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  • Warner Bros. Committed to Theatrical Releases in 2022

    Warner Bros. Committed to Theatrical Releases in 2022

    Warner Bros. shook the market when they decided to go for day-and-date releases of all their 2021 films. While some directors have openly discussed their disappointment in the decision, it made sense given the uncertainty of how long the pandemic would continue to drag on. Now, we’re about to enter the next year, and Warner Bros. CEO, Ann Sarnoff, has opened up on if they had considered also tackling a similar release for 2022 even with the pandemic still an issue for many. When interviewed at a conference by Bloomberg Wednesday, she discussed how they are now committed to theatrical releases in the new year.

    Have we thought about going back to day and date? Sure, we thought about it, but we have made our commitments to the theaters to the agents to the talent. Everyone was hoping we would be on the other side of the pandemic by now

    The releases would affect projects like The Batman, which they are definitely expecting to fill out theaters once it releases in March. The Secret of Dumbledore, which continues the ever-popular Harry Potter franchise, will follow in April as both kick-offs a strong year for the company. As things are calming down somewhat, it’s great that studios are committing to once again promoting theatrical releases and ensure the media moving forward.

    The good balance lies in the new release windows. Those that miss out on a theatrical release will get access to it on HBO Max within a faster time, a similar strategy we’ve seen Disney+ tackle with their releases like Encanto already going out during Christmas. It’ll be interesting to see how this new direction might change our understanding of cinema and streaming moving forward.

    Source: The Hollywood Reporter

  • Amy Pascal Open to a Possible Blade-Morbius Crossover

    Amy Pascal Open to a Possible Blade-Morbius Crossover

    If the trailers for Spider-Man: No Way Home are any indication, no villain is truly off the table for Marvel Studios. The film is set to be a crossover of multiple Spider-Man franchises, with characters from both the iconic Sam Raimi films and the cult favorite Marc Webb movies set to appear in the MCU film. With this in mind, it doesn’t seem far-fetched that other characters from Sony’s Spider-Man Universe could show up in the MCU as well.

    This is the same thing Geeks of Color must have been thinking when they asked Marvel Studios boss Kevin Feige and longtime Spider-Man producer Amy Pascal what they thought about the potential of a Blade and Morbius meet-up happening somewhere down the line. After Feige pondered the question enthusiastically, Pascal took charge with an answer:

    Blade and Morbius, that’s a cool idea. We, uh, y’know – the future…You never know what’s going to happen. There are all sorts of possibilities.

    Amy Pascal

    The response is not a straight-up rejection of the question, but it isn’t a full confirmation either. Blade and Morbius have a long history together in the pages of Marvel’s comic books. The vampiric duo has been both friend and foe, battling each other and teaming up as part of the supernatural group the Midnight Sons. Morbius was even set to be the main antagonist of Blade II at one point, which is a deleted scene from Blade featuring a distant look at the character. While that never came to pass, it doesn’t seem like the people in charge of the pair’s future are opposed to making it happen at some point.

    Source: Geeks of Color

  • ‘No Way Home’ The Highest Rated Live-Action Spider-Man Film on Rotten Tomatoes

    ‘No Way Home’ The Highest Rated Live-Action Spider-Man Film on Rotten Tomatoes

    It’s never easy to finish a trilogy. There are high expectations on how you end what would normally be the final part of your series and build upon what came before. First reactions and early reviews hinted at Spider-Man: No Way Home being one of the few threequels to manage exactly that. And now, the film has become the highest-rated live-action adaptation of Spider-Man on Rotten Tomatoes with 95%. It’s not the highest-rated project overall, as that title still belongs to Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse at 97%, but it seems that multiversal storylines featuring the webhead are critical darlings.

    to put that into comparison, the last two MCU entries featuring the webhead were also rated fresh by the service. Homecoming was the highest-rated for some time with 92% while its sequel Far From Home stands at 80%. Tobey Maguire’s trilogy saw a stronger one with its third entry, as the first one stands at 90%, the much-beloved sequel Spider-Man 2 has a 93% rating while the final one dropped down to a still-fresh rated 63%.

    Andrew Garfield‘s run didn’t have a strong high with the first entry from 2012 starting at 72% while its sequel dropped down and is currently the only non-fresh rated live-action Spider-Man film with 52%. As Sony is definitely thinking about a future for Tom Holland’s run as the character, it’ll be interesting to see if it can carry over the momentum.

    Source: Rotten Tomatoes

  • Denis Villeneuve Set To Direct Arthur C. Clarke’s ‘Rendezvous with Rama’

    Denis Villeneuve Set To Direct Arthur C. Clarke’s ‘Rendezvous with Rama’

    Dune‘s success has caused a resurgence of ambitious sci-fi in mainstream cinema. In addition to the announcement of a sequel to Villeneuve‘s new franchise, we now received word that Warner Bros. has plans to adapt Hyperion, another genre classic. Today, The Hollywood Reporter reported that the director will tackle the adaptation of another sci-fi novel, this time by Arthur C. Clarke, the mastermind behind 2001: A Space Odyssey, titled Rendezvous with Rama.

    The story of Rendezvous with Rama follows a group of human space explorers that are tasked with intercepting an alien starship that is hurtling through the solar system. It is believed that the missions will lead to mankind’s first contact with alien intelligence.

    The film will be produced for Alcon Entertainment Studios and Morgan Freeman will be one of the producers. At the moment, Villeneuve has plenty of projects he’s actively working on. In addition to the film adaptation of Clarke‘s book, he has the mentioned sequel to Dune (and a potential third installment), the Dune: Sisterhood series, the HBO limited series The Son with Jake Gyllenhaal, and the long-announced Cleopatra, where Angeline Jolie at one point was involved.

    Source: The Hollywood Reporter

  • Michael Starrbury to Adapt David F. Walker’s ‘The Hated’ for Netflix

    Michael Starrbury to Adapt David F. Walker’s ‘The Hated’ for Netflix

    Netflix’s main strategy has been to purchase various existing IPs to bring them to life. While they’ve seen quite a bit of success through their original adaptations, it never deterred the streamer from finding that property that’ll put them on the map in new ways. Well, it seems their next project will be an adaptation of David F. Walker‘s comic The Hated as a Western series. Michael Starrbury, who worked on When They See Us and Black & White.

    He’ll take on the role of executive producer alongside Prime Universe Films’ Adrian Askariah, David F. Walker, and Sean Owolo. The project is part of Starrbury’s multi-year deal with the streamer, as he’s also bringing out a comedy The Come Up soon. The series will take place during a post-Civil War revisionist history, where we follow the bounty hunter Araminta Free. The U.S. didn’t unite but separated and she’s one of the few people specialized in crossing the border. It’ll be interesting to see this different take on history and how they tackle the project.

    Source: Deadline

  • EXCLUSIVE: Luke Evans on Developing the King Merriman’s Persona

    EXCLUSIVE: Luke Evans on Developing the King Merriman’s Persona

    Perhaps one of the strongest aspects of Crossing Swords is its voice cast. The roster of talent features the likes of Nicholas Hoult, Seth Green, Tara Strong, Yvette Nichole Brown, Tony Hale, and Luke Evans. One of the biggest shocks of the series was Evan’s work as King Merriman, whose voice work in the series is almost unrecognizable until the credits begin to roll and the realization hits.

    We recently had the chance to chat with some of the cast behind Crossing Swords and asked Luke Evans just how he went about developing the character of King Merriman and commented on just how unrecognizable he was in the role. For Evans, it was fun for him getting to figure out how he wanted to present this absurd character. In fact, there were various versions he went through before landing upon the crass King we now from Crossing Swords now.

    Well, thank you, I’ll take that as a compliment that you didn’t know it was me, that was part of the challenge, I think. Well it’s, I got to see an image of him when I said yes and they send me a couple of pre-vis images of Merriman, I then went through and they said “you can do what you want, you can try anything, come with lots of options and we’ll choose one that fits.” I narrowed it down to probably like three or four, one was British, one was cockney, one was very well spoken and upper-class.

    But the one that fit was, I mean, cause you know Nick Hoult is British and he’s doing this American and I thought well maybe I should find some sort of rough, cigar-smoking, heavy-drinking, gravely sounding voice and then you know I saw this character come to life with his little mustache that moves and I was like “Oh, okay yeah that fits,” you know?

    Luke Evans

    We previously spoke with the creators of Crossing Swords on what made them initially want Evans for a role, and how he landed it. As they previously teased, Evans was always on their radar for the role because his work on Robot Chicken. Evans surprised the heck out of them with just how much of himself he’d thrown into such a ridiculous role, that they were determined to work with him more going forward.

    Season 2 of Crossing Swords is streaming now on Hulu.

  • How ‘Hawkeye’ Episode 5 Sets the Stage for ‘Echo’

    How ‘Hawkeye’ Episode 5 Sets the Stage for ‘Echo’

    Long before fans were introduced to her in Hawkeye, plans were already in place for Maya Lopez to have her own series. That series, Echo, was officially announced on 2021’s Disney Plus Day, but had been revealed by the trades months earlier. Hollywood newcomer Alaqua Cox impressed the Marvel Studios brass early on and will star in the series, tentatively set to go into production next April ahead of a likely 2023 release. While Echo still has a role to play in the conclusion of the events of Hawkeye, Episode 5, “Ronin”, seemed to put some things in place that should dovetail nicely into Echo.

    Thought it’s been obvious since he was first teased in Episode 3, Episode 5 finally put a name and a face to Maya’s “Uncle”: Wilson Fisk, the Kingpin, played by Vincent D’Onofrio. Kingpin in the biggest and most important piece on the board. In Episode 5, Clint reveals to Maya that her father’s death at his hands was the result of a setup by Kingpin, who used an informant to tip off Clint to the location of the Tracksuits. While it takes a little more convincing to make Maya believe that Kingpin could have set up her father to be murdered, it’s clear by the end of the episode that Maya’s life is about to head in a totally different direction.

    That extra convincing she needs comes, unfortunately, from an unwitting acknowledgement of the set up by the person closest to her: Kazi. It’s not explicitly stated in the episode, but it’s heavily implied that Kazi may have in fact been the informant that Fisk used to tip off Clint. When pressed by Maya about why someone is his position within the Tracksuits wasn’t at the meeting where her father and others were killed, Kazi gives a half-baked excuse that Maya clearly doesn’t buy. In a short span of time, Maya is faced with the realization that she’s been betrayed by the two people closest to her.

    As the conversation between Clint and Maya points out, the two characters are similar: deadly weapons pointed at other people. Throughout the series, Maya has been pointed at Clint and Kate; the revelations of Episode 5 will clearly give her new targets, but it seems unlikely given everything a show about Hawkeye(s) has left to accomplish, that fans will have a satisfying conclusion to Maya’s new arc. Rather it seems that Episode 5 serves to set the table for Maya’s continued story in Echo.

    The most pressing unresolved issues for the Hawkeyes all now revolve around Kate’s mom, Eleanor Bishop, who was (in the least surprising twist in modern history) revealed to be the series’ “big bad.” Episode 5 revealed who was on the other end of that phone call Eleanor made last week (Julia Louis-Dreyfus’ Val) and that she is in business with Kingpin. If that’s not bad enough, she was willing to throw her fiance, loveable doofus Jacques Duquesne, under the bus to save herself! Eleanor is no small fish and while the end of her story in Hawkeye will involve Kingpin and the Tracksuits, it’s her story and the impact it’ll have on Kate that should be the focus of Episode 6. Maya’s new path will certain and obviously intersect with Kate’s (a since-deleted set pic of Maya with Clint proves this), but it now seems much more likely that her involvement in the big “end battle” will more than likely set up her spinoff series and the villains in it.

    When Maya and Kazi part ways in Episode 5, it’s not on good terms. Maya knows he betrayed her and Kazi, who’s much more perspicacious than the rest of the Tracksuits, knows that she knows. With the final battle set to involve Kate, Clint, Maya and the Tracksuits, Maya and Kazi seem destined to face off and Maya is going to have a whole lot of anger to take out on Kazi. This could well become the origin story for Kazi as the Clown. As for Fisk, it’s entirely unlikely that his hands get dirty here. Yes, we’ll see more of him in Episode 6, but it would be very unlike him to get tangled up in a very public fight that ties him to a criminal organization: he wouldn’t be much of a Kingpin if he was involved every time his goons get beat up. That points to him getting to walk away from this and, along with Kazi, being on Maya’s shit list heading into Echo. Unfortunately for Maya, that means she’ll be on his shit list, too, and that’s pretty exciting because Fisk has all sorts of criminals on his payroll that he could send after Maya. I won’t tell anyone if you won’t, but at one point in time, Echo was casting for two white, female roles, one of whom was described as a criminal and one of whom who sure sounded like another criminal. Leaving Fisk to be developed further in Echo is a good, albeit frustrating choice for the studio, that allows for him to continue to be a looming menace until he’s ready for a big-time showdown, perhaps in a future Spider-Man film.

    Ultimately, Hawkeye will do exactly what is was intended to do for Maya Lopez. The character will have a redemption arc and get set on her new path ahead of her own series. While fans might feel slighted at her story not being resolved within the confines of Hawkeye’s 6 episodes, they also have to remember that Marvel Studios is in the business of pumping out content and resolving every story, every time doesn’t lend itself well to that.

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  • ‘Hawkeye’s Latest Episode Confirms [SPOILER] as Maya’s Uncle

    ‘Hawkeye’s Latest Episode Confirms [SPOILER] as Maya’s Uncle

    The fifth episode of Hawkeye has finally arrived and includes quite a few great moments. Florence Pugh‘s return as Yelena Belova is quite the highlight as we get to spend some time with her, but she isn’t the only major return of the episode. While a bit underwhelming, as it was through a surprisingly bad quality video – Val should get Yelena a better burner phone – we finally got the confirmation that all the teases so far were indeed for the reveal of Vincent D’Onofrio‘s Wilson Fisk. He even seems to be wearing an outfit similar to the one he had in Daredevil‘s third season. He also seems to be holding a cane in his hand, which he frequently had in the comics.

    When we first heard his chuckle in the third episode, it seemed that his return was a definite at some point in Hawkeye. The actor sharing the series and his excitement for it also helped add more to his potential return. While we still have to wait a week until he has a speaking role (hopefully), it’s great to finally get a confirmation and it’s quite the tease. Interestingly enough, Hawkeye doesn’t mention Fisk by his name but by the name many comic fans know, the Kingpin. While it was strange we didn’t get a post-credit sequence, I did quite enjoy the visual of him hanging over our two heroes to highlight the danger he represents.

    It’s going to be a lot in the finale and here’s hoping the series can tie it all together, especially with D’Onofrio getting quite a bit more attention after all that build-up. As what Kate got from Yelena was a video, it seems very likely that we’ll start off the next episode watching the video alongside them. We did get quite a few flashbacks in this series. So, perhaps we’ll also get one teasing Fisk’s involvement in the past and it’ll be interesting to see how the watch storyline might connect to the bigger picture.

  • REVIEW: ‘Hawkeye’ Episode 5 – Ronin

    REVIEW: ‘Hawkeye’ Episode 5 – Ronin

    Hawkeye Episode 5 expanded upon the last episode’s theme of rich character development and in-series world-building, but it fell short of providing a strong platform into the finale. While the penultimate episode certainly took its time to gather a lot of pieces of the big-picture puzzle, the final episode of the short series is left to try and resolve virtually every plotline already in existence as well as provide all of the Kingpin content it has teased. 

    What Ronin set out to achieve it did beautifully. There were several standout conversations and one-on-one moments that invoked emotion arguably better than the series has done previously. Florence Pugh’s witty Yelena was easily one of the biggest highlights and received much of the episode’s focus. While her “girl’s night” with Kate highlighted the chemistry between the two characters, the look at Yelena’s own blip was an intense opening to Ronin that set the tone for a grief-filled episode. Eleanor and Kate had a moving moment where Vera Farmiga puts in quite a compelling performance as a concerned mother which is impeccably timed with the late but unsurprising reveal that she likely is on the wrong side of the criminal line.

    Clint also has moments dripping with desperation and loss. Learning that the Black Widow was Natasha’s sister Yelena sent him into another spiral of guilt over Natasha’s sacrifice. There’s a simple but moving moment where he talks to an Avengers commemoration plaque as if it were her in silence. But mourning quickly turns to action as Clint wastes little time in going on the offensive to defend his family. Through another Linda Cardellini phone call, Clint explains that he has to end it or else the “big guy” might get involved. Laura Barton is again strangely supportive, lending a lot of credit to the theory that she is an ex-agent of some kind herself. This episode marks Clint moving away from much of his self-deprecating attitude and into a much more confidently self-aware place.

    The result is Clint revealing to Maya that not only is he Ronin, but that Maya’s “Uncle” is who wanted her father dead. This weaves itself into strong moments between Kazi and Maya, where his comforting protective instinct towards her starts to look twisted after it’s implied that he had a part in Maya’s father’s death. Still, the two have strong chemistry, and it’s a bit of a shame the series didn’t show more of it. The Clint-Maya confrontation represented the only action of the episode, leaving Episode 3 as the leader of the series in that respect, by far. 

    While Hawkeye can pull off quieter, investigative storylines, it has been teasing more over the course of its run. Episode 5 was in a prime position to kick off an intense action-packed ending to the series, but it curiously kept the slower pace of the last episode throughout. The much-awaited “reveal” was a bit of a letdown. While the name “Kingpin” has finally been dropped, it came via a less-than-dramatic line from Clint that the man in a very low-quality cellphone photo with Kate’s mom was “the guy [he’s] been worried about: Kingpin.”  Yes, it was Vincent D’Onofrio, but it may have well been Bradley Cooper’s Rocket or Alec Mapa’s Animal-Vegetable-Mineral Man—the photo would’ve looked about the same. While there’s every reason to believe D’Onofrio will be a star in the finale, his reveal was not particularly exhilarating. 

    Ronin set up virtually all of the series’ plotlines on a silver platter to be resolved or concluded. The tracksuit mafia’s vendetta against Clint/Ronin, Yelena’s quest to kill Clint, Jack’s criminal ties, Eleanor’s criminal ties, Kingpin’s overarching role in all of it, Clint and Kate’s relationship, Grills’ safety, and Clint getting home for Christmas. The problem is that the finale is forced to take on all of it in, presumably, the same general run time that the rest of the episodes have been allotted. While Hawkeye has been very successful in developing strong, compelling characters, delivering interesting and emotional arcs for them, it has yet to truly prove its ability to handle its own overarching storyline. Hopefully, the finale manages to streamline its moving pieces while capitalizing on the character work the series has worked hard to execute.

  • Amazon Studios Adapting Olivie Blake’s ‘The Atlas Six’

    Amazon Studios Adapting Olivie Blake’s ‘The Atlas Six’

    It looks like TikTok has become quite the jumping-off point for some new talent, as there were quite a few bidders for the rights to adapt TikTok sensation The Atlas Six. The book by author Alexene Farol Follmuth, also known as Olivie Blake, alongside the production company that brought The Crown to life, Brightstar. Amazon won the bidding war for the rights and will release it on its streaming platform as a series.

    It’ll adapt the story of six young magicians who are selected to become part of The Alexandrian Society, a secret society of the world. Each decade, only six are chosen to join as trust and eventual betrayal develops between the participants to join the elusive ranks. It was self-published through Kindle Digital Publishing but became viral on the social media platform, which led to a publishing bidding war. Tor is currently working on a revised and edited version to release in March 2022.

    Follmuth will act as an executive producer alongside Brightstar founders Tanya Seghatchian and John Woodward. It’s quite interesting to see how Amazon Studios is trying to create a niche with fantasy productions to combat the likes of Netflix’s The Witcher adaptation. They just recently released The Wheel of Time to critical acclaim and are in no way slowing down.

    Source: Deadline