Murphy's Multiverse

Category: News

  • ‘Letterkenny’ Season 11 to Premiere this December

    ‘Letterkenny’ Season 11 to Premiere this December

    Wayne and the gang are back this December for Season 11 of the hit series, Letterkenny. Season 11 of Letterkenny will officially hit Hulu on December 26th, while fans in Canada will get to watch the season a day earlier thanks to Crave.

    The official synopsis for the season promises plenty of hijinks for fans of the series, including an influencer invasion and the usual Skid business.

    The residents of Letterkenny belong to one of three groups: the Hicks, the Skids, and the Hockey Players, who are constantly feuding over seemingly trivial matters that often end with someone getting their ass kicked. In Season 11, the small town contends with the best chip flavors, lost dogs, an influencer invasion, Skid business, a mystery at the Church Bake Sale, unwanted guests at beer league, and the Degens stirring up trouble. And that’s just for starters.

    Letterkenny stars Jared Keeso as Wayne, Nathan Dales as Daryl, Michelle Mylett as Katy, K. Trevor Wilson as Dan, Dylan Playfair as Reilly, Andrew Herr as Jonesy, Tyler Johnston as Stewart, Evan Stern as Roald, Jacob Tierney as Glen, Patrick McNeil as Connor, Lisa Codrington as Gail, and Dan Petronijevic as McMurray.

    All six episodes of Season 11 will hit Hulu on December 26th. For those not yet caught up, all ten seasons are currently streaming on Hulu, along with this year’s International Women’s Day special. Fans can also check out the spinoff series, Shoresy, on Hulu now.

  • REVIEW: ‘Christmas with You’

    REVIEW: ‘Christmas with You’

    November marks that time of year when networks and retailers begin their seasonal push for the holidays. The Hallmark Channel essentially becomes the Christmas movie channel, and commercials seek to remind customers the Holidays are fast approaching. Over the years, Netflix has sought to try and capture some of that Christmas magic. And the streaming giant has successfully done so with The Princess Switch films and the Christmas Prince series. Now, Netflix is looking to expand its holiday collection even further with the addition of Christmas with You.

    Christmas with You follows the usual Christmas movie formula. One party forgets why Christmas is special, while the other party helps to remind them after they return “home” or “to their roots” for answers. It’s a popular trope because it works so wonderfully with the holidays. This movie, however, decides to throw in a teeny-tiny hiccup into the mix as it includes the harsh realities of the music industry. Christmas with You opens with a very early 2000s pop-star sequence as our leading lady, Angelina (Aimee Garcia), films a video for one of her songs. She’s had a long music career and has done everything in her power to stay relevant in a constantly changing climate – including restricting her diet, faking a relationship and changing up her look and sound as needed. But when she’s told she needs to deliver a hit Christmas song in order to stay relevant, Angelina decides it is time to do something different and truly connect with her fans. What happens next will change everything for the pop star.

    Simple premise, absolutely, and yet, Christmas with You still manages to be a delight to watch. Garcia delivers a great performance – and a believable one at that – while her leading man, played by Freddy Prinze Jr., seems to struggle from start to finish. Despite Prinze Jr. overacting each and every scene he’s in, Christmas with You is somehow captivating. Is any of it realistic? No. But is it a nice escapist fantasy? Yes. It’s a movie about family, love, and allowing oneself to be authentic.

    It also tackles the realities female artists face within the music industry – things we’ve seen mentioned by some of pop’s biggest stars. Angelina struggles with eating, fearful of gaining weight. She struggles with being perceived as older or old, knowing how quickly the industry will write her off in favor of a younger star. She also seems keen to forgo her own happiness in favor of appeasing the record label because she spent so long trying to build her career, she’s fearful of losing it. It’s a rather depressing topic to take in with such a cheerful movie, but the two blend together wonderfully. Realistic or not, the fact that Christmas with You exists as more than a Christmas movie is notable. The cheese factor is there, yes, and that only makes it all the better — but there’s also heart in this movie, a whole lot of it.

    Final verdict: Netflix’s Christmas with You is an adorable Christmas movie that is a million times better than anything Hallmark has to offer.

  • Quentin Tarantino Reveals His Marvel Studios’ Pitch

    Quentin Tarantino Reveals His Marvel Studios’ Pitch

    Quentin Tarantino is not a big fan of modern superhero films. The acclaimed director recently told the Los Angeles times he’s never helmed one because he’s “not a hired hand” and while “the writing’s not quite on the wall yet”, he believes the fascination with superhero films will eventually fade similar to when audiences tired of big-budget musical productions in the 1960s. Films like 1961’s West Side Story and 1964’s A Hard Day’s Night thrilled audiences for the better part of a decade before interest waned and filmmakers were forced to look elsewhere. Tarantino stated that he and other modern filmmakers “can’t wait for the day they can say that about superhero movies.”

    Of course, rather than making reporters ask Tarantino fewer questions about the potential for him to step behind the camera for a superhero flick, his comments inspired more…and somewhat surprisingly, Tarantino had an answer at the ready. In an interview with Variety, Tarantino revealed that were he to have his choice of Marvel IPs to bring to the big screen, it would be a classic book that inspired his 2009 film Inglorious Basterds.

    In a 2009 interview with MTV, Tarantino shared that the 1963 Stan Lee and Jack Kirby series Sgt. Fury and His Howling Commandoes was an inspiration for the main crew of Inglorious Basterds.

    “[The Basterds] are a kind of comic book. A big influence on the Basterds was Marvel Comics’ ‘Sgt. Fury and His Howling Commandos.’ That was definitely an influence on that flick.

    Quentin Tarantino

    Sgt. Fury and His Howling Commandoes ran for nearly 20 years and saw 167 issues published about the adventures of Nick Fury and his ragtag team that included Dum Dum Dugan, Gabe Jones, Izzy Cohen, Jim Morita and more. A version of the team, lead by Dugan and featuring many of those listed, was featured in 2011’s Captain America: The First Avenger. While fans probably shouldn’t hold their breath, the though of Tarantino revisiting that team and some of their unseen adventures in World War II is titilating.

    Sources: Los Angeles Time, Variety, MTV

  • ‘Wakanda Forever’ Production Designer Provides BTS Details About Namor’s Throne

    ‘Wakanda Forever’ Production Designer Provides BTS Details About Namor’s Throne

    One of the money shots of the marketing footage for Black Panther: Wakanda Forever showed the descent of Namor onto his massive, underwater throne. Namor has always been a big throne guy in the comics, but the crew on Wakanda Forever really upped the ante in adapting the Sub-Mariner and his throne room for the MCU, having Namor seated in the jaws of an ancient beast! Fans have been buzzing about the set piece since first seeing it, speculating on just what sort of creature the jaws belonged to and now they have their answer.

    Production Designer Hannah Beachler, who won an Academy Award for her work on Black Panther, returned to work on Black Panther: Wakanda Forever and took to Twitter recently to detail some of the fascinating features from some of the most breathtaking sets from the film including Namor’s throne.

    As fans believed, Namor’s throne was indeed created from the jaws of a Megalodon. The extinct Megalodon is the largest species of shark to have ever lived. Recent estimates indicate the average Megalodon was likely 34 feet long (Great Whites average 20 feet, for comparison) with teeth about 7 inches long! The production design team did their homework not only in depicting the size of the jaws but also in keying in on the fact that more than a quarter of the total number of Megalodon fossils have been found around the Gulf of Mexico and the Caribbean Sea.

    Given the details of the piece, including the description carved into the lower jaw, it would be a shame if it weren’t seen again soon in the MCU!

  • Jason Blum and James Wan in Talks to Merge Production Studios

    Jason Blum and James Wan in Talks to Merge Production Studios

    If there are any names that come to mind in the horror genre business, it’s Jason Blum‘s Blumhouse Studios and James Wan‘s Atomic Monster. Wan has been more on the creative side of the business and made his splash with The Conjuring and Saw franchise. Blumhouse however established itself as a big contender in the small to the medium-sized budget horror scene. With a variety of projects ranging from Halloween Ends, The Black Phone to the first Five Nights at Freddy‘s Adaptation, and even out-there projects like M3GAN. Now, it seems these two powerhouses are set to unite.

    Speaking of the horror film about a strange robot doll, the project seems to be the catalyst as it saw the two producers unite. It does seem like we aren’t merging both projects into one but rather they will act as separate labels that keep their brand identity. They will likely only unite to further push their productions forward and will set Atomic Monster to have a first-look deal with Universal Pictures. It originally had one with Warner Bros. but that expires with Aquaman and the Lost Kingdom, very likely a sign of what’s to come for the studio given recent developments.

    It’ll certainly be an interesting deal in the film market and could push new projects forward in interesting ways. If they are indeed acting as separate entities, it might mean we’ll see more co-productions moving forward while they still keep a focus on some of their own projects and franchises. In a market filled with major studios, it’s a smart move to keep that independence while also bolstering their standing. So, it seems horror films are definitely not going out of style anytime soon.

    Source: NY Times, THR

  • ‘Wakanda Forever’ Eyeing Strong $72M+ Second Weekend

    ‘Wakanda Forever’ Eyeing Strong $72M+ Second Weekend

    There’s been a lot of debate on the success of Black Panther: Wakanda Forever at the box office, mostly due to it ending up lower than Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness. Many believed this might be the sign that Marvel won’t have a billion hit this year, but the box office is quite fiscal and there are many more elements at play. All eyes are currently on its second weekend to see how the film holds with a $181M opening weekend, especially after the previous two Marvel Studios releases have hit some sharp drops.

    As of now, it seems that predictions have the film opening to $72M with upwards of $80M also a possibility. Any drop between 55% to 60% would be seen as a major win and a great showcase of that A CinemaScore the film scored in comparison to other Marvel titles of the year. The pandemic hasn’t been kind to most releases and with only a few exceptions really catapulting beyond expectations, mostly Top Gun: Maverick, Marvel has been the most dominant sure-fire opening scorer at the box office.

    The film did end up going lower on Monday than even Thor: Love and Thunder as it pulled in $11M but did tick up to $12.6M on Tuesday. Yet, the film also isn’t a summer release like the previous two Marvel films which makes a world of difference when it comes to its performance during the week. Plus, it’s a much longer film than previous entries which also means fewer available screenings per day playing a key factor in its performance. So, it’s still hard to say how the weekend goes but predictions have been difficult even s the pandemic slowed down, as we’re seeing more variation in how films perform. Even with that, it’s likely to reach $400M worldwide in no time.

    The original Black Panther had a very impressive 44.7% decline and it’s unclear to say this film could do the same. It doesn’t have the coveted A+ CinemaScore its previous iteration had and it also had a smaller opening, not too surprising given the challenges this film had to face and the new release slot. It’s only the seventh film to pass $200M domestically and that is definitely a good sign for Marvel Studios, as it pushed Disney passed $3B total gross for the year, beating last year. With little competition until Avatar: The Way of Water in mid-December, the film could have a chance at proving its legs to at least close in on a billion. If predictions are right, it has a decent chance but anything can change once the weekend rolls around.

    Source: Variety, Deadline, The Numbers (Wakanda Forever), The Numbers (Thor)

  • ‘Stranger Things’ Star Joseph Quinn Joins ‘A Quiet Place: Day One’

    ‘Stranger Things’ Star Joseph Quinn Joins ‘A Quiet Place: Day One’

    Eddie Munson is back to fight more monsters, only this time, he won’t be able to shred on his guitar. Stranger Things breakout star Joseph Quinn has joined the cast of A Quiet Place: Day One, a prequel spin-off to John Krasinski‘s acclaimed horror franchise. He is set to play a leading role opposite Black Panther favorite Lupita Nyong’o, who boarded the project earlier this month. Day One will be directed by Michael Sarnoski, who recently received praise for his indie hit Pig, making it the first entry in the Quiet Place pantheon not to be helmed by Krasinski himself. However, though nothing is publicly known about it’s plot details at this time, the film’s story is reportedly set to be based on an idea from Krasinski that will help set up a full-blown Quiet Place cinematic universe for the future.

    A Quiet Place Part III is also in development, with Krasinski back to direct, but is an entirely separate project from Day One. It is highly unlikely that either Krasinski or fellow franchise star Emily Blunt reprise their roles from previous films, if not completely impossible. For now, fans should find themselves very content with talents like Quinn and Nyong’o leading a new adventure through the horrific silence of the Quiet Place world. This will be the former’s first major role since his Stranger Things character threw him into the international spotlight.

    A Quiet Place: Day One is set to hit theaters on March 8th, 2024. A Quiet Place Part III will follow sometime in 2025.

    Source: Deadline

  • New ‘Alien’ Movie In Development, Eyeing Cailee Spaeny

    New ‘Alien’ Movie In Development, Eyeing Cailee Spaeny

    Game over, man. Game over! The Xenomorphs, a ferocious species of extraterrestrials who have been terrifying audiences since 1979’s Alien, are back. Deadline has revealed a new film in Ridley Scott‘s sci-fi horror franchise is finally in the works, and this time, it will likely star up-and-coming actress Cailee Spaeny. There is next-to-no further information regarding the project, with its plot and placement on the Alien timeline still a mystery. Fede Alverez, known for his work on 2016’s instant thriller classic Don’t Breath and 2013’s Evil Dead remake, will direct the picture with Scott Free Productions on board to produce. Reports claim Scott Free and 20th Century Studios have made this project a top priority after being impressed by a pitch from Alverez, and filming will begin in early 2023.

    Spaeny rose to fame in 2018, with supporting roles in Bad Times at the El Royale, Pacific Rim Uprising, and Vice. She achieved leading status over the past few years, in projects like The Craft: Legacy and How It Ends, before landing the coveted role of Priscilla Presley in Sofia Coppola‘s upcoming biopic Priscilla. The young performer has also booked a part in Alex Garland‘s next film, Civil War. It’s unknown who Spaeny might be playing in the next Alien film, but Deadline states she’s been the top choice for the lead role for some time. Alverez and 20th Century were reportedly very pleased with Spaeny following several meetings between her and the film’s producers. There is currently no release date for the project.

    Source: Deadline

  • A New Report Has Revealed the Villain of ‘Wonder Man’

    A New Report Has Revealed the Villain of ‘Wonder Man’

    Theory Thursdays are pretty special at Murphy’s Multiverse and it looks as though one of the most recent bits of speculation might turn out to have been spot on! According to a new report from insider Daniel RPK, the villain of the upcoming Disney Plus streaming series Wonder Man will be exactly who Hunter Radesi posited him to be just a few weeks ago.

    Casting has begun for the series, which is expected to begin production in the Spring of 2023, and with that comes a description of the villain of the piece, who happens to be the agent of struggling actor Simon Williams, aka Wonder Man. As pointed out in the theory, the villain may well be based on a character first introduced in 1991’s Wonder Man comic book series, created by Gerard Jones and Jeff Johnson. That series introduced Simon’s agent, Neal Saroyan, who was ultimately revealed to be a supervillain in charge of a cadre of assassins known as The Nobility.

    Rumors swirled recently that Bob Odenkirk was engaged in talks for the role of the agent, but no official word has come along on if he’d taken the role. Given Odenkirk’s body of work in Better Call Saul and Nobody, he would seem the perfect fit for an otherwise non-descript character who turns out to be a deadly assassin. Wonder Man is expected to stream on Disney Plus in 2024.

  • Lionsgate Developing ‘Streets of Rage’ Movie

    Lionsgate Developing ‘Streets of Rage’ Movie

    Lionsgate is developing a Streets of Rage movie. The news comes courtesy of Deadline with the outlet reporting that the studio has set John Wick franchise creator and scribe Derek Kolstad as the film’s writer. News that a Streets of Rage film was in development was first announced in April, although no studio was attached at the time of the announcement.

    “When Dmitri first mentioned the idea of cracking a Streets of Rage movie, I was so immediately freaking in. And to play with Sega? The 10-year-old me is still grinning.”

    Kolstad

    Following the news that Lionsgate has boarded the project, Erin Westerman, President of Production at Lionsgate Motion Picture Group, said, “The game has a rich world and narrative, and we’re thrilled to be reuniting with Derek to bring it to life.”

    Streets of Rage was a hugely popular video game franchise from Sega in the 90s. Between 1991 and 1994, the franchise released three games, with a fourth game finally being released in 2020. As of now, no further details are known about the project and a director has yet to be announced.

    Brady Fujikawa and Jon Humphrey will head the project for Lionsgate, while Shuji Utsumi and Toru Nakahara will oversee the movie for Sega. Kolstad will produce the movie alongside Sega’s Nakahara, dj2 Entertainment’s Dmitri M. Johnson, Timothy I. Stevenson and Dan Jevons.

    Source: Deadline.