Murphy's Multiverse

Blog

  • Amy Pascal Looks Back at 2002’s ‘Spider-Man’ Ahead of its 20th Anniversary

    Amy Pascal Looks Back at 2002’s ‘Spider-Man’ Ahead of its 20th Anniversary

    In a new article by Variety, they take a look back at the original Spider-Man release. It’s filled to the brim with interviews from all the creatives behind the project that would reinvent the modern-day superhero film. Producer Avi Arad highlights how they were looking into innovating through new cameras to bring the swinging to life, or generally how they can approach the project. Sam Raimi talks about ensuring that audiences went into the film “believing that Peter Parker exists and investing wholly into his heart and matters of his soul. And sharing that drama with the audience.“

    Amy Pascal, a long-time producer of the franchise, also shared just how different the landscape was when they worked on this project and tried to bring a character that was seen by studios as “old” even if that was purely due to his comic history. IPs also weren’t the main focus at the time, as genre films were the dominant type that is mainly focused on throughout the industry.

    We didn’t have a lot of those kinds of characters, but in those days, to be honest, I didn’t really think about things that way. You know, nobody talked about IP. Nobody said “content.” Nobody said you need superhero movies. People didn’t talk like that. We fell in love with Peter Parker. I am not a comic book person. I wasn’t thinking, “Oh, my God, all my life I’ve wanted to make comic book movies.” What I was thinking is “This is a really fantastic character.

    Amy Pascal

    “Content” truly wasn’t even a wording at the time before Social Media, streaming services and so much more. So, the landscape was much harsher as it wouldn’t be a long-time before anyone within the industry would redefine what it means to be a comic book adaptation. Marvel Studios has redefined the genre back in 2008, but it also took a few years before they would embrace the success they currently have. But, it’s crazy to think that it all started back in 2002 and would eventually snowball into a franchise of this size.

    Source: Variety

  • Star Wars is a No-Show at This Year’s CinemaCon

    Star Wars is a No-Show at This Year’s CinemaCon

    Sometimes it’s the thing that isn’t said that is the most telling, as it seems that Lucasfilm and Star Wars were a no-show at this year’s CinemaCon conference held by Disney. While Marvel Studios got its own segment to show off some footage of their upcoming films and talk about plans for the next ten years, Star Wars was not even referenced. @GermainLussier shared that they did have a slate line-up that only went into early 2023. As the next film release is Rogue Squadron in late 2023, it’s still bizarre they wouldn’t offer an update or tease what the future has in store for

    While they have no immediate plans and it seems most of CinemaCon is focused primarily on 2022 as well as the beginning of 2023, you’d think they want to highlight one of their biggest IPs. Marvel Studios, Pixar, and 20th Century took the stage for a bit, but that was it. There’s been some concern about Star Wars‘ future as a film franchise, especially on how quiet Lucasfilm has been since 2019’s Investor’s Day.

    For now, it seems like we shouldn’t expect too much on the film side even going into this year’s Star Wars Celebration ceremony. It seemed like the perfect point to tease that something is brewing, but they may have also purposefully not mentioned anything to build-up to the suspense once something drops, especially as they already accidentally leaked the reveal of The Tales of the Jedi‘s animated series.

    Source: Twitter

  • ‘Avatar 2’ Gets a Title, First Footage to Release With ‘Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness’

    ‘Avatar 2’ Gets a Title, First Footage to Release With ‘Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness’

    It’s been a long wait since any of the Avatar sequels picked up any momentum. While we did get some BTS pictures not too long ago, we still knew surprisingly very little about the project. Luckily, Disney went all out during the CinemaCon panel for this year and revealed that the next entry will be titled Avatar: The Way of Water. Not only that, but we’ll also get our first look at the same footage the attendees did alongside the theatrical release of Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness. So, it looks like we won’t have to wait that much longer until we get our first look at the franchise’s grand return.

    The title also further highlights the fact that the franchise is focusing more and more on exploring the different worlds of Pandora. We’ve seen quite a lot of water tanks as part of the production on this series and with The Way of Water as the title, it does open up the question how exactly they will balance the story with the world-building. While the first film had some impressive visuals, it did suffer a bit when it came to the story elements that was a bit bare bones throughout. So, here’s hoping that the exploration of Pandora’s depths doesn’t come at the cost of a compelling storyline to tie it all together.

    Source: Twitter

  • CinemaCon: Every ‘Avatar’ Sequel to Act as a Standalone Film

    CinemaCon: Every ‘Avatar’ Sequel to Act as a Standalone Film

    It looks like Disney is ending their CinemaCon panel with a grand showcase of the future of the Avatar franchise. Given that the film has clung to the top spot for a long-time, there’s a lot of hope for Disney to bank on that success. So, it seems that they are kick-starting the upcoming release of Avatar 2 with a re-release of the original in September. Yet, the big reveal during the event is that the three Avatar sequels being filmed back-to-back are currently planned as standalone films with some connections. There’s no detail on what that might look like, but they may try to simply explore the changes of Pandora throughout many generations.

    The first film is going to focus more the world beneath the waves of Pandora. So, it opens up many new opportunities to see just how vast the planet is and what it has to offer. We don’t know if we’ll continue to focus on humanoid characters or the local Na’vi, who are teased as part of concept art.

    Of course, they could also build upon the set-up of the first film yet with how long it took for this new film to hit theaters, they might want to use it as a time skip. Perhaps we get to see different Na’vi and their living arrangements that act as a contrast to what we saw in the 2009 original. For now, it’s just speculation until we actually get a tease of what the fil has to offer.

    Source: Twitter

  • CinemaCon: First ‘Lightyear’ Reactions Tease ‘Interstellar’ Vibes

    CinemaCon: First ‘Lightyear’ Reactions Tease ‘Interstellar’ Vibes

    CinemaCon has given us quite a few interesting teases of what’s to come with Marvel Studios, but they also used the opportunity to include quite a bit of footage for attendees. While e sadly won’t get to actually watch it ourselves, people luckily love sharing what they’re getting a chance to watch. Among the panels was also the first look at Lightyear, Pixar’s upcoming film that explores the story of Buzz Lightyear, which would inspire the toy.

    While the footage description isn’t detailed, it does seem like reactiosn towards the project are quite positive. Not only is the aspect of experiencing the film on a big silver screen again a nice touch, as most of Pixar films ended up on Disney+ throughout the pandemic, but it also is highilghted as an emotional yet dorky sci-fi film with Interstellar vibes.

    It’s great that the next Pixar film is finally making its way to theaters, and that, hopefully, remains this way moving forward. Lightyear is an interesting legacy title as it technically is a origin story for a character that inspired a toy. We already got an animated series that explored the story of Lightyear’s battle against Zurg, but the Pixar film is seemingly taking a very different route. The latest trailer revealed a unique story direction that may catch many off-guard that are actively avoiding any marketing for the film. Who knows if Woody will also get his own Western spinoff film if this turns out successful.

    Source: Twitter

  • BREAKING: Melissa McBride Exits Daryl and Carol-Focused ‘Walking Dead’ Spinoff

    BREAKING: Melissa McBride Exits Daryl and Carol-Focused ‘Walking Dead’ Spinoff

    It looks like it’s the season to leave projects behind. Just the other day, Fast X lost its director spiraling the production into an instant halt. The same is now happening to the AMC’s The Walking Dead series as the upcoming Daryl and Carol spinoff has lost one of its main stars. Melissa McBride, who plays Carol, has left the project and will now only focus on Norman Reedus‘ Daryl. It seems that the decision for her to leave the project was a creative one.

    The original project was announced back in September of 2020 but not much was known about the project outside of it starring Reedus and McBride. They were long-time cast members of the original series and the dynamic between them was something that kept many watching. Yet, it seems that Daryl is going to have to be on his own in his next adventure that is being created by Scott M. Gimple and Angela Kang.

    It’s quite shocking when a production loses one of its main stars, especially as they were ramping up work on the project as the original The Walking Dead is coming to an end. We’ll see how they’ll tackle the project and what it might mean for Carol’s future in the franchise. They might either simply have them separated due to an event, or perhaps they could even simply have them set out towards different goals. We’ll have to see once they start work on the project.

    Source: TV Line

  • Johan Renck Boards ’Dune’ Prequel Series as Director

    Johan Renck Boards ’Dune’ Prequel Series as Director

    HBO Max’s Dune prequel series has set a director.

    Johan Renck will direct the first two episodes of the Duneprequel series. The news comes courtesy of Variety, with the outlet reporting Renck will also serve as an executive producer on the project. The current title of the series is Dune: The Sisterhood, although the title does not seem to be set in stone. Denis Villeneuve was previously attached to direct the pilot for the series, however, as he’s busy with the second Dune film, he’s had to step down.

    The events of Dune: The Sisterhood take place approximately 10,000 years prior to the events of Dune. It focuses on the Harkonnen sisters as they “combat forces that threaten the future of humankind and establish the fabled sect known as the Bene Gesserit.” Dune, of course, proved to be a massive success for Warner Bros. upon release last year. Despite being released day and date on HBO Max, the film went on to earn $400 million at the worldwide box office. 

    This is not Renck’s first time working with HBO. He previously worked on the critical darling, Chernobyl, where he directed the entire series and served as an executive producer. His work on that series earned him an Emmy in the Best Directing for a Limited Series category. Prior to Chernobyl, Renck also helmed episodes of The Walking Dead, Breaking Bad, and Vikings. 

    Diane Ademu-John serves as the writer, showrunner and executive producer for Dune: The Sisterhood. As of now, no cast members have been announced.

    Source: Variety.

  • Wong and Strange Fight Gargantos in New Footage Description of ‘Multiverse of Madness’ From CinemaCon

    Wong and Strange Fight Gargantos in New Footage Description of ‘Multiverse of Madness’ From CinemaCon

    While the Disney panel kicked off with a sizzle reel, it didn’t take long for Marvel Studios to take the stage and share some details. Yet, that isn’t all as they also had some footage of Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness ready for those attending CinemaCon. It seems that they include footage of America Chavez meeting a Strange, very likely Defender Strange, before heading out and accidentally dragging a monster into the mainline MCU, which leads to some great action sequences featuring Wong, as shared by ScreenRant.

    Erik Davis has also shared a description revealing they saw 20 minutes of the film, which includes a few multiversal battle sequences, confirming that the one they fight is probably Gargantos, the MCU’s Shuma-Gorath, and it even includes a Spider-Man reference.

    So, it seems that we might have a good grasp of how the film opens up. At some point in her travels through the multiverse, America Chavez is going to stumble upon a Variant of Strange before accidentally bringing it to the Marvel Cinematic Universe that we’ve grown accustomed to. Though, it does open up the question what exactly are the events that drag that version of Strange into the multiverse as a result of these events, and will Gargantos even have a bigger part in the story to begin with.

    Source: Twitter

  • ‘Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness’ Already Made $42M in Pre-Sales

    ‘Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness’ Already Made $42M in Pre-Sales

    CinemaCon is the place to highlight the future of cinema, and it seems Disney is making a big splash with its even today. While we just got some footage showcased and even a tease for what the future has in store for fans. Yet, they also snuck in one major announcement as Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness has seemingly already made $42M in pre-sales to date according to the announcement made during the Disney panel.

    Our only comparison point for the presales is that Multiverse of Madness already outpaced The Batman, which was on its path to making around $800M. So, it seems almost like the film has a set path to manage a billion box office run. Yet, the film is also getting banned in some regions due to the inclusion of LGBTQ representation. Disney and Marvel Studios are staying true to their vision of the film.

    If there’s uncertainty, Spider-Man: No Way Home managed to almost hit $2 billion without even releasing it in China. So, who knows if the international market is changing into a new generation as the pandemic is slowly calming down and things are returning to somewhat of normalcy for now. We’ll see just how big the film may end up being once it releases next week.

    Source: Twitter

  • Cinema Con: Marvel Studios Developing the Next Decade of the MCU

    Cinema Con: Marvel Studios Developing the Next Decade of the MCU

    For years, fans have heard about the legendary big board in Kevin Feige’s Marvel Studios office that lays out the future of the MCU. According to Feige, that board is about to get a little larger as he and the Marvel Studios Parliament have been working on the next 10 years of Marvel Studios projects.

    The news comes out of CinemaCon 2022 where Feige revealed that he had been attending a creative retreat where they have been hashing out the stories that will shape the shared cinematic universe over the next decade. Feige left the retreat to attend CinemaCon and was headed back after.

    The studio celebrated it’s 10-year anniversary in 2018 and the first decade and change was devoted to the Infinity Saga. COVID forced Marvel Studios’ 2020 slate into 2021 and has had quite a domino effect beyond that with films still feeling the full force of the delays. It is expected that the next 10 years of the MCU will consist of several streaming projects each year and as many as 4 films each year. It’s also believed the the Fantastic Four and X-Men, characters acquired by Disney in a merger with Fox, will have a huge impact on the stories told over the next decade.