Murphy's Multiverse

Category: News

  • ‘Never Let Me Go’ to Receive Television Adaptation

    ‘Never Let Me Go’ to Receive Television Adaptation

    Never Let Me Go is heading to the small screen.

    The critically acclaimed novel by Kazuo Ishiguro, Never Let Me Go, is being developed as a series for FX. This will mark the second adaptation of the novel following the 2010 film starring Carey Mulligan, Keira Knightley and Andrew Garfield. The FX series is being developed by The Nevers writer Melissa Iqbal.

    Never Let Me Go tells the story of Kathy, Ruth, and Tommy, students at the exclusive Hailsham boarding school in the English countryside. As these characters move into adulthood, they come to know the reality they’ve known all of their lives is a lie. They’ve been told they’re special for their entire lives, and when they finally come to understand why, it reshapes them and their time together.

    The film version of Never Let Me Go wasn’t a box office hit. It only earned $9.9 million on a $15 million budget. It was directed by Mark Romanek from a screenplay by Alex Garland. Interestingly enough, DNA Films and Fox Searchlight, both of which were behind the feature film, will produce the television series.

    As it stands, no cast is attached to the project.

    Source: Deadline.

  • F. Murray Abraham on Khonshu and ‘Moon Knight’

    F. Murray Abraham on Khonshu and ‘Moon Knight’

    While Oscar Isaac is the star of Marvel Studios’ Moon Knight, there’s no denying how well F. Murray Abraham does at injecting life into the god Khonshu. In a brand new interview with Marvel, the Academy Award-winning actor discusses what it was like to bring the character to life and how he became involved with the project. Per Abraham, he was approached by Marvel Studios directly to voice the character, which was a pleasant surprise for the legendary actor.

    “They approached me, they called me. I don’t know how they got around to it, but I was delighted because I thought it was fun.” Abraham went on to explain what caused him to ultimately take the role, noting he loved the surprises it offered. “The idea that these creatures that keep appearing out of mythology seem absolutely plausible. I think that’s part of the magic of the piece. It’s all vaguely possible. Going to Egypt and going to the tombs and to the pyramids, it makes it kind of a reality, I think. What do you think?”

    The actor, who came onto the project late, also revealed Marvel hadn’t told him much about the character when he was approached. Instead, the studio opted to show him some of what they’d done already and asked if he’d be able to come up with a voice for the character of Khonshu. “It’s an outrageous character as far as I’m concerned. I hate to say this, because, well, it’s an actor’s ego, but I think he’s just one of the very loveliest characters in the whole piece.”

    For the actor, the most exciting part of it all was that he got to play around with the voicework. He was able to provide feedback and rerecord if they felt there was a better way to approach some of the lines. It was an overall very collaborative process that he was glad to be a part of.

    While a second season hasn’t been announced, Abraham is more than ready to return to the character should more seasons occur. For him, he views Moon Knight – and super heroes – as a glimmer of hope in an often less than hopeful world. “In this poor old world that we’re living in, finally there are truly Super Heroes. To use that old expression in other, modern terms, these Super Heroes really are trying to accomplish good. That’s so important. I can’t tell you how important that is. It makes things a little more hopeful. And we could surely use some hope these days, don’t you think?”

    All six episodes of Moon Knight are now streaming on Disney+.

    Source: Marvel.

  • Michael Waldron Confirms Tom Cruise Was Never in ‘Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness’

    Michael Waldron Confirms Tom Cruise Was Never in ‘Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness’

    Ever since Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness was announced, rumors have run rampant about a variety of possible cameos in the movie. The biggest name attached to the film at any point was megastar Tom Cruise, who was heavily rumored to appear as an alternate version of Tony Stark in a sequence involving the multiversal Illuminati. Whispers about Cruise started after the internet revived the fact the actor was originally slated to play Iron Man in the 2008 Marvel Studios film, before Robert Downey Jr. was eventually cast in the role. However, the movie’s writer Michael Waldron revealed in a recent interview with Rolling Stone that, while the idea of exploring this other timeline did come up, the Top Gun lead never actually the filmed anything for the Marvel Cinematic Universe.

    Yeah, that was totally made up. I mean, there’s no cut footage of Tom Cruise!  But I love Tom Cruise, and I said to [Marvel Studios president] Kevin [Feige]  at one point, I was like, Could we get Tom Cruise’s Iron Man? I remember reading about that in Ain’t It Cool News back in the day, that Tom Cruise was going to be Iron Man… As it was being talked about online, I was like, Yeah, that’d be cool!

    Michael Waldron

    When pressed to reveal if Cruise had even been contacted about the opportunity, Waldron explained that the actor was already busy working on other projects:

    Well, I mean, he was shooting Mission Impossible 7 and 8… I don’t believe so. I just don’t think it was ever an option, because of availability.

    Michael Waldron

    While sort of anticlimactic, these quotes should put to rest any speculation that Cruise was cut from the film’s final product. Luckily, there are plenty of exciting surprises that did make the movie, and you can see them for yourself in theaters now.

    Source: Rolling Stone

  • John Krasinski-led ‘Jack Ryan’ Series to End With Season 4, Spinoff in Development

    John Krasinski-led ‘Jack Ryan’ Series to End With Season 4, Spinoff in Development

    Here’s a surprise, it looks like the popular adaptation of Tom Clancy’s Jack Ryan will come to an end with its fourth season on Amazon Prime. John Krasinski was leading the series and also is an executive producer role, as he continues work on the final season that is currently being filmed. While it will end the series that Paramount TV Studios, Skydance TV, and Amazon Studios have been working on for a while, they are currently already eyeing a spinoff series.

    It seems that the character of Domingo “Ding” Chavez, who will be played by Michael Peña, will get his own series to further continue the Tom Clancy franchise. He’ll be introduced in the season finale of Season 3 and become a full-time cast member in its final season. It seems that these won’t release for some time and it is the reason that the third season hasn’t received a release date just yet. According to Deadline, it seems that we shouldn’t expect a new season by 2023.

    The interesting surprise comes from the fact that Krasinski has seemingly signed on for four seasons from the get-go. So, they may have mapped out this upcoming season as its end for some time now. There have been many Jack Ryan’s in the past, who was played by Chris Pine, Ben Affleck, Harrison Ford, and Alec Baldwin. While it was a big role to step in, Krasinski also took on a bigger role throughout his work on the series, as he also took on a showrunner-esque role in the latter seasons. For now, we can only continue to wait for more details as they continue to work on the series.

    Source: Deadline

  • REPORT ‘Daredevil’ & Co. May be Heading to Disney+ Brazil in June

    REPORT ‘Daredevil’ & Co. May be Heading to Disney+ Brazil in June

    While being surprised that the Marvel Netflix series wasn’t seeing an international release, they are slowly starting to roll them out in other countries. While there’s no official reveal on the official Twitter account, a Twitter user by the name of @almanaquedisney has shared a familiar visual to those that were hyped when the Marvel Netflix series were making their way to Disney+ stateside.

    According to them, Daredevil, Jessica Jones, Iron Fist, and the rest of the Defenders will make their way to Disney+ Brazil on June 29th. They will also come with the same parental controls as the United States got with their initial release. There is currently still no word if it’ll also find its way to European countries around the same time, as there was a statement from the Netherlands that hinted at a June release. So, we might see a similar release date. The release has not yet been officially released on the official Twitter page and may have only been shared through a newsletter.

    Here’s hoping an official statement drops soon, but the June release is motivating that the series will be made available for all Disney+ subscribers at some point. It’s still surprising that there has been a delay with an international release, especially as those countries with the Star branding already have a function age restriction service built-in. So, we’ll see if more countries get the announcement in the coming weeks.

    Source: Twitter

  • Elizabeth Olsen’s Wanda Won’t Appear in Agatha’s ‘WandaVision’ Spinoff

    Elizabeth Olsen’s Wanda Won’t Appear in Agatha’s ‘WandaVision’ Spinoff

    WandaVision may have set up Scarlet Witch’s storyline going into Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness, but it also set up a new spinoff focused on Kathryn Hahn‘s Agatha Harkness. The fittingly titled Agatha: House of Harkness will continue the storyline of the now-trapped Agatha, who is still stuck living in Westview. It made us wonder if we might expect a return of Elizabeth Olsen to that series, but she swiftly debunked it in an interview with Good Morning America.

    I mean, I would do anything with Hahn, yeah. No, I’m not appearing in it, not as far as I’m aware, but I love that woman so much. That entire show was just filled with lots of joy, it was great.

    Elizabeth Olsen

    While it’s a shame they won’t build upon their relationship from the previous entry, given how Multiverse of Madness ends it does seem unlikely she might show up in that series. Of course, it’s also great to use this as a way to further explore Agatha as a character on her own terms rather than just continue their relationship as the basis of her entire character dynamic. Even the Echo spinoff is fully moving away from Hawkeye even if that’s the series she was introduced in. So, we’ll see just what the future has in store for Agatha moving forward.

    Source: YouTube via The Direct

  • ‘Doctor Strange 2’ Ends Weekend as 11th Biggest Domestic Opening of All-Time

    ‘Doctor Strange 2’ Ends Weekend as 11th Biggest Domestic Opening of All-Time

    While Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness remained shy of the $190M opening weekend, it did make quite a few waves by finishing at $187M. That is a small adjustment of $2M over the Sunday, but an increase is actually a good sign for the film’s legs with a B+ Audience CinemaScore rating. Worldwide, the film made a splash with $449.4M at the bo office, making almost half a billion in just its opening weekend. It’s an exciting prospect for theater owners that have been worried about just how long the pandemic would affect their business.

    The film is not only Sam Raimi‘s biggest opening ever, but it’s now also the 11th biggest domestic opening in history and the seventh right behind Avengers: Age of Ultron, which was at $181.3M. As such, it’s the best performing second entry in a solo outing with Spider-Man: No Way Home holding the title for third entry with $260.1M. It’s now the second-best domestic release of the year and on its path to overtaking The Batman, which also garnered a fantastic $369.1M to date.

    On Friday, it took in $90M which puts it as the seventh-biggest opening of all time, and entered the Top 10 best opening days for any MCU flick. While it’s likely going to be quite frontloaded, if it manages o keep a similar momentum that is seen with horror entries, we might be looking at a stronghold over the next weeks, but likely will echo a similar drop as Age of Ultron did.

    Internationally, the film has pulled in $262.4M, which saw a slight adjustment down from its early Sunday estimates, which kept it at the overall worldwide release estimates. It’s now the sixth-highest opening worldwide going by like-by-like territories, which is no small accomplishment without a Chinese release. South Korea has been slowly becoming one of Marvel’s strongest opening locations with a massive $30M over the weekend.

    Source: Hollywood Reporter

  • ‘Moon Knight’s Jeremy Slater Offers Update on ‘Mortal Kombat’ Sequel

    ‘Moon Knight’s Jeremy Slater Offers Update on ‘Mortal Kombat’ Sequel

    Now that head writer Jeremy Slater has finished work on Moon Knight, he’s already hard at work on his next major project. In an interview with The Direct, he offered a small update on the sequel of 2021’s Mortal Kombat film. While it wasn’t received warmly going by its Rotten Tomatoes rating but that hasn’t stopped it from becoming HBO Max’s most-watched film to date. In the interview, he reveals that they’re already “halfway through the script.”

    It’s really fun so far. We’re about halfway through the script. I’m working really closely with the director and the studios, and the game guys, and I think—I can’t say anything about the actual story, but I think they definitely learned some lessons the last time around in terms of, ‘Here’s the stuff fans responded to, and here’s what people liked out of the movie, and here’s the stuff that didn’t work out as well as we hoped.’ So we’re really looking at this as a chance to take everything that worked in the first one and do it even better and give the audience even more, and make something that is just incredibly satisfying, and really exciting, and unpredictable.

    Jeremy Slater

    When asked how it might compare to his work on Moon Knight, he does highlight that it’ll keep his “sensibilities” but it definitely will continue what makes Mortal Kombat such an iconic series, its showcase of brutal takedowns of its heroes and villains.

    I don’t think it’s necessarily going to have the same tone as the MCU, but it’s definitely going to have some of my sensibilities. That was part of my pitch to them. This is Mortal Kombat. We have guys who are ripping off their faces and breathing fire—it’s a weird universe, let’s embrace some of that weirdness, and let’s make a Mortal Kombat sequel that no one is expecting and that can kind of sneak in and blow everyone away. We’re still really early in that process, but I’m having a blast with this script

    Jeremy Slater

    The first film ended with a massive teaser of Johnny Cage finding his way into the film. It also only set up the actual Mortal Kombat tournament, as it was mostly a very Hollywood-esque prequel series leading into the main conflict from the games. Luckily, they are now unshackled and can potentially jump into it in the next film if that is the plan, as they could also be building up towards it by the end of a trilogy.

    Source: The Direct

  • Elizabeth Olsen Gives Her Thoughts on Those Claiming Marvel is a ‘Lesser Type of Art’

    Elizabeth Olsen Gives Her Thoughts on Those Claiming Marvel is a ‘Lesser Type of Art’

    There’s been an ongoing debate on the Internet ever since Martin Scorcese made a remark on how he views Marvel films, which originally was meant as a general view on the superhero industry that ended up focused on its strongest contender. Of course, the opinion of a veteran in the industry has left some waves with others jumping on board or even going against it, such as Nicolas Cage openly disagreeing with his uncle, Francis Ford Coppola, who shares a similar view to Scorcese on the matter.

    Yet, the debate goes on even if there’s no real benefit to anyone in “winning” the argument. With the release of Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness, Elizabeth Olsen also threw her thoughts into the ring and highlighted an important aspect that gets overlooked in the discussion. Downplaying Marvel films as a “lesser type of art” as she puts it also diminishes the work of the people involved with the projects.

    I’m not saying we’re making indie art films, but I just think it takes away from our crew, which bugs me. These are some of the most amazing set designers, costume designers, camera operators — I feel diminishing them with that kind of criticism takes away from all the people who do award-winning films, that also work on these projects

    Elizabeth Olsen

    She goes on to highlight that naturally, your approach as an actor is different as it is a different kind of film, to begin with. She once again highlights that throwing Marvel under the bus to somehow drag a wealth of talent down due to something one doesn’t deem art isn’t a fair discussion.

    From an actor’s point of view, whatever, I get it; I totally understand that there’s a different kind of performance that’s happening. But I do think throwing Marvel under the bus takes away from the hundreds of very talented crew people. That’s where I get a little feisty about that.

    Elizabeth Olsen

    There likely is never going to be an end to this discussion, as one takes away what they want from the points made by various industry experts and those creatives working within the industry. Olsen‘s words ring important after a viral video has been making the round taking a quote of her facing anxiety with every new entry as some kind of statement on Marvel’s releases.

    The same interview from Independent highlights that, as she simply tries to avoid the “pressure” of being a project’s main focus. No matter how one feels about the films and Marvel Studios as a company, there are still many talented people that found their beginning there and go on to develop many more films.

    Source: Independent

  • Dave Bautista May Have Further Hinted at ‘Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3’ as His Final Appearance as Drax

    Dave Bautista May Have Further Hinted at ‘Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3’ as His Final Appearance as Drax

    announcing that they’ve wrapped work on the third entry of Guardians of the Galaxy, which has been heavily hinted at as James Gunn‘s last. The same set of photos with the cast hanging out to celebrate their work was now also shared by Dave Bautista, who has included a rather curious hashtag that may further add to the rumors that he’s potentially moving on from the role of Drax the Destroyer.

    In the latest post on Instagram, Bautista includes a reference on how surprising it “ended so suddenly” and that he’s already working on his next film project. Yet, the big surprise is the inclusion of a hashtag that states “#GoodbyeDrax.” Considering he’s hinted in the past that he’s nearing his end with the franchise, this may be some further evidence that he truly is moving on once we see Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3 next May.

    There have been many hints that the current version of the Guardians of the Galaxy will very likely come to an end with the third entry. We don’t know if we’ll further explore the galaxy with a different incarnation of this team, but it adds some tension to who might end up surviving the events of the film, as well as who will completely set out on their own adventure. The future still seems possible for some characters, it’s simply uncertain until we actually get to watch the film.

    Source: Instagram