his life according to the interview.

    Source: Deadline

  • ‘One Piece’s Matt Owens Open to Exploring a Mihawk Spinoff

    ‘One Piece’s Matt Owens Open to Exploring a Mihawk Spinoff

    With a live-action adaptation of One Piece releasing to strong fanfare and views, we were quite excited that it managed to get a second-season renewal. That wasn’t always a sure thing with Netflix given how it handles most of its big series’ releases. Though, some not only manage to get a renewal but even go one step further with spinoffs planned in advance, such as with The Witcher.

    Well, it seems that while there’s no word on One Piece getting a spinoff, it does seem like showrunner Matt Owens is quite open to expanding the series. While we did assume that they likely will remain true to the source material, there is one idea he’d definitely be open to adapt: a spinoff focused on a young Mihawk and his adventures before the events of this series.

    There are so many stories we have yet to fully dive into. I’d love to do a young Mihawk series. Seeing his rise through the world, interacting with other prominent figures from the past.

    Matt Owens

    It definitely would be a fun adaptation and with Eiichiro Oda heavily involved, they could stick to canon. He has openly stated that he personally would love to explore a Marine spinoff in the past but given his tight schedule remains focused on ensuring the main series manages its way to the final release.

    Source: Reddit

  • ‘One Piece’ Showrunner Shares Why Loguetown Wasn’t Included in Season 1

    ‘One Piece’ Showrunner Shares Why Loguetown Wasn’t Included in Season 1

    There have been many discussions ahead of the release of Season 1 of One Piece. The live-action adaptation was initially set to have ten episodes; something we hinted wouldn’t stay as initially announced by Oda before the pandemic. Still, it was later revealed to only consist of eight episodes, an internal mandate from Netflix, and nothing towards the actual series at the time.

    So, many wondered if we would even get to truly visit all East Blue islands, and once the series was released, we sadly only got a brief glimpse at Loguetown in the first episode. Still, they managed to tie the series’ main themes throughout without the necessity of the town that is named prologue and epilogue. In a Reddit AMA, showrunner Matt Owens confirmed that the reason it wasn’t included was due to the episode reduction.

    Skipped? Never! It wasn’t included in season 1 because our episode number got reduced. And to try to cram it in would not have done service to it or the story it had to share space with. Loguetown is not “cut” we just haven’t gotten there yet!

    Matt Owens

    It’s not too surprising and it is a shame that they didn’t get to keep their initial plans for the episode structure. There are some small elements where one can tell they likely adapted the pacing from that initial pitch but it manages to pull it all together in creative ways. Plus, the tease in the first post-credit sequence hints at a perfect set-up with Loguetown introducing Smoker as a major antagonist going into the new season.

    Source: Reddit