Director Paul Feig‘s next film is ramping up for a March production and has landed a pair of stars to take the lead. John Cena and Awkwafina have signed on for Feig’s new film, which will be produced by Amazon.
The untitled production is set to follow the adventures of Awkwafina’s character who after winning the lottery becomes the target of the desperate population of a near future where her winnings could be claimed by anyone who kills her before the end of the day. As she seeks to survive until sundown, Katie finds herself under the protection of Cena’s character, who works for a professional protection agency.
Awkwafina pictured with John Cena during the premiere of Crazy Rich Asians. Getty Images
Feig, the director of Bridesmaids and 2016’s Ghostbusters, will also serve as an executive producer on the film along with Laura Fischer, Jeff Kirschenbaum and Zack Roth, all of whom worked with Feig on Netflix’s The School for Good and Evil. No release date or platform has been announced for the film.
A day after it was announced that Adult Swim has cut ties with Rick & Morty co-creator Justin Roiland, Hulu has decided to follow suit. Roiland, who voiced Rick & Morty on the Adult Swim series, also helped to co-create Solar Opposites for Hulu. Solar Opposites, renewed for a fourth season, will continue, but Roiland will no longer be attached due to his domestic assault charge.
The news was announced on Wednesday with The Hollywood Reporter confirming that Roiland’s overall deal with 20th Century Animation is also no more. “We have ended our association with Justin Roiland,” Hulu and 20th TV Animation revealed in a statement to the press.
With 20th Century Animation and Hulu cutting ties with Roiland, he will also no longer be involved in Koala Man. That series recently launched on Hulu and hails from creator Michael Cusack and showrunners Benji Samit and Dan Hernandez. Roiland has also willingly resigned from Squanch Games, the video game developer he helped to co-found.
While Rick & Morty is set to recast the titular characters for the remaining 40 episodes left from the show’s renewal back in 2018*, Hulu hasn’t officially announced its plans regarding who will voice Korvo in future episodes of Solar Opposites. (The renewal for Rick & Morty at the time was for 70 episodes overall.)
A dangerous quest for a mythical item through unknown territory, fortune favoring the bold, complex puzzle solving, major characters splitting up in a dark tunnel system, an explosive third act, and a terrifying monster guarding valuable treasure that contains a hidden purpose. All of these elements sound like the key ingredients for a classic Uncharted adventure, but in actuality, they’re far from it. So far, far away, one might even say they’re in another galaxy. The aforementioned story traits actually come from this week’s episode of Star Wars: The Bad Batch, which does its best to replicate the intrepid wonderment of the famed video game franchise and, more specifically, its genre.
Titled Entombed, the fifth episode of The Bad Batch‘s second season sees its titular group of rag-tag runaways searching for a lost treasure alongside Wanda Sykes‘ Phee Genoa, a pirate associate of their benefactor, Rhea Perlman‘s Cid. Their journey, and the obstacles they encounter, are obviously designed to evoke the quintessential Lucasfilm feeling of adventure, likely with Star Wars‘ sister franchise Indiana Jones in mind. However, the execution and outcome of their experience fall more in line with Naughty Dog’s aforesaid Uncharted series, specifically in how it uses its plot to convey its ultimate message. The Uncharted games, and tangentially their film adaptation, always end the same way – with the heroes giving up their newfound discoveries and riches for the benefit of the world and those they love.
Entombed does more or less the same thing, with a wide-eyed Omega and her grumpier adult counterparts allowing a ticket to a wealthier life to slip past them in an effort to keep each other, and the galaxy, alive and well. This is something that The Bad Batch has done before, as recently as this season’s premiere episodes, but its blunt framing and straightforward narrative in Entombed work in conjunction to drive the point home with greater relative ease. Also, plainly put, it’s a lot of fun to watch Omega, Hunter, Wrecker, Tech, and Echo go treasure hunting because Star Wars has always and will always work best as a science-fiction take on pulp storytelling.
It’s been enjoyable to see the creatives behind the series break formula this season and apply the age-old recipe for Star Wars success to multiple different genres. The result has been a fairly entertaining early group of Bad Batch escapades, but unfortunately, the show’s biggest issue remains. Entombed, for all its likability, still does very little to progress the series or its characters as a whole. It often feels like the series is going in circles, with Omega and the crew learning the same lessons on repeat, and never truly moving forward to their next stage. It’s difficult to stay invested in characters that don’t change, and it’s frustrating when every episode comes with several opportunities to make it happen.
Entombed might have been more exciting if, as an example, it also laid the groundwork for Omega to take a future interest in treasure hunting herself, as many of the episode’s best moments involved her growing ingenuity and childlike amazement. The potential behind this show is there and is evident in thrilling stories like this one, but The Bad Batch is still just one cohesive throughline short of living up to its predecessors’ standards. Even so, it proves itself an interesting, easily-digestible, adventure-of-the-week style project on a weekly basis. If that’s all one is looking for in this, they’ve found it in spades.
Since Marvel’s Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. was canceled in 2020 after a seven-season run, fans of the ABC melodrama have pined for a number of the show’s stars to reprise their roles in the Marvel Cinematic Universe. Leading the pack of those that fans wish to see return is Chloe Bennet, who played the role of Inhuman Daisy Johnson/Quake. Now it seems like they might get their wish.
Rumors have swirled recently that Bennet, who recently voiced Yi on the Hulu streaming animated series Abominable and the Invisible City, was tapped to join the MCU in an unnamed future project. While responding to online criticism of her performance in Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D., Bennet seemed to confirm those rumors and indicate that she’d be reprising the role of Quake in the MCU.
Bennet’s response stemmed from a response to a question that evolved into a nearly day-long conversation about her role on Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. The conversation began when Charles Murphy was asked the following question “So I get that you’re trolling. But if they were to reintroduce Quake as a mutant like what they did with Kamala, do you (with your expertise) think would she still be played by Chloe Bennett or a new actress?” Murphy responded by saying, “I’ve said this before and will say until I see something to change my mind: I can’t imagine Bennet sharing the screen with talent like Florence Pugh, Hailee Steinfeld or Samuel L. Jackson (could keep going). Just not the same caliber of actress.” The responses to those tweets and other parts of the online dialogue ultimately reached Bennet who responded to Murphy in a Quote Tweet.
hey man, you seem like a…mean loser?also, i have a strong feeling your tweets aren’t going to age well
Chloe Bennet
hey man, you seem like a…mean loser?also, i have a strong feeling your tweets aren’t going to age well 😬😎 https://t.co/hHREgcQz7c
It’s a fascinating way for Bennet to seemingly reveal her return to the role. Marvel Studios is renowned for keeping a lid on castings; for talent to reveal their role as part of an online dispute is unprecedented. In the Fall of 2022, an Instagram post by Bennet had fans fired up about a potential appearance in Marvel Studios Secret Invasion, a possibility the actress put to rest by saying “I am in no way attached or involved, even at all or a little bit, in the Secret Invasion Marvel thing. I honestly don’t even know really what that is.” If that statement is to be taken at face value, something that can’t always be done with talent working on Marvel Studios’ projects, then Bennet’s return to the MCU might be a bit further out yet.
It looks like the number of times we’ll see Jonathan Majors‘ Kang is finally ramping up. After a brief tease in Loki‘s first season with He Who Remains, a new rumor is making the rounds that we’ll perhaps see another variation of the character appear in its upcoming second season. This would mark the third Variant we’ll meet as it’ll release after February’s Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania.
According to insider Daniel Richtman, it seems that the upcoming second season of Loki will offer a new Variant that is “an inventor in the past.” It seems he buys things that’ll affect the future and it’s Loki’s job to stop him. Given we see a version of Kang the Conqueror in command of the Time Variance Authority, he might be using them to hunt down other versions of himself that are affecting the multiverse.
Richtman also goes on to highlight that he’s unsure if this is Victor Timely, a version of Nathaniel Richards from the comics and also known as “Prime Kang” but that “it is likely him.” The character is known as the one who ends up forming the town of Timely which would eventually blossom into Chronopolis, which is theorized to be the city we visit in Quantumania.
It’ll definitely be interesting to see how this develops, and if we might see even more versions of the character appear throughout the next few phases. Majors highlighted that the joy of Kang was that he can play different variations that allow him to explore different perspectives on the character. So, he’ll definitely jump at the opportunity to bring Victor Timely to life.
Rick and Morty will be looking for a new Rick and Morty. Co-Creator and the voice behind the show’s two main characters– and all their variants–Justin Roiland has been cut loose by Adult Swim. The series will continue without Roiland, who was recently charged with felony domestic abuse.
Rick and Morty was created by Roiland alongside Dan Harmon. It become so popular that Adult Swim made an ambitious 70-episode order back in 2018. At this point, that deal hasn’t even hit its halfway mark and the controversy surrounding Roiland had many wondering how exactly they’ll move forward.
It seems that the series order is not going to get dropped anytime soon and rather they’ll simply recast the voices of the maniac genius Rick and his grandson Morty. There’s no statement if they already started the process of finding the successor, but they’ll likely try to move forward as fast as possible.
We also don’t know if they’ll keep some existing recordings from Roiland or completely replace any work he may have done for the next season of the series. The last episode of Season 6 released in December and we’ll have to see how far along the next season already is.
Of course, Rick and Morty isn’t the only project that Roiland is involved with, such as his work on a variety of characters in High on Life. There’s also his other spinoff series Solar Opposites, where he voices Korvo and the recently released KoalaMan. For now, we’ll have to wait for more information to arrive on the other projects.
Netflix is no stranger to shorter season episode counts, as they reshaped the way drama and comedy series would be structured. The once 22-episode runs from broadcasts started to go down to the famous 13-episode era that kicked off when Daredevil was released. Yet, we’ve seen that episode count continue to decline with more ten-episode seasons and as of late, a focus on eight episodes.
As it turns out though, this isn’t something that a group of creatives indirectly decided together but rather a new mandate set by Netflix. Warrior Nun showrunner Simon Barry revealed it in an interview with Be More Super Podcast that around the time they were writing their second season, that mandate was introduced and allowed them to adapt their scripts.
We knew it was going to be eight in the writing room because the Netflix mandate wasn’t a budget thing. It was Netflix shifting all their shows to eight-episode seasons, their studio shows I should say, not the shows they acquire and broadbust but the ones they make inhouse as a studio. So, we knew that Netflix decided to make this shift across the board but it wasn’t something Warrior Nun was being punished for anything, we existed long enough to see it go from 10 to 8 for everyone.
Simon Barry
The first season of Warrior Nun was still part of the ten-episode era and many worried that perhaps the episode reduction was due to some criticism of that first entry. Yet, it seems they merely swiftly adjusted before entering production and had to rewrite the entire show; even if that sadly didn’t help them from getting canceled after the second season was released back in November.
Given the timing, this news also matches with our exclusive a year ago that the live-action One Piece series has also reduced its episode count to eight. It was initially announced with ten episodes all the way back in 2020 but the timing would match with the new mandate. The Witcher also was quite a success with that same episode count back in 2019 and may have inspired the new standard.
Marvel Studios has been in the focus for a variety of reasons. No matter where one lands, the discussion may never truly end especially on the wide vast internet. Still, there are many sides to any production company, and it seems that the former Game of Thrones star has some kind words for Marvel Studios.
In a new interview with IndieWire, Emilia Clarke got a chance to look back at her past with Disney’s other major franchise Star Wars while also sharing some excitement about her time with Secret Invasion. It seems that she’d a “wicked time” working with them and calls them “absolutely brilliant.”
I’m genuinely having a wicked time on Marvel, though, they’re absolutely brilliant.
Emilia Clarke
It’s certainly high praise for Marvel Studios, which has tended to be under flack from Social Media and some industry experts. Some veteran directors even take shots at the modern blockbuster style that these comic book film adaptations offer. Ethan Hawke did point out that the studio “loves actors“ and their studio approach gives the various directors that work on their films more flexibility in adapting elements by normalizing reshoots.
The biggest issue facing Marvel Studios has been the growing demand for CG work on their projects and with last-minute changes happening frequently, it adds more pressure to an industry that has a difficult model similar to marketing agencies. Not everything is as black and white but it always remains interesting to see just how varied experiences are on any project in Hollywood.
Netflix hasn’t been doing its best at keeping enthusiasm alive for the streaming service. After canceling quite a few shows, it almost feels like a rarity when one does eventually make its return. Luckily, the ambitious and beautiful The Sandman was able to get that rare Season 2 renewal and is already preparing to start production on its second season according to Mason Alexander Park, who recently offered some insight into what’s heading our way during the Fan Expo in San Francisco.
Park plays Desire in the DC series, who has a big role going into the next part of the series. During the panel, they highlight though that there’s a reason this won’t be called “Season 2” as it traditionally would. So, we’ll have to see what they’ll title this continuation but they do highlight that production is set to start this summer.
There is more Sandman coming in a really cool way and it can take many forms, so we’re starting shooting in the summer and we’re gonna tackle the next huge chunk of stories in however long that might take. And I’m really excited to share the format of what that might be with everybody eventually.
Mason Alexander Park
The highlight of the format of this continuation does sound interesting and perhaps they will split the seasons up according to various story elements to keep the tale of Morpheus coming out in multiple steps. We had the additional episodes that expanded the original series and there’s also the fact that Netflix experiments with establishing two distinct parts for some of their biggest releases. So, we might see this trend continue.
In the age of biopics based on pop music icons of the 20th century, one potential project is officially not moving forward. It’s been announced that the Madonna-based film is no longer in development at Universal Pictures. The film was to be directed by the pop icon herself, but the recent announcement of Madonna’s new world tour officially axed the project from happening. However, some Hollywood sources noted that the decision to cancel the biopic was already made at the end of 2022. Madonna also co-wrote the script for the project alongside Erin Cressida Wilson with Amy Pascal set to produce.
Much was made about the grueling audition process for playing Madonna in the now-canceled film. It’s been said that the months-long experience was akin to a boot camp, including 11-hour days consisting of dancing, acting, and singing with Madonna and her choreographers. Numerous young stars in Hollywood and the music industry such as Florence Pugh, Odessa Young, Emma Laird, Bebe Rexha, and Sky Ferreira were in contention for the role. Ultimately, Julia Garner (of Ozark fame) was the front-runner to take on the part of the iconic singer, but it seemingly will not come to be.
The biopic was first announced in 2020 and was set to cover the decades-long career of Madonna in the worlds of music and fashion. However, new reports have come out about the tumultuous process to get the script together. All versions of the script were well over 180 pages, with issues to parse down Madonna’s career into an individual film. Some discussions were had about adapting her life story into a two-part saga or even a limited series. Though as it stands now, the project is not moving forward in any way at Universal Pictures.
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