Murphy's Multiverse

Tag: HBO Max

  • HBO Max and Disney+ Share 20th Century Streaming Rights Until 2022

    HBO Max and Disney+ Share 20th Century Streaming Rights Until 2022

    The streaming market has become quite competitive with many jumping in to get a piece of the action. Disney+ and HBO Max have been harsh competitors for Netflix, but also each other. This is especially a big factor in the fact that Warner Bros. still had an exclusive deal with 20th Century Fox to add their library to HBO and HBO Max. Well, it seems that this deal is slowly coming to an end.

    In a new report by Variety, it turns out that HBO Max’s streaming access will end with one more year. Yet, they will also share the streaming releases with Disney+ and Hulu moving forward with Ron’s Gone Wrong being the first in December. The deal will end in 2022 however, and there’s no expectation it’ll get extended due to Disney wanting to include the library in their streaming service.

    For now, they will co-share rights to 20th Century Studios and Searchlight Pictures productions with Disney’s in-house streaming offerings. Ron’s Gone Wrong will release on December 15th on both platforms. So, they’ll also share the same release date moving forward. Any production for an older audience will release on Hulu most likely and in the Star expansion of Disney+ in specific countries.

  • New Details on HBO Max’s ‘Constantine’ Series

    New Details on HBO Max’s ‘Constantine’ Series

    Over a year ago it was announced that JJ Abrams and his production company, Bad Robot, had closed a deal with Warner Bros to develop series and films based on the Justice League Dark characters from DC Comics. The projects have begun to pick up talent move along at a moderate pace but it seems things could be kicking much sooner than we thought. Since the announcement projects like Zatanna, Madame X, a Justice League Dark series, and now Constantine will make his return to the small screen.

    RPKNews recently shared some information on the ongoing development of the series and that casting is currently searching for its lead. They’ve revealed the series is also currently titled ‘Justice League Dark: Constantine’ and that they are currently searching for a Black, British man in the 25-29-year-old range to portray John Constantine in this upcoming series. Production on the project is currently set to begin in quarter 2 of 2022.

    HBO Max and Bad Robot are looking to give Constantine a new angle in this series from what previous adaptions had. Both the film starring Keanu Reeves and the series starring Matt Ryan heavily focused on the religious aspect of the character. This time around they’re looking to explore the horror aspect of the character’s comic book roots and really separate this adaption from the past.

    Justice League Dark: Constantine will be written by Guy Bolton and produced by Bad Robot. No further details on the project have been revealed but we can hopefully expect some casting very soon.

    SOURCE: YouTube

  • HBO Max to Reunite ‘Harry Potter’s Original Trio for ‘Return to Hogwarts’ Special

    HBO Max to Reunite ‘Harry Potter’s Original Trio for ‘Return to Hogwarts’ Special

    It looks like a new era has begun for Harry Potter. While Warner Bros. has been busy working on the third entry of Fantastic Beasts, it seems HBO Max has some additional plans. The streaming service will release a special for New Years Day titled Harry Potter 20th Anniversary: Return to Hogwarts that’ll welcome back the original Harry Potter cast of Daniel Radcliffe, Rupert Grint, and Emma Watson.

    It’s not surprising that they’re adding an anniversary special, as the streaming service saw quite the success with their FRIENDS reunion special. The feature is described to “tell an enchanting making-of story through all-new in-depth interviews and cast conversations.” Director Chris Columbus will also make a return alongside cast members from across all eight entries of the popular Harry Potter films.

    It’s crazy to think that it’s already been 20 years since the first film in the franchise, Harry Potter and the Sorcerer’s Stone released in theaters. For those that don’t have access to HBO Max, it’ll also be made available on TBS and Cartoon Network in the spring of 2022. So, there will be an opportunity to check it out next year.

    Source: Variety, Twitter

  • ‘Batgirl’ Adds ‘Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness’ Cinematographer John Mathieson

    ‘Batgirl’ Adds ‘Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness’ Cinematographer John Mathieson

    Barbara Gordon is set to make her DC extended universe debut after quite a bit of time in development hell. The film looks to be taking inspiration from Batgirl: Year One as well as the Batgirl of Burnside storyline. The HBO Max original movie landed the directing duo Adil El Arbi and Bilall Fallah, who most recently worked on the Disney+ series Ms. Marvel. It seems the films added yet another Marvel Studios veteran to its crew, with Arbi announcing the projects found has found its cinematographer.

    In one of his Instagram stories, he announced that John Mathieson, whose previous works include Gladiator, Logan, and Doctor Strange in The Multiverse of Madness has joined their film’s production. This is an interesting development considering the Doctor Strange sequel is currently slated to begin reshoots in the coming weeks that are considered to be quite extensive and time-consuming. So, joining Batgirl might imply that once Doctor Strange wraps up, he’ll join the DC project shortly after.

    Plot details on the film are still being kept under wraps as the DCEU continues its expansion. The film is set to be one of the first projects that will air exclusively on the HBO Max streaming service. It’ll also be joined by a project focused on Blue Beetle. Plot details and a release date for the film are still unknown as the film is set to start production in Glasgow. Batgirl is set to star Leslie Grace as the titular hero alongside Jacob Scipio, J.K. Simmons reprising his role as Commissioner Gordon and Brendan Fraser as Firefly.

    SOURCE: Instagram

  • Mel Gibson In Talks To Direct ‘Lethal Weapon 5’ For HBO Max

    Mel Gibson In Talks To Direct ‘Lethal Weapon 5’ For HBO Max


    It turns out nobody is ever too old for this stuff. Mel Gibson is reportedly negotiating a return to the Lethal Weapon franchise that helped put him on the map. Only this time, he could be sitting in the director’s chair as well as starring in front of the camera. Deadline states that Gibson had long been developing a potential fifth installment in the buddy cop series with the previous director Richard Donner. After the latter’s passing earlier this year, Gibson decided he would take it upon himself to finish the project as a tribute to his longtime friend.

    Any potential plot details are currently being kept under wraps, and it’s unknown if Gibson or his famous costar Danny Glover will return to their iconic roles as well. What is known is that the film would premiere exclusively on HBO Max. The streaming service has been working hard to expand its portfolio of exclusive content, and adding a new Lethal Weapon would do wonders in bringing in a whole generation of viewers who grew up with the franchise. Gibson is currently working on the John Wick prequel series The Continental at Starz, so it’s likely any real production on Lethal Weapon 5 would have to wait until after that project wraps.

    Source: Deadline

  • REPORT: ‘Blue Beetle’ Eyeing Early 2022 Production Start

    REPORT: ‘Blue Beetle’ Eyeing Early 2022 Production Start

    The DC Expanded Universe continues to expand as it plots more and more films like Batgirl, Zatanna, and even Blue Beetle. The latter will follow Jaime Reyes, the third, most recent, and most popular character to wield the mantle of Blue Beetle. Jaime is set to be played by the Cobra Kai‘s Xolo Maridueña, perfect casting for what’s surely shaping up to be many peoples most anticipated comic book films.

    Not much is known about the project, as it’s yet to add any other talent to its cast. It seems like that could be changing very soon as it seems production on the film could begin in the first quarter of 2022. A new Production Weekly listing has the film set to begin filming in Georgia sometime early next year. Usually these types of dates from production weekly are taken with a grain of salt, but director Angel Manuel Soto has added some fuel to the fire by retweeting the news on his Twitter account.

    There’s always a chance this production start date may change, but it seems Soto is anticipating an early 2022 start date if he also openly retweets it. The film will release as an HBO Max Original film but currently has no release date. The film is one of many upcoming DCEU films set to debut on the streaming platform in an interesting move to expand its shared DC universe from WB.

    Jaime Reyes is the first Blue Beetle to actually don the scarab and wears the exoskeleton armor created by the Reach. It’ll be interesting to see how the film honors the past Beetles as it seems Ted Kord is poised to play a larger role in the film based on the concept art we saw at DC Fandome.

    Source: Twitter

  • ‘Transformers: Rise of the Beasts’ Writers Join Michael B. Jordan’s ‘Val Zod’ Superman Project for HBO Max

    ‘Transformers: Rise of the Beasts’ Writers Join Michael B. Jordan’s ‘Val Zod’ Superman Project for HBO Max

    It looks like Michael B. Jordan‘s adaptation of Val Zod, a Superman of another Earth, is moving forward. Deadline has just reported that writers Darnell Metayer and Josh Peters were hired to tackle the HBO Max’s adaptations script. It’s still unclear if Jordan will also take on the role of Val Zod, which still remains uncast. He is only set to act as an executive producer alongside Outlier Society’s Elizabeth Raposo.

    While we still wait for a sign of life if Henry Cavill‘s time as Superman has a future within the DCEU, it’s great to see DC and Warner Bros. continued efforts to expand their slate by exploring the many different aspects of the multiverse. Val Zod explores the story of a different Kryptonian who lands on Earth, but this time Earth-2. He eventually went on to face off against Superman, who was brainwashed at the time.

    Metayer and Peters are hot off the heels of their work on the new Transformers film, Rise of the Beasts. So, it’s a great get for Warner Bros. and the HBO Max project. As such, they’ve worked with Steven Caple Jr. who directed Creed II, one of Michael B. Jordan‘s many leading roles. There’s a good chance that their work together might’ve landed them this current gig.

    Source: Deadline

  • REVIEW: ‘Doom Patrol’ Episode 7 – Bird Patrol

    REVIEW: ‘Doom Patrol’ Episode 7 – Bird Patrol

    Episode 7 of Doom Patrol methodically builds onto the Sisterhood of Dada storyline while gradually weaving in our main heroes. Flashing back and forth from past to present, we see how intricately the details of Laura and Rita’s past have come to a head in the present. While it takes a little time to truly get going, by the end of Bird Patrol there’s no doubt that the story is rolling and rolling fast. While the Dada story is undoubtedly still the heart of the episode, we get very meaningful developments with our main characters that suggest more dramatic changes and decisions will come their way very soon. The end of the episode is wacky and confusing, but is an incredibly intriguing cliffhanger and setup for next episode.

    The episode gives us more of an explanation as to what the Sisterhood’s goal actually is. Last episode, they were simply metahumans trying to find comfort with one another and express their creativity in a safe space. While in present day, we watch foreboding fog roll in slowly throughout our characters’ unrelated lives. At some point, the Sisterhood grow pretty tired of their lives because they realize they are not actually making any difference in the world. The growing fire for change coupled with a triggering event is what moves the Sisterhood from an eccentric group of friends to an odd group of perpetrators bent on the eternal flagellation.

    Laura’s role in the Sisterhood’s transformation becomes apparent as we watch her ultimately betray the Dada by caving into Bureau pressure and reclassifying the members as weapons. What makes this arc so interesting, though, is that Laura does not become “evil” or a “villain”, but rather is portrayed as a woman who saw the need for more soldiers after World Wars I and II. She’s tired, depressed, and somewhat hopeless—there’s not much active intent to do harm, and she truly believes she is doing the right thing.

    The show has been working on filling in the gaps in Laura’s story, but at the same time we’ve been adding on to Rita’s. Her relationship to Laura and Laura’s betrayal causes everything to come together by the end of the episode. The moment the episode chooses to reveal Laura’s true betrayal of the Sisterhood is pretty stunning. After the fog rolls in and takes over, the Doom Patrol and Laura are in a sort of rundown, haunted version of the place the Sisterhood used to meet. Something possesses the characters to do strange dances that the Sisterhood members used to do. All of this causes Laura to regain her memory, and its shown that she is reenacting when she and the Bureau came to apprehend the Sisterhood as well as Malcolm’s death in the process. The past-present switches are phenomenal, and it solidifies how important Rita’s role in the story is after her love Malcolm’s emotional death.

    The only negative to the reveal is that Laura isn’t close enough with the Doom Patrol for the reenactment of her betrayal on them to hit all that hard. Still, it underscores Jane’s realization later that this story has really nothing to do with the Doom Patrol. It’s an interesting stance to take for the show, but the past couple of episodes have proved that they can be a useful vehicle for the Dada story, and the upcoming eternal flagellation along with Rita’s new life will certainly play into our characters’ own stories. Plus, the Dada story certainly benefits in terms of how enjoyable it is from having the Doom Patrol serve as a sort of middleman.

    The Doom Patrol are continuing their (what feels like) mini-stories while the rest of this is going on. Cliff is still addicted to several online activities and is generally being an idiot. Jane is inching closer and closer to a major confrontation with the other personas over Kay growing and maturing—no one really says it explicitly, but clearly the other personas are concerned about disappearing, and it’s interesting that Jane doesn’t seem to either think or worry about it. Vic is still looking into synthetic skin and calls Roni who encourages him to keep the tech to be a better hero—essentially, Vic has to figure out if Cyborg is important enough to outweigh the fact that he doesn’t know if he even is “Cyborg”. Larry’s lump turns into some sort of giant larvae that he vomits up. Laura tells him to burn it, but Larry can’t get himself to hurt it. Instead, he leaves it in the woods with a sleeping bag and a peanut butter and jelly sandwich.

    The end of the episode is bizarre in the best way. Rita shows back up in the present day as the surprise-ish orchestrator of the eternal flagellation. She’s notably different—she’s much more confident, angrier, and more demanding. She’s certainly not the passive Rita we’ve known. The Sisterhood have some sort of giant cage with a bonkers-looking monster. Rita absolutely insists that Laura has to be the one to open the cage and begin the eternal flagellation. It seems to be pretty important, but Laura doubles down on believing she did the right thing so someone else opens it. Countless strange birds (“Dada birds”) emerge and fly everywhere. It is yet to be seen if the fact that Laura didn’t open the cage has some actual consequences.

    While Rita and Laura are coming to a confrontation, Laura escapes by shapeshifting into a bird and flying off. It’s absolutely chaotic, and this is all happening while the Doom Patrol just sort of stand there confused and not a part of any of it. It seems like they will be, though, because the final scenes are them being sort of zapped up by Dada birds and disappearing.

    Bird Patrol was probably the most exciting episode of Season 3 to date. The ending undoubtedly served as quite the cliffhanger going into the eternal flagellation, which is still incredibly mysterious and unknown. This episode makes it clear that Doom Patrol can tell a story where the Doom Patrol isn’t actually all that important. The show recognizes that they are entertaining and creative vehicles to tell another story through, and the inevitable weaving of them into the greater narrative can only make the actual story more fun than it could be on its own. On the other hand, having the Doom Patrol’s sporadic individual stories organized and portrayed through a larger and somewhat unrelated plotline also amplifies those stories in a way they would not have been otherwise. 

  • REVIEW: ‘Titans’ Finale – Purple Rain

    REVIEW: ‘Titans’ Finale – Purple Rain

    After a difficult season, we’ve wound up at a strangely simple finale for Titans—after not being well set up whatsoever, Purple Rain seems to also want to push through it and get it over with. Only about two-thirds of the finale is devoted to the resolution of the overarching Gotham/Crane plot, so the often convoluted twelve episodes that built up to this moment feel even more insignificant. As a positive, though, the plot in this episode is pretty cohesive and understandable, which isn’t something we’ve been able to take for granted. Otherwise, the ideas and actions in this episode are just ridiculous. 

    By the end of the finale, there are certainly a few loose strings, and a few random elements appeared, but there’s no strong momentum leading into Season 4. Honestly, that could mean there’s some chance of starting “fresh” and making something better, but that’s probably too hopeful. The show is an expert at forgetting its own past though as we’ve seen major characters completely drop off the radar without a mention. Probably worse is the fact that no matter what the characters experience, say, kill, decide, or have an epiphany about, it almost always is completely forgotten in either the same episode or the next. There are numerous examples of this in the finale too, and too many to actually mention. 

    By the end of the previous episode, none of our characters are near each each other, thinking about the same thing, or pursuing the same goal. This is usually not a great place to start a finale, but it is no shock that this isn’t any barrier for Titans. All of our characters magically end up in the same place and on the same page almost immediately. From here on out, the plot feels pretty routine—here’s the problem, within 30 seconds we’ve figured out the solution, and let’s go get it done. It’s not exciting in terms of pacing or creative storytelling, but it’s easier to follow than a lot of Titans so that’s worth something. 

    While the fundamentals of the story are simple, the actual “problems and solutions” really struggle. There are two tracks of the action: the group that goes straight for Crane in Wayne Manor, and the rest that do one of the most ridiculous things we’ve seen (but it definitely has competition)this season to save Gotham citizens . While the concepts for all of this are both laughable and too easy, they at least go by quickly without too many diversions.

    The boy band—Dick, Jason, Gar, and Tim—think they are doing some dramatic stuff. At one point Dick says, “We’re going to beat Crane by doing what Batman never would.” While that sounds like it could be aggressive, violent, or even creative, it is none of those things. Apparently Batman would never break into Wayne Manor through a window, turn off an alarm, have someone else hack into the computer, and then punch the bad guy. There really isn’t any reason why this couldn’t have been done in some form at any other point in the season if it were that easy. They do use this time to shoehorn Tim into the mix, and he gets the dramatic last word in with Crane before being the one to punch him. He’s a Titan now.

    Conner and the women (the people with powers) do the silliest stuff of the episode. After Crane kills hundreds of people, they figure out immediately that they can turn the Lazarus Pit into a storm that rains over Gotham and just casually revive everyone. Some nonsense combination of Rachel absorbing the pit’s nightmares, Blackfire shooting fire into water, and Starfire containing it in some sort of energy ball that she then throws into the sky is what does the trick. Luckily, there is also deadly lightning that Donna gets to lasso easily as a call back to her death by electrocution last season. How a season that started with Batman leaving Gotham managed gave us this ending is wild.

    After all of that, the whole finale battle is over more quickly than Titans has ever finished anything. We get about sixteen extra minutes of post-win content featuring a lot of Jason and Bruce Wayne. Bruce’s dramatic and mopey absence honestly made me forget about his whole role in this. So the dramatic conversation between him and Jason comes across so forced and cringey—they just made Bruce’s character so terrible, and the only attempt to redeem him is have him apologize for being a bad Batdad. We supposedly get some Jason redemption and resolution in the finale, but like everything, it’s too easy. He’s mostly just forgiven for no reason, and no other satisfying or realistic interaction between him and the others happens. As noted above, there are no consequences for the twelve episodes of constant bad decisions we had to slog through. 

    While we know that the Titans are returning to San Francisco, the show doesn’t leave any significant plot on the table. Honestly, that’s probably for the best. What we got in Season 3 has mostly been unfortunate. The episode did drop the fact that V is actually working for A.R.G.U.S.—which was an ex machina for computer hacking apparently—so the organization and characters associated with it are set up to show up again soon. Blackfire now has the ability to return to Tamaran using the ship Conner blew up because Conner perfectly remembers every detail of it. Just in case we forgot there are no consequences. 

    Donna also seems to depart the team while Tim joins it—it is interesting to see how the show will go about Tim’s superhero identity considering he was absolutely not set up to become Robin by never meeting Bruce and leaving Gotham. Maybe the show is appropriately not going down that path after its aggressive Bruce-is-a-child-abuser vibe this season. But it hasn’t been all that self-aware before. 

    The end of Titans Season 3 is absurd and ridiculously simple after this convoluted season. The best part of the finale is that all of this is over. The show left itself in a place no different than where we started honestly—while Jason was supposed to be a cornerstone of the story, he actually got about two episodes at most worth of development and his character barely changed if at all. The “Robin” theme wasn’t tapped into in a way that could have made it interesting. The Blackfire plot was horrible, the best characters were wasted if not damaged, and most actions that any character took made no sense and were hard to watch. At the end of the day, Titans hasn’t necessarily forced itself into a new plot, so maybe—just maybe—they can take advantage of a fresh start.

  • WarnerMedia Studios CEO Seemingly Confirms Plans for a ‘Dune’ Sequel

    WarnerMedia Studios CEO Seemingly Confirms Plans for a ‘Dune’ Sequel

    Denis Villeneuve‘s adaptation of Dune is only the first part of the bigger picture. The story that explores the dunes of Arrakis offers a taste of what the story has to offer and many wondered if we’d finally get a sequel announcement. Luckily, it seems that WarnerMedia Studios and Networks Chair and CEO, Ann Sarnoff, might have confirmed that they’re already planning on the story getting a continuation. In a sit-down with Deadline, she gave the following answer on the question if we should expect the sequel.

    Will we have a sequel to Dune? If you watch the movie you see how it ends. I think you pretty much know the answer to that.

    Ann Sarnoff

    WarnerMedia CEO also added that their decisions on continuing franchises are based on audience responses and not just box office. The question was made due to the cinema epic also releasing on the streaming service HBO Max. WarnerMedia has been holding true to its promise that all 2021 releases will be made available simultaneously in theatres and their streaming service.

    It’s an interesting tease ahead of its domestic release. The film has been performing strongly internationally and the domestic release could be the last push it needed. Yet, it seems that there’s not as much pressure on Dune to outperform its earliest expectations for a domestic premiere. Our own Filip Manka had a chance to watch the film early and you can check out his review here.

    Source: Deadline