The Witcher has become one of Netflix’s biggest series and has taken a comfortable position alongside series like Stranger Things, You, and more. During the TUDUM event, they offered a first look at the upcoming prequel series Blood Origin while also revealing that Minnie Driver has joined the cast as the series narrator and teases ties to the story of Geralt.
Source: Tudum
Netflix has been quite hopeful to establish their new Stranger Things with some upcoming releases. Among them are their live-action adaptations of classic franchises One Piece and Avatar: The Last Airbender. The other big potential lies in the new series 3-Body Problem that has the Game of Thrones‘ showrunners David Benioff and D.B. Weiss working with Alexander Woo to bring the book to life.
Bridgerton has become quite popular among Netflix’s many offerings, as Shonda Rhimes takes her usual writing style to offer something drenched in the Regency era of England, taking a look at the powerful family of the same now as they attempt to find love. During this year’s TUDUM event, they unveiled a first look at the recently announced Queen Charlotte spinoff simply titled Queen Charlotte: A Bridgerton Story.
Paramount+ is preparing an adaptation of Wolf Pack based on Edo Van Belkom‘s book of the same name with Teen Wolf‘s Jeff Davis working on the project. It’s unclear how close it’ll stick to the original, but it will follow the core story of a young boy played by Armani Jackson and a girl (Bella Shepard) who are met by supernatural creatures after a California wildfire.
Joining the cast is Sarah Michelle Gellar, who is most famous for her role as Buffy Summers in Buffy the Vampire Slayer and has been building quite a career since with various projects like CW’s Ringer or even CBS’ The Crazy Ones starring opposite Robin Williams. Now, she’s set to join Wolf Pack and offered a tease of her character, Kristin Ramsey, on Instagram with a first look.
She hinted in an interview that she initially wasn’t interested in joining the project but it was the scripts that caught her eye and drew her into this story. The chance to explore “anxiety and depression among children” using the monsters as metaphors gave it something unique that drew her to the project. So, it’ll be interesting to see what she brings to the table with this project.
James Earl Jones was the one to give Darth Vader his iconic voice ever since the first Star Wars film was released in 1977. Yet, we could still hear his iconic take on their character in the recently released Obi-Wan Kenobi series on Disney+. Yet, that wasn’t actually Jones’ voice anymore as after 45 years it has changed with age.
So, Disney and Lucasfilm took a different approach and relied on a synthetic speech recreated from archival footage to create a new dialogue. They worked with the Ukrainian synthetic speech artist Bogdan Belyaev that brought the latest return of Darth Vader to life even during the war that is still ongoing in his home country. Even while there were concerns about his and his team’s well-being, they wanted to power through the situation to highlight they can push through such harsh times.
Jones has signed off that his voice can be used even if he’s no longer directly involved, and Lucasfilm still continues to credit him for it even if he didn’t sit in a recording booth to bring the voice to life. It does also set a rather curious question regarding the future of actor’s being used in projects even if they’ve passed away.
Marvel did recently acquire the rights tod o the same with Stan Lee even if we’ve not seen what exactly that’ll entail quite yet. The co-creator of Marvel has been an avid fan of appearing in the media for years, and it does seem like something he’d love to see continue even after his passing but there’s a bitter question to be asked about using someone’s existence long after they’ve passed. We’ll have to see how these kinds of topics will be handled in the future.
Source: Vanity Fair
Jurassic World Dominion has officially passed the lucrative threshold of earning over a billion dollars at the worldwide box office. For a film that was released in June, it took a more gradual time period than most films to reach this milestone. Nonetheless, it’s certainly notable being only the third film to gross one billion since the pandemic began. One of the two is Top Gun: Maverick, which remains well ahead of Dominion as the highest-grossing film of 2022 thus far.
The assumed final installment of the Jurassic World saga completes the trilogy’s ability to earn over $1B globally. The total earnings from the trilogy are currently at $6.02B. Jurassic World Dominion is also the seventh film from Universal to reach this financial milestone.
Overall, this has been a banner year from Universal at the box office between Dominion, family films in Minions: Rise of Gru and The Bad Guys, and horror films in The Black Phone and Nope. Between all of these films, Universal has passed the threshold of over three billion dollars at the global box office this year. They are the first studio to reach that financial milestone since 2019.
And the film studio is far from finished with new releases this year. Of note, Bros, Tar, Ticket to Paradise, She Said, Puss n’ Boots: The Last Wish, and The Fabelmans (which just won the Toronto International Film Festival’s People’s Choice Award) are all set to release by the end of 2022.
In terms of upcoming films that have the potential to join Dominion and Maverick in one billion earned globally, Black Panther: Wakanda Forever and Avatar: The Way of Water seems to stand the best chance to be financial needle-movers for Disney by year’s end.
Source: Deadline
As Avatar begins its official theatrical re-release in the United States, the James Cameron-directed film has thus far earned over $3.5 million in the international box office. The film has so far been released in 37 different global markets. In relation to other theatrical re-releases, Avatar has earned 57% more than Star Wars: The Phantom Menace did at this point in 2012. Though it has underperformed by 29% in comparison to the 3D release of James Cameron’s other financial juggernaut in Titanic during 2012’s Easter season.
The relaunch of Avatar in movie theaters comes just under three months before the highly anticipated sequel project Avatar: The Way of Water arrives. To help drum up interest in the re-release, the original Avatar film has been temporarily removed from the Disney+ streaming platform. The results of this attempt to drum up interest in the franchise could be an indicator of how The Way of Water will be received by audiences by December of this year.
After well over a decade, questions were had about if Avatar would indeed have any future installments. However, audiences should prepare for an onslaught of new films in the franchise with three additional films arriving in 2024, 2026, and 2028 respectively.
Avatar: The Way of Water is set to open theatrically on December 16, 2022, and stars Sam Worthington, Zoe Saldana, Sigourney Weaver, Stephen Lang, and Kate Winslet.
Source: Deadline
Black Panther: Wakanda Forever is closer than ever, and it looks like Marvel Studios is pushing its marketing into overdrive. We’ve already gotten some teases of the main cast and even Iornheart’s more comic-accurate costume in the past but it seems some more merchandise has found its way online through @MCU_Facility on Twitter.
It doesn’t offer much new but does once again highlight the designs of the various main characters. The latest addition is a pin for what could be a logo for the Atlanteans, or the Marvel Cinematic Universe take on it. Namor is prominently showcased wearing a Jaguar-inspired crown and it does seem like they are sticking to that very design as part of their logo.
The Jaguar shouting as part of its design could be a showcase of Narmor’s people being on the attack in the upcoming project but likely also just an easier way to add a distinguishing factor between the offered designs. Black Panther’s logo is a different style altogether and it’s great to see how Marvel is using the character’s in-universe mythology inspired by the real-world to add some distinguishing designs.
Riri Williams is also prominently showcased and gets her own logo, which is likely the updated Arc Reactor version of her armor’s heart piece. It’s distinctive enough with the heart shape form and what looks like a rabbit design on top. It’s still unclear what her role will be in the film but it’s certainly interesting how big of a part she has in the film’s promotion. Perhaps we’ll get a tease of her proto-armor in the next trailer.
Source: Twitter
Following the announcement of Jodie Foster and Kali Reis leading the fourth season of True Detective, HBO has begun filling out the ensemble for the series. John Hawes, Christopher Eccleston, Fiona Shaw, Finn Bennett, and Anna Lambe are all set to take part in the hit premium series.
The fourth season has the official title of True Detective: Night Country. The season is said to follow Detectives Liz Danvers (played by Foster) and Evangeline Navarro (played by Reis) as they investigate the mysterious disappearance of six research station workers without a trace. Night Country promises a deep dive into the dark mysteries of both eternally icy Alaskan wilderness and the personal struggles of the protagonists. Below is a description of each of the newly revealed ensemble members for the season.
True Detective: Night Country is currently in the pre-production phase. With that in mind, it wouldn’t be out of the realm of possibility to believe the new season will be released on HBO and HBO Max by late 2023 to early 2024.
Source: Variety
Don’t Worry Darling looks to be showing promising signs for its box office performance. The Olivia Wilde-directed film has opened to over three million dollars from preview screenings between Monday’s IMAX fan screenings and Thursday’s official opening. The film was initially projected by Warner Bros to open with a total of approximately $17 million in its first weekend, however, industry sources have begun leaning towards a $25+ million opening.
This would definitely be a positive for the studio following what has been a harsh review season for Don’t Worry Darling, which currently sits at 36% with critics on Rotten Tomatoes. And audiences appear to be skewing more positive with an 87% approval rating on the website. Don’t Worry Darling stacks up relatively well in relation to other notable past releases such as House of Gucci and Get Out’s preview openings of $1.3M and $1.8M.
While initially being a highly anticipated second feature outing for rising star director Olivia Wilde, much of the intrigue in the past month has been based around ample amounts of tabloid-esque controversy surrounding the project. This includes the disputed nature of Shia LaBeouf‘s exit from the film, rumored conflict between Wilde and star actress Florence Pugh, and potential that Harry Styles spit on Chris Pine at the Venice Film Festival (which has been proven false).
Overall, following the rumored production and publicity nightmares of the film, Warner Bros could end up finding Don’t Worry Darling to be a commercial success for a studio in desperate need of financial gains.
Source: Deadline
