Tag: Exclusive Reports

EXCLUSIVE: ‘Spider-Man: No Way Home’ Used VFX Teams from Previous Raimi and TASM Films

As we steadily approach the release of Spider-Man: No Way Home, the anticipation grows for any new information or details regarding the upcoming film. The biggest question on everyone’s mind is whether or not the film will indeed adapt a “Live-Action” Spider-Verse storyline that will reintroduce Tobey Maguire and Andrew Garfield as the Spider-Men from their respective universes. Along with that rumor, there are also murmurs that the film could potentially bring in tow their fellow crewmates from the previous films such as Kirsten Dunst, Emma Stone, and many of the film’s previous villains to form a multiversal Sinister Six. While those rumors remain to be confirmed until we get an official confirmation with either a poster or a trailer, there are clues that could certainly make that rumor mill spin even faster.

Thanks to our sources, we are able to confirm that the upcoming installment in the MCU Spider-Man saga is incorporating VFX teams that previously worked on the visual effects for both the Raimi Spider-Man trilogy and TASM films. This development is interesting for a number of reasons. First and foremost, they’ll be joining forces with the multiple teams that have worked on the effects for the previous MCU Spider-Man installations. Not only that, but Marvel Studios and Sony seem to be holding no punches when it comes to the supervisors that will helm the post-production for this project as a number of their VFX Supervisors were also the supervisors to some of the groundbreaking visual effects for Avengers: Infinity War and Avengers: Endgame.

Having the VFX teams that worked on the previous Spider-Man franchises could be a huge indicator as to which direction this film could potentially go. If Maguire and Garfield are indeed involved in the film, then who better to have work on the VFX involving them than the people who actually worked on them all those years ago. They understand the character’s unique movements, styles, and micro-expressions better than anyone. Putting to use those models and animations that were used to bring to life the Raimi and TASM Spider-Men is a great way to differentiate the 3 Spider-Men from each other from a stylistic point of view. And even if this film doesn’t include the Spider-Verse storyline, there are scenes from both of these film franchises that have stood the test of time in terms of visual effects and it would be great to see those techniques and styles applied to better enhance the Spider-Man experience in this film. Just look at the train scene from Spider-Man 2 or the visuals from The Amazing Spider-Man franchise, which arguably had the greatest web-swinging sequence of the three iterations. Having this group of individuals work together for a film is absolutely outstanding and it’s certainly seeming like Spider-Man: No Way Home is setting itself up to be one of the most visually stunning films for Phase 4 and we can’t wait to see what this film has in store when it hits theaters in December.

May 20, 2021
EXCLUSIVE: Djimon Hounsou Returning as the Wizard in ‘Shazam! Fury of the Gods’

That’s right, you read that headline correctly. Djimon Hounsou and his character, the ancient Wizard Shazam, will return in Shazam! Fury of the Gods. While I’m sure the Shazam-Fam will welcome the return, this does come as a bit of a shock based on the fact that the Wizard disintegrated to dust in front of our very eyes in the first film and his magical staff was broken. It will be interesting to see how the sequel works around all of that. While a flashback is certainly possible, I’d say that it also seems likely that those powerful but villainous sisters, Hespera and Kalypso (played by Helen Mirren and Lucy Liu), could have something to do with his resurrection. But it won’t be out of the goodness of their hearts.

Hounsou is no stranger to comic book properties, appearing in both Shazam! and Captain Marvel in 2019. Before that, he was the voice of King Ricou in Aquaman (2018), appeared as Korath in Guardians of the Galaxy (2014), and with Keanu Reeves in DC’s Constantine (2005). His voice work also includes a part in Amazon’s Invincible and a 2010 Black Panther animated series in which he played T’Challa. But his “nerd cred” goes back even further, with a part in Angelina Jolie’s game-based adventure film Lara Croft Tomb Raider: The Cradle of Life in 2003, and all the way back to 1994, when he appeared as Horus in the sci-fi cult classic Stargate.

Shazam! Fury of the Gods stars Zachary Levi as the superhero, and Asher Angel as his teenaged alter ego Billy Batson who was gifted a major “glow up” along with all of the amazing powers of the Wizard Shazam with the help of his magical staff. The DC comics film sequel, which is on the verge of commencing filming in Georgia alongside Black Adam, is scheduled to hit theaters on June 2nd, 2023.

May 17, 2021
EXCLUSIVE: Description of Hawkman’s Ship in ‘Black Adam’

Back in March, a couple of images of a Black Adam set being built led our own John Sabato to speculate that the production might be building Hawkman’s Thanagarian Star Cruiser. I can now confirm that it was indeed the set-piece that was being built in those pictures. In addition, here’s an exclusive and detailed description of the finished Hawkman ship set!

“It’s awesome. It’s sleek… has this curved look to it… a raised circular sitting area in the back and a big set of long red lights that curve from the back up across the ceiling.There’s a medical bay nook (reclined bed with instruments around it) and something that looks like a bar with glass chairs. Hawkman symbol in gold on the floor in the center. Also one of the hallways has a Hawkman logo in red glowing at the end of it. Pretty cool.”
A Murphy’s Multiverse exclusive

Unfortunately, we weren’t able to attain any pictures of the finished set. However, this information comes from a long-time trusted source of Murphy’s Multiverse, so we are confident in this description’s validity. What do you think? Are you excited to see Hawkman’s ship on the big screen?

Alongside Dwayne Johnson’s starring role, and Pierce Brosnan as Doctor Fate, Aldis Hodge will play Hawkman in Black Adam. The DC film, currently filming in Georgia, is scheduled to hit theaters on July 29, 2022.

May 15, 2021
EXCLUSIVE: Marvel Studios Casting a Young Lead for ‘Ant-Man and The Wasp: Quantumania’

Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania is preparing to start filming in the UK this July and while most of the buzz has been around Kathryn Newton stepping in as Cassie Lang and Jonathan Majors being cast as Kang, we can now share that Marvel Studios is looking to add another major character to the mix. The studio is currently looking for a young female of any ethnicity, 9-12, to play an unnamed lead character in the film.

The character is described as a 10-year old and the studio is looking for a young actress with singing, dancing and comedic chops. It’s unlikely that they’re looking for a young actress to play a younger Cassie Lang as Abby Ryder Fortson still fits the description, so unless she is unavailable, this is for a new character set to play a major role in the 2023 release.

May 13, 2021
EXCLUSIVE: Amazon’s ‘PAPER GIRLS’ Casting Missy Tieng Ahead of May Production Start

A few days after announcing its four main leads, Amazon’s Paper Girls is now looking to cast a few more characters to the project that will adapt the Brian K. Vaughan and Cliff Chiang comic. We’ve learned that production is actively searching for a Chinese-American girl, who is between the age of nine to eleven. She will play Missy Tieng, who is the little sister of Erin Tieng, one of the titular characters. Missy is, as of yet, set to appear in two episodes of the series’ first season. These will consist of the pilot and the fourth episode.

If you’re familiar with the comic series, it released 30 issues between 2015 and 2019. Missy is hardly a presence in the first few issues (the ones that should be the main focus of the first season). She shows up in the opening pages as her big sister is having a nightmare, where she must save her. Missy only frowns at her after Erin wakes her up from the said nightmare to check up on her. This way, having the character show up in more than a single episode at such an early stage of the show might deviate from the source material, and that it is taking extra care of highlighting her relationship with Erin. Especially as she has a more prominent role down the line. It just isn’t while she was eight years old. By dealing with time travel, the comic series often brings together different versions of the same character, from different timelines. Erin Tieng ends up meeting her older self, and in doing so, she also meets her little sister At that time, Missy was a helicopter pilot, which comes in handy as the story progresses. This way, having Missy have a bit of a larger role early on might enhance her presence further down the line.

Paper Girls will be shooting in Chicago from May 17 to June 24, and with principal photography less than a month away, we should expect several actors to join the cast. So, we could older versions of the girls or even the villains, which the comic series certainly has a lot of. The series premiere on Amazon’s streaming service is unannounced as of now. It’ll be interesting to see what other changes we might expect once the show enters production and expands its cast.

April 29, 2021
EXCLUSIVE: Hawkeye and Westworld’s Zahn McLarnon Set to Lead AMC’s ‘DARK WINDS’ Adaptation

Zahn McLarnon (Hawkeye, Westworld and Doctor Sleep) has landed the lead role in AMC’s upcoming adaptation of author Tony Hillerman’s Joe Leaphorn/Jim Chee series of crime fiction novels. McLarnon will play Navajo Nation Police officer Joe Leaphorn, a role previously played by Fred Ward in the 1991 film adaptation of the fifth novel in the series, The Dark Wind, and by Wes Studi in the PBS adaptations.

The AMC series, which seems to be a bit of reimagining of Hillerman’s series, will see Leaphorn investigating the murder of a Najavo woman in Arizona’s Monument Valley in the 1970s. Leaphorn will be joined in his investigation by new deputy, Jim Chee, a half-white, half-Navajo FBI agent working undercover to dig into some darker forces working behind the scenes. Chee was a major character in Hellerman’s novels, starring in 15 of them over the years.

AMC is currently prepping the pilot for production which is set to begin filming this August in New Mexico. Cheyenne and Arapaho Tribal member Chris Eyre is directing the pilot based off a script from Graham Roland, who wrote and executive produced Tom Clancy’s Jack Ryan for Amazon.

April 27, 2021
EXCLUSIVE: Jon Favreau Returning for ‘Spider-Man: No Way Home’

After having appeared as one of the more prominent mentor characters for Peter Parker throughout his series of solo films, we can exclusively confirm that Jon Favreau will indeed be returning as Happy Hogan for Spider-Man: No Way Home. It was almost certain that Favreau would be returning alongside the main cast of the previous two films, but due to COVID-19 and filming schedules, there were always doubts regarding his return to the franchise’s next installment. The full details regarding his role in this film remain unknown. However, he could certainly have a considerable supporting role similar to that of Spider-Man: Homecoming and Spider-Man: Far From Home.

Happy Hogan had a rather interesting side story in Far From Home, where both Happy and Aunt May (played by Marisa Tomei) developed a relationship that was played for laughs. At the end of the film, when confronted by Peter about the situation, Happy confessed that he actually did have feelings for Aunt May and believed that they were dating, while Aunt May only described the relationship as a “summer fling.”

It’ll be interesting to see how the dynamic between the two characters develops as well as knowing how Happy will react to the events of the post-credit scene in the last film when Spider-Man identity was outed to the world. Nevertheless, we can always count on Happy to be the man with a plan and we can’t wait to see more of him when Spider-Man: no Way Home hits theaters this coming Christmas season.

April 16, 2021
EXCLUSIVE: ‘AMERICAN HORROR STORIES’ Looks to Be Revisiting the Freak Show

We recently learned that FX’s AHS spinoff anthology, American Horror Stories, would be taking us back to the Murder House for an episode. Now a new casting call for the series might indicate that Ryan Murphy and crew might have another story to tell that’s somehow linked to Season 4’s Freak Show theme. American Horror Stories is currently casting for trained circus or carnival performers with an emphasis on sword swallowers, contortionists, fire breathers, scare lookers and more that would fit in nicely in the Freak Show!

The circus performers are expected to be working on the episode from late April through early May; with prep on the Murder House being done now and shooting expected to take a couple of weeks per episode, the potential Freak Show episode could be next up for Murphy and his crew. Murphy announced American Horror Stories last year and noted that it would likely feature familiar characters from different seasons of AHS. There’s no word on when American Horror Stories is expected to premiere but with filming taking place over the next several months, we might be waiting until 2022 to see what Murphy and company have in store.

April 14, 2021
EXCLUSIVE: ‘GREASE’ Director Randal Kleiser Helming Janis Joplin Biopic ‘PEARL’

Grease director Randal Kleiser will bring the tragic story of Janis Joplin to the big screen in a currently undated film titled Pearl. Casting is currently under way with an expected mid-August start for the film which will work off a script from Gregory Lee Kenyon.

Several Joplin biopics have been in the works over the last decade with none ever making their way to the screen. Kleiser’s version will portray Joplin as an “untrammeled force of nature” and explore the “crippling insecurity” that lead to the drug and alcohol problems that lead to her death from an overdose at 27 years old. The film’s title, Pearl, shares the title of her second and final album, which she finished recording just prior to her death.

April 6, 2021
What I Heard This Week: HBO Max’s ‘GREEN LANTERN’

Once again wading into unfamiliar territory and territory in which I was burned not too long ago when I shared the rumor that James Gunn was in the earliest stages of developing a Krypto project for Warner Bros…but I’m nothing if not dense, so here’s another hot DC rumor: the Manhunters are set to go up against the Green Lantern Corp in the HBO Max Green Lantern streaming series!

Though the streaming series hasn’t settled on a start of production much less a release date, tidbits of info have leaked out over time. We know the series is set to span decades and galaxies and feature several members of the GLC including Alan Scott, Guy Gardner, Jessica Cruz, Simon Baz and newcomer Bree Jarta as well as fan favorites such as Killowag and Sinestro. Scott’s story will take place in the 1940s, Gardner’s in the 1980s and Cruz’s in the early 2000s but the story will obviously need some connective tissue and that might just be where this RUMOR comes into play.

First brought into canon in 1975 by the legendary Jack Kirby, the Manhunters are the first attempt by the Guardians of Oa at a universal peace-keeping corps. Over time their programming led to them believing that the extinction of organic beings was the only true path to peace in the universe and led to the creation of the rage-fueled Red Lantern Corps.

While we cannot confirm the Manhunters as part of the series, their shared history with the Guardians of the Universe, audience familiarity from their role in Green Lantern: The Animated Series and the relative ease of creating them via VFX makes this rumor an easy one to buy into.

March 12, 2021