Murphy's Multiverse

Tag: Marvel Movies

  • ‘Morbius’ Director Talks Vulture’s Arrival in Sony’s New Universe

    ‘Morbius’ Director Talks Vulture’s Arrival in Sony’s New Universe

    For those that have watched Sony’s latest venture into building a separate Marvel Cinematic Universe, Morbius sets up a curious crossover between its various anti-hero characters. Somehow, MCU’s Vulture (Michael Keaton) lands in this new universe in the film’s post-credit sequence. Not just that, he even ends up meeting up with the newly minted vampire to pitch an idea of teaming up to face off against Spider-Man. Ignoring the fact that Spidey isn’t really a factor at any point in the film and its out-of-character, Keaton was a big part of the ongoing trailers. So, it’s strange he’s suddenly relegated to a post-credit sequence.

    Director Daniel Espinosa got a chance to discuss the challenge of adapting to Spider-Man: No Way Home as the film introduced the concept of the live-action Spider-Verse. It also opened up the confirmation that Venom was part of a separate universe, which turns out was Sony’s idea. So, the fact they are now separate universes complicated matters and forced them to adapt elements of the story. To not overcomplicate things, they just added him at the end as a result.

    The first thing that happened was that we had Michael Keaton because we were planning on doing this. But then when Spider-Man: No Way Home came out, it said, “This is how the visual effects are.” And then the idea of having him just encountering him in that universe seemed too complicated, and then we put it in the end.

    Daniel Espinosa

    A lot of the piece highlights the challenges they’ve faced throughout production. Morbius was originally going to release two years earlier. So, we may have faced a very different kind of connection between the MCU and Sony’s attempt at one. We’ll see if the physical release might include a hint at the original scenes and how Michael Keaton was originally going to fit into the story.

    Source: Uproxx

  • ‘Morbius’ Director Confirms Rumors of Jared Leto’s On-Set Behaviours

    ‘Morbius’ Director Confirms Rumors of Jared Leto’s On-Set Behaviours

    Jared Leto is well-known throughout the industry, but not for the reasons you’d expect. During his tenure as the Joker on David Ayer‘s Suicide Squad, the actor took “method acting” a step too far by sending his co-stars some questionable gifts. There’ve been rumors that he’s done something similar with his time on his latest feature Morbius, where he plays a character with a disability. Supposedly, he would walk around on crutches and remain in character even long after the camera’s stopped rolling As such, it would cost the production hours for him to just go to the bathroom as a result. Morbius’ director Daniel Espinosa has now confirmed his off-screen behavior in an interview with Uproxx.

    Yeah. Because I think that what Jared thinks, what Jared believes, is that somehow the pain of those movements, even when he was playing normal Michael Morbius, he needed, because he’s been having this pain his whole life. Even though, as he’s alive and strong, it has to be a difference. Hey, man, it’s people’s processes.

    Daniel Espinosa

    As his focus on moving around with crutches became too much, they made a deal to have him sit in a wheelchair as it otherwise would’ve dragged production out even more. It certainly sounds like the director of films like Life and Safe House has faced some harsh challenges on set, especially how he generalizes the experience with actors. He even goes on to say that:

    If you want a completely normal person that does only things that you understand, then you’re in the wrong business. Because what’s different is what makes them tick. It’s very hard to be able to say, “I can take this part away and I will still get the same stuff from him.” I don’t do that. I’m more to see like, “Hey, if you’re doing this, we have to do this.”

    Daniel Espinosa

    So, it sounds like directing a feature film, especially a high-budget one, is quite the challenge. He hints that there are many parties involved with these projects that had their own goals with the production. So, to top it off with actors that have very specific expectations and their own methods to tackle projects like these certainly adds to the pressure any creative has to go through in a competitive industry like Hollywood.

    Source: Uproxx

  • ‘Venom’s Separate Spider-Man Timeline Was Pitched by Sony Not Marvel Studios

    ‘Venom’s Separate Spider-Man Timeline Was Pitched by Sony Not Marvel Studios

    There have been many discussions on who exactly had what idea in setting up the future of the Marvel Cinematic Universe’s relationship with Sony’s Spider-Man Universe. While Tom Holland‘s run as the character stuck in the MCU after Spider-Man: No Way Home, we learned that the universe introduced with Venom was a completely separate timeline altogether. That set-up naturally bled over into Morbius, which existed in this separate timeline. The introduction of Michael Keaton‘s Vulture has added quite a lot of confusion to the story, but luckily director Daniel Espinosa revealed some details on how it came together.

    Most theories pointed to Marvel Studios pitching the idea of a separate universe for Sony, but it turns out that wasn’t the case. According to Espinosa in an interview with Uproxx, Sony was the one that created the concept of this different timeline. Naturally, it led to some issues as the film was originally going to release two years earlier, way before No Way Home even entered production, but ended up having to change course after a constant barrage of delays. So, they had no idea what Marvel Studios was cooking up and Sony forced their hand to adapt. Still, this new timeline was their idea from the get-go:

    But I think that the concept of having different timelines were, I believe, came from Sony, not from Kevin Feige. It was Sony that initiated that idea. I think that Miles Morales that you have in Spider-Verse, I would bet your life on that you would have Miles Morales from the Spider-Verse in the Marvel Cinematic Universe at some point.

    Daniel Espinosa

    It’s a curious reveal, but it may be a hint that Sony wanted absolute freedom to work within their own sandbox. Even if the forced introduction of Vulture made no sense and broke the rules set by the MCU film. Still, that has never stopped the studio from trying out different things as they are seemingly building up towards a villainous crossover against a version of Spider-Man we haven’t seen yet. For now, we’ll have to see where this is heading.it

    Source: Uproxx

  • ‘Thor: Love and Thunder’ Kicks Off Press Tour With No Trailer in Sight

    ‘Thor: Love and Thunder’ Kicks Off Press Tour With No Trailer in Sight

    Well, this is awkward. We’ve all been wondering where exactly the trailer has been for Thor: Love and Thunder. The film isn’t that far away from release, yet there hasn’t been anything from the production. Marketing has changed quite a bit due to the pandemic, but it still has been catching people off guard. Yet, adding more to the confusion is the fact that its main actor Chris Hemsworth has shared a photo of him joined by director Taika Waititi and Tessa Thompson kicking off the film’s press tour.

    UPDATING

    Source: Instagram

  • ‘Morbius Takes Top Spot at the Domestic Box Office With $39M

    ‘Morbius Takes Top Spot at the Domestic Box Office With $39M

    Morbius has been welcomed by audiences with harsh critique, but even its negative reception by critics didn’t stop the film from still nabbing $39.1M at the domestic box office. The film opened across 4,268 theaters in the North America. It’s still a strong pull even for the film landing at 17% on Rotten Tomatoes, but it won’t break any records.

    To put that in comparison though, Venom managed to pull in $80M back in 2018 before its sequel even went on to pull $90M during the pandemic. While it still remains an issue to this day, we’ve been seeing stronger openings for the usual crowd-pleasing films. Internationally, it hasn’t managed to break the $100M, as it was just shy with $84M.

    To be fair, Sony hasn’t invested that much like other big blockbuster films this time around, as the production budget for Morbius was around $75M. The big test always remains how strong the holding is going into the second weekend, but with word-of-mouth being as it is, we might likely expect a considerable drop going in. For now, we can only theorize.

    Source: Variety

  • Sydney Sweeney on Joining Sony’s ‘Madame Web’ Movie 

    Sydney Sweeney on Joining Sony’s ‘Madame Web’ Movie 

    Sydney Sweeney has emerged as one of the 2020s biggest up-and-coming young stars. She’s fresh off hit roles in HBO’s series Euphoria and The White Lotus, and has dabbled in film with appearances in movies like Once Upon a Time in Hollywood and The Voyeurs. Next, she’ll be joining the modern superhero frenzy starring opposite Dakota Johnson in Sony’s Madame Web adaptation. The project will be the fourth installment in the studios’ Universe of Marvel Characters, following the Venom movies and this month’s Morbius.

    Speaking to Variety, Sweeney finally opened up about preparing for her role in the film and her excitement over boarding the project:

    I’ve been ordering a bunch of comic books. There’s a lot to learn. I’ve always been a really big fan of all of the Marvel and Sony Universe movies. I’ve grown up watching them all and I’ve been engulfed in the entire world my entire life, so being able to be a part of that is such an incredible, incredible thing.

    Sydney Sweeney

    While the actress did not divulge which character she may be playing, she did reveal it’s not one fans might be expecting. Sweeney spoke about trying to take challenging roles as she furthers her career:

    I like to try and find characters that are challenging for me in multiple different ways, and are completely different from one another. I want to continue to shock people with the characters that I play when they don’t expect that I would choose that next.

    Sydney Sweeney

    While Morbius hasn’t exactly landed well with critics, or viewers, hopefully Madame Web will find the audience Sweeney is looking for. The film is set to be directed by S.J. Clarkson, and has no current release date.

    Source: Variety

  • ‘Morbius’ Opens to $5.7M in Thursday Previews, Eyeing a Potential $50M- Opening Weekend

    ‘Morbius’ Opens to $5.7M in Thursday Previews, Eyeing a Potential $50M- Opening Weekend

    Morbius is a curious case of a film constantly getting pushed back even after it originally eyeing a release in January of 2020. After all that, it was welcomed by some harsh reviews and opened up to a 15% on Rotten Tomatoes. The film has now seemingly still managed to pull in $5.7M on a Thursday, which is half of what Venom: Let There Be Carnage got last year. It’s not a great opening but with a $75M budget it’s still nothing to get worried about for Sony.

    Still, the weekend will be the ultimate test, as photos of seemingly empty theaters are making the rounds and hints that the latest blockbuster entry may lose its momentum quite fast. While at best it could score around $45M, it might be closing in on $35M by the end of its weekend run. Early predictions did have it at potentially breaking $50M opening weekend early on, which could still be possible if it somehow picks up in its second weekend.

    Sony wasn’t dumb and invested less into the picture knowing that Morbius isn’t a household name like Venom is. Most of its marketing put all its money on building up the connection to Spider-Man. We even got various hints at it either being part of the MCU, Maguire‘s universe or even the Amazing franchise. Yet, as director Daniel Espinosa openly leaked the post-credit sequences a week ahead of its release, it’s unclear if there are any expectations of the film moving forward.

    Source: Forbes, Box Office Pro

  • ‘The Marvels’ Adds Kree Scientist to Cast of Characters

    ‘The Marvels’ Adds Kree Scientist to Cast of Characters

    The Marvels isn’t expected in theaters for almost a year and little is known about the plot of the film, but it seems that fans can at least add another known character to their fan fiction. According to Mandy.com, a website that tracks actors and the productions they board, British actor Colin Stoneley has joined the Captain Marvel sequel.

    The listing comes courtesy of One Take News and lines up with a previous casting scoop by the site. According to Mandy, Stoneley will portray a Kree scientist by the name of Pap-Tonn, who was originally described as a “Scientist friend” in the original casting call. It’s possible Pap-Tonn will work to help one of the film’s protagonists understand the origin of their powers a bit better.

    Pap-Tonn continues the trend of incredibly obscure characters being used in The Marvels, allowing for Marvel Studios to reinvent them. Pap-Tonn appeared in only one Marvel Comic, Silver Surfer #8, and played a minor role there. The character joins Ael-Dan (or some version of the character) played by Zawe Ashton as minor comic characters in the film. Ashton’s character, however, is expected to have a much greater impact on the film as the primary antagonist.

    The Marvels will hit theaters on February 17, 2023.

  • ‘Avengers: Infinity War’ and ‘Avengers: Endgame’s Production Budget Was $1 Billion

    ‘Avengers: Infinity War’ and ‘Avengers: Endgame’s Production Budget Was $1 Billion

    Marvel Studios was all-in with their double featured led by the Joe and Anthony Russo, who were fresh off of their success with Captain America: Civil War. At the time, there were rumblings that the films were working with a budget of around $400 million but it was never truly confirmed. Well, that was until now, as Joe Russo revealed during a panel at Sands International Film Festival of St. Andrews that Avengers: Infinity War and its sequel Endgame each cost $500M to make. As such, they had a total budget of a billion making it probably the most expensive productions in Hollywood.

    I don’t know if these numbers have ever been accurately reported but in the case of Avengers: Endgame or Infinity War, each of those movies was $500 million plus. So this is an incredible amount of money that is being spent on these films. And you have responsibility, if you have a conscience to in some way deliver a return on that investment for the people that gave you that money. So it is risky to say ‘Hey we got a crazy idea, here’s how we can subvert expectations but we’re going to take your two most popular characters and we’re going to have them try to kill each other.’

    Joe Russo

    It definitely paid off, as not only did Endgame become the highest grossing film for some time before a re-release of Avatar took back the top spot, but we can only imagine how much money they made on home releases, merchandising and more. You have to also respect the fact that the company was willing to risk it. They believed in two directors that had their humble TV roots that would end up developing some iconic entries in one of the largest franchises of the world.

    Source: Deadline via ScreenCrush

  • New ‘Guardians of the Galaxy’ Set Photos Tease Their Return to Earth

    New ‘Guardians of the Galaxy’ Set Photos Tease Their Return to Earth

    Just recently, we discussed some reports from the set of Hot Christmas, which is one of the Guardians of the Galaxy projects was filming on Earth. Not only that, but there was also a rumor making the rounds that Kevin Bacon may have joined the project in some capacity. Well, it seems that The Direct got their hands on set photos from that very location, which confirms that Star-Lord and the gang are returning to Earth one more time after the events of Avengers: Endgame.

    Most of the photos simply show us local police cars flipped on their side hinting at some kind of action sequence taking place. Sadly, there is no sighting of any of the actosr, and it seems they are very likely only setting up for the sequence that was described by the Reddit user some time ago.

    Guardians of the Galaxy Holiday Special Set Photo The Direct
    Guardians of the Galaxy Holiday Special Set Photo The Direct

    What does stand out is that one photo includes some Christmas decoration in the garden of the house where they are shooting. So, it would seem logical to assume this might be part of the The Guardians of the Galaxy Holiday Special that’ll release this Christmas on Disney+.

    Guardians of the Galaxy Holiday Special Set Photo The Direct

    If Kevin Bacon is involved with the project, it would be a funny story to have the Guardians get him a present and they end up kidnapping the actor. They’ve always been a bit unhinged and Quill’s reaction would be hilarious. Perhaps the story is them traveling back to return him home, only to be met with quite the warm welcome given they just abducted a celebrity and tried to act as if nothing happened. It’s only speculation, but their return to Earth might also be an emotional moment for Peter to meet his family again.

    Source: The Direct