Murphy's Multiverse

Author: Joseph Aberl

  • ‘Werewolf by Night’s Gael Garcia Bernal Never Auditioned for the Disney+ Special

    ‘Werewolf by Night’s Gael Garcia Bernal Never Auditioned for the Disney+ Special

    It’s no denying that Gael Garcia Bernal is a major get for the Marvel Cinematic Universe, and many wondered just how he ended up getting a role in a Universal/Hammer-inspired monster flick for Disney. As it turns out, he was actually offered the role directly by long-time Marvel composer and now director, Michael Giacchino. In an interview with The Hollywood Reporter, the Werewolf by Night actor reveals how he got the role for the series and what it was like joining the Marvel family.

    It was a direct invitation from [director-composer] Michael Giacchino, and I immediately said yes. It was fantastic to have the opportunity to interpret this character. There are a lot of tangents and a lot of places that this character or this world can lead to. So as soon as Michael told me what he wanted to do and the way he wanted to approach it, I said, “Yeah, let’s do this!” So it’s been great, and I feel really lucky to be in this world of Marvel because of their know-how and infrastructure. We also got to try things out and experiment. So we were taken care of, and I can’t wait to do more with this great opportunity.

    Gael Garcia Bernal

    The actor also highlighted how having his friend, fellow Disney actor Diego Luna, join him on this journey. He highlighted how he was a great support during his time at D23 when they announced the Werewolf by Night Special Presentation.

    When we were at the D23 conference, he was the one who explained to me what was happening because it was my first time. It was quite crazy. But it was fascinating to be around all these other projects and people, and doing a press conference and press junket, in a sense, with all these different films and TV series was incredible. I wish all premieres were like that where the films and series are combined. So it’s been great to have a good friend who’s also living something similar as well.

    Diego Luna

    Perhaps this might open the doors to Luna also crossing into a new franchise as he’s set to wrap his work on Andor‘s second and final season next year. With more monsters making the rounds within the MCU, perhaps he could join the horror side of the franchise and have these two actors reunite on screen. Of course, we don’t know yet what the future has in store for Bernal in the MCU and hopefully, it won’t be too long before we find out.

    Source: THR

  • New ‘Werewolf by Night’ BTS Image Surfaces Online Revealing Practical Man-Thing Suit

    New ‘Werewolf by Night’ BTS Image Surfaces Online Revealing Practical Man-Thing Suit

    Werewolf by Night has finally found its way to Disney+. Marvel Studios has long kept mum on the project until D23 when they announced the project and the first teaser confirmed that a long-time Marvel character is finally making his Marvel Cinematic Universe debut. No, not the titular Werewolf but rather the quite popular Man-Thing. He also quickly became a fan favorite after the series’ release and a new behind-the-scenes image from the production has found its way online hinting that the character was practical.

    In the BTS image shared by @halldehqs on Twitter, we get a look at the crew including director Michael Giacchino. What sticks out is the giant Man-Thing that is towering behind the crew with glowing red eyes. While there definitely was some CG use in the series, it looks like they had an actual practical suit on the set to bring the character to life. It definitely is a surprise given how Marvel makes use of CG for larger-than-life characters.

    Giacchino did hint that they tried to take as many practical directions as they can. So, the fact that the character everyone assumed would be mostly CG had an actual suit is impressive. It’ll be interesting to see if perhaps the productions start integrating more practical elements moving forward, as Marvel Studios has always had the tendency to learn from each project they’ve worked on. We’ll have to see if we might see more of it in other Special Presentations moving forward as well.

    Source: Twitter

  • Robert Eggers’ ‘Nosferatu’ Eyeing ‘Renfield’s Nicholas Hoult for Undisclosed Role

    Robert Eggers’ ‘Nosferatu’ Eyeing ‘Renfield’s Nicholas Hoult for Undisclosed Role

    Nicholaus Hoult may have been getting addicted to vampire stories, as while he’s been busy working on the Dracula retelling Renfield, where he stars opposite Nicolas Cage. Now, he has seemingly joined the upcoming Nosferatu retelling by The Northman‘s Robert Eggers. From the sounds of it, he is still in negotiations for a role and would join the cast that currently consists of Bill Skarsgard and Lily-Rose Depp.

    The story is teased as a “gothic tale of obsession” that takes place in 19th century Germany, as a Transylvanian vampire haunts a young woman. They tease that he brings “untold horror with him” which might hint at more than just the vampire being the main threat throughout. Skarsgard would take on the role of Nosferatu while Depp will take on the female lead. Hoult‘s character remains under wraps.

    Eggers has long hoped to bring this project to life, as he originally was going to film it before he ended up with his Viking project, The Northman. Anya Taylor-Joy and Harry Styles were attached to the project when it was with Studio 8 but due to budget concerns, the project didn’t quite come together. He almost passed on the gothic tale but seemingly fell back in love with the

    Source: Deadline

  • Justin Long Joins Disney+’s ‘Goosebumps’ Series

    Justin Long Joins Disney+’s ‘Goosebumps’ Series

    Disney+ may have kicked off its streaming service with Star Wars and Marvel, but they have been quite busy expanding their available IPs. They purchased 20th Century Fox for a reason and aren’t wasting any time to also add a few other recognizable franchises to their list. Now, they are actively working on a new series based on the iconic Goosebumps franchise by R.L. Stine and it seems they already have their casting locked, as Justin Long is set to join the series.

    The series will reportedly be inspired by five fo the popular Goosebumps books, and Disney has provided the following logline for the series.

    The series follows a group of five high schoolers who unleash supernatural forces upon their town and must all work together — thanks to and in spite of their friendships, rivalries and pasts with each other — in order to save it, learning much about their own parents’ teenage secrets in the process.

    Long is taking on the role of a school teacher, who ends up connected with a “decades-old supernatural murder” named Nathan Bratt. The series will seemingly adopt an overarching narrative rather than having each entry act as its own retelling of the iconic books. There have been quite a few adaptations throughout the years with Jack Black as a fictionalized version of Stine back in 2015. It even got a sequel that would release in 2018.

    Source: Variety

  • HBO Max Announces ‘Harley Quinn’ Valentine’s Day Special

    HBO Max Announces ‘Harley Quinn’ Valentine’s Day Special

    Even with HBO Max’s purge of its many animation offerings, it seems that one series remains strong. DC’s quicky and heavily R-rated Harley Quinn got a new season release but also has a spinoff series in some form of development. Now, it seems they have one more special to surprise us with, as HBO Max has announced that they have a new Valentine’s Day Special set for next year’s February.

    https://twitter.com/dcharleyquinn/status/1578399758535696384

    The special will be titled Harley Quinn: A Very Problematic Valentine’s Day Special and has released the following logline to tease what we can expect from the project.

    The special will feature Harley and Ivy celebrating their very first Valentine’s Day together, while also revealing how the rest of the ragtag crew spends the gushiest, mushiest, most romantic day of the year

    The third season of Harley Quinn has seen quite a successful run with an early fourth season renewal in August. As many DC projects got scrapped left and right, it’s a showcase of just how popular the R-rated project is. There’s still no word though where the Kite Man-focused project currently stands as we haven’t heard if it survived the HBO Max purge. Given the character’s popularity, it does seem safe to say he’ll likely still be chasing his dreams.

    Source: Variety, Twitter

  • Brian Tyler to Compose Illumination’s ‘Super Mario Bros.’ Movie

    Brian Tyler to Compose Illumination’s ‘Super Mario Bros.’ Movie

    We finally got our first tease of the upcoming Super Mario Bros. movie and it seems that they have dropped a small nugget of information about what we can expect from the film before dropping the trailer at us. As it turns out, it seems that composer Brian Tyler has been hired to bring the movie’s musical landscape to life.

    It also seems like Tyler is going to work closely with composer Koji Kondo to include many iconic songs from the original games. So, if you’ve been worried they’d move away from the soundtrack that made the games stand out, they’re definitely not just creating a new soundtrack ignoring the original songs that made the game’s as classic as they are.

    It’s going to be interesting to see what Tyler brings to the table and how they’ll appraoch the concept. Mario’s soundtrack has evolved quite a bit over teh years with the Odyssey one standing out quite a bit. Of course, he coudl try to reeplicate elements from across the years but still try to give it a unique spin. For now, we’ll have to wait and see what direction they take it once we see more fro mthe film.

    You can watch the Nintendo Direct including the cast and trailer here:

    Source: YouTube

  • ‘Outer Range’ Gets Season 2 Renewal and New Showrunner

    ‘Outer Range’ Gets Season 2 Renewal and New Showrunner

    The neo-western series Outer Range has just received a second season renewal from Prime Video. Josh Brolin will return as the Wyoming rancher, whose life is thrown into turmoil when he uncovers something quite unnatural on his farm. The series was created by Brian Watkins, but it looks like he isn’t going to return for the second season.

    Luke Cage‘s Charles Murray is taking over as showrunner, which is part of his deal with Amazon Studios and will join the production to further explore the Abbotts’ struggle with some supernatural and local troubles. It’s unclear who from the original cast will return, which included Lili Taylor, Lewis Pullman, Tamara Podemski, Tom Pelphrey, Shaun Sipos, Noah Reid, Isabel Arraiza, Olive Abercombie, Will Patton, and Imogen Poots.

    Watkins is still involved with the production, as he’ll remain as executive producer on these series. There’s no word on why exactly they decided to move forward with a new showrunner in its second season but it’ll be interesting to see what Charles Murray will bring to the table with his talented work on shows like Luke Cage, Sons of Anarchy, and more.

    Source: Deadline

  • Rian Johnson’s ‘Knives Out’ Sequel ‘Glass Onion’ Gets Thanksgiving Limited Release

    Rian Johnson’s ‘Knives Out’ Sequel ‘Glass Onion’ Gets Thanksgiving Limited Release

    Many have lamented on the shame that the upcoming Knives Out sequel, Glass Onion, was a Netflix exclusive. while it’s a great win for the streaming service, it does seem like a shame that we won’t get the iconic franchise’s return in theaters. Luckily, it seems that we’re still going to get our hands on the film in theaters, as the film is going to head to theaters for a theatrical sneak preview event for a week.

    What does make this stand out is that the film will be released in AMC Theaters, Regal Movies, Cinemark, and many more, which makes it the most chains one of their films have been released in. As of now, the film is set to be available in 600 theaters over Thanksgiving week. So, this might mark the biggest move from the streaming service to embrace theatrical releases.

    Rian Johnson has shared his excitement on Twitter:

    That’s not all, as the Netflix Film head, Scott Stuber, also had the following to say on the release.

    We’re excited to offer fans an exclusive sneak preview of Rian’s incredible film. Given the excitement surrounding the premiere at the Toronto International Film Festival, we hope fans will enjoy this special theatrical event in celebration of the film’s global debut on Netflix in December.

    Scott Stuber

    So, for those hoping to see the return of Daniel Craig‘s Benoit Blanc in theaters luckily won’t have to wait too long and will get a chance to check out the film from November 23rd until the 29th. So, it’s a month early look at the film which has a December 23rd release date.

    Source: The Hollywood Reporter, Twitter

  • ‘Kingdom of the Planet of the Apes’ Adds ‘The Strain’ Star

    ‘Kingdom of the Planet of the Apes’ Adds ‘The Strain’ Star

    It looks like Kingdom of the Planet of the Apes is kicking into high gear, as they are adding quite a few to the cast just after announcing the project. Wes Ball is set to direct the continuation of the original Planet of the Apes trilogy for the 20th Century and it has now added The Strain star Kevin Durand to its cast.

    Durand is now the latest to join the cast which now includes Peter Macon, Owen Teague, and Freya Allen. Jessica Jones star Eka Darville was also announced to have joined the cast earlier today. there’s no word if Andy Serkis might be involved in some manner, as he spearheaded the original trilogies as the ape Caeser, but this film with a 2024 planned release technically takes place many years after the original.

    It’s definitely going to be interesting to see just how they explore the titular “kingdom” and how humanity co-exists alongside the apes. There’s a lot of potential with this franchise as it moves away from the original that mainly acted as a more modern retelling of the origin from the original films, which wasn’t explored until the fourth entry, Conquest of the Planet of the Apes in 1972. So, perhaps this film acts as the set-up for where we originally got introduced to the science fiction franchise.

    Source: The Hollywood Reporter

  • UPDATED: ‘The Batman’s Penguin Spinoff May Have Found its Director

    UPDATED: ‘The Batman’s Penguin Spinoff May Have Found its Director

    UPDATED: Craig Zobel has been confirmed as the director for the still-untitled The Batman spinoff focused on Penguin. It seems the director has a deal with HBO after his acclaimed work on The Mare of Easttown. He won#t be filming the entire series but rather is responsible for the first two episodes. So, we might get more director confirmations in the coming months.

    Source: THR

    We’ve long waited for an update for the upcoming The Batman spinoff series focused on Colin Farrell‘s Penguin. The HBO Max series is reportedly in discussions with Mare of Easttown‘s Craig Zobel to not only direct but also executive produce the series. His work on the HBO series has put him in the spotlight and makes him a perfect choice for this further exploration of Gotham.

    Supposedly the series is also eyeing to start production in early 2023, but no exact date or time window is given at the moment. The director is set to join the production, which is currently being showrun by Lauren LeFranc, best known for her work as a writer and producer on Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. and Chuck.

    Zobel has also worked on The Hunt, which was surrounded by quite a bit of controversy. It’s been a long journey for the director to make a name and leave the shadow behind from the controversies but with quite a few awards under his belt, it’ll be interesting to see what he brings to the upcoming The Batman spinoff.

    Source: Discussing Film