Tag: Marvel Movies

EXCLUSIVE: Marvel Studios Taps ‘Wonder Woman 1984’ Screenwriter David Callaham to Pen Untitled Film

Note: This article was originally published by Charles Murphy at That Hashtag Show on November 1, 2018.

Screenwriter David Callaham has been commissioned by Marvel Studios to write an upcoming and yet to be announced film. Since writing the screenplay for 2005’s Doom, Callaham has quickly ascended as a writer. He has done character work on the Expendables franchise, wrote 2014’s Godzilla and has scripts for 3 major upcoming films (Wonder Woman 1984, Mortal Kombat and Zombieland 2) in various stages of development.

Callaham boarded the new project earlier this month, but at this time we are unable to learn the specifics of the project. We do know that it is a film and not one of the limited series currently being developed for Disney Play. The 41-year old Fresno native and University of Michigan grad is no stranger to Marvel Studios, having done some uncredited work on Peyton Reed‘s Ant-Man, and his very diverse resume of projects (including the Amazon series Jean-Claude Van Johnson) doesn’t give us much to go on as we speculate.

What It Is Not

Black Widow, The Eternals and the sequel to Black Panther are set. Black Widow was penned by Jac Schaeffer while Matthew and Ryan Firpo tag teamed the script for The Eternals. Ryan Coogler recently signed on to write and direct the follow up to Black Panther. With Black Widow and The Eternals expected to enter production in 2019, it’s highly unlikely that Marvel Studios has decided to scrap a script entirely and start over with a new writer. It’s much more likely that Callaham is working on a yet-to-be-announced project.

What It Might Be

Literally anything else. Could Callaham be the writer of the Dark Avengers script we reported on earlier this month? It’s certainly possible, though at this point he’s just as likely to the scribe of that script as he is any other film. We know that Marvel Studios is developing a Doctor Strange sequel, that Kevin Feige has teased adding the Young Avengers and that they would like to introduce a number of new characters, including a handful of new female characters. Callaham’s diverse portfolio makes him equally likely to be working on any one of those projects. Whatever the project is, we wouldn’t be too surprised to hear more about it in the near future. With Callaham coming on board this late in 2018, it would be in line with recent Marvel Studios protocol for them to be hoping to get the script in order to film in late 2019 or early 2020, making it a candidate for either the May 7th or November 5th, 2021 release. It’s also entirely possible that Callaham may take his time on this project and we may not even see it in the near future. Whatever the case, we certainly hope to stir the drink and get some more details in the near future.

November 1, 2018
EXCLUSIVE: Marvel Studios 2020 Slate is Set

Note: This article was originally published by Charles Murphy at That Hashtag Show on October 26, 2018.

Kevin Feige has kept his word: while the wheels at Marvel Studios are still spinning, the fans are left to speculate on what films will come when. Black Widow, The Eternals, Black Panther 2 and Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3 headline a list of projects we know are upcoming, but since it was announced that Vol. 3 would be delayed while the search for a director continued, it’s been unclear and a source of debate among fans which film would take it place. The recent announcement that the studio was dropping one of its 3 scheduled films from its 2020 release slate seemingly confirmed that Vol. 3 would NOT be happening anytime soon and fanned the flames of conjecture even further. So which movies will we actually end up seeing in 2020?

We are told that in addition to dropping the July 31, 2020 film from their slate, Marvel Studios also settled on the 2 films they’ll be releasing in 2020. As many fans have speculated, we are told the studio plans to release Black Widow on May 1, 2020 and The Eternals on November 6, 2020.

We are told that Black Widow is looking to take advantage of the attractive production incentives available by filming in Croatia. Walt Disney Studios used the beautiful coastal nation to film portions of Star Wars: The Last Jedi, allowing for Black Widow to film their as well in keeping with one of many requirements for the handsome rebate. We were the first to bring you a limited synopsis for the film, one that is in line with a longer synopsis also recently revealed:

At birth, the Black Widow (aka Natasha Romanova) is given to the KGB, which grooms her to become its ultimate operative. When the U.S.S.R. breaks up, the government tries to kill her as the action movies to present-day New York, where she is a freelance operative. The standalone film will find Romanoff living in the United States 15 years after the fall of the Soviet Union.

With production set to begin early in 2019, it’s very possible Black Widow is already in pre-production and we expect casting news to begin to leak before the end of the year!

Marvel Studios is also rolling the dice on The Eternals in 2020.

The story of ‘THE ETERNALS’ is set millions of years ago when the cosmic beings known as the Celestials genetically experimented on humans, creating the super-powered individuals as well as more villainous off-shoots known as Deviants. The two groups went on to battle each other throughout history to see which would eventually become the ultimate race. The story involves the love story between Ikaris, a man fueled by cosmic energy, and Sersi, who relishes moving amongst humans.

Chloe Zhao, director of The Eternals, is the big winner in the shuffling of Marvel Studios post-Infinity plans. The studio has a script that they like and when they moved on Zhao, they had hoped things would come together quickly enough to begin production Q4 of next year, which we are told is tentatively planned to take place primarily in the UK, though that’s certainly not been cemented at this point.

Fans of the comics know that The Eternals have two rather diverse interpretations in the comics: the Jack Kirby iteration and the Neil Gaiman iteration. While Gaiman’s turn with the characters held on to some of the key points of the original Kirby work, it was certainly a more modern take. We are told that the script by Matthew and Ryan Firpo was more heavily influenced by Kirby’s 1976 work and will not only introduce the worlds of the Eternals and Deviants, but also connect to several existing characters, leave doors open for the introductions of any number of new ones and establish a deep history of the MCU.

While no further details about who those characters may be were revealed to us, we can certainly speculate. Dating back to the earliest recorded history, the Eternals have direct connections to Thanos, through his father, A’Lars (mentioned in Avengers: Infinity War) and his mother Sui-San; the Greek Pantheon, known as the Olympians, through Zuras, son of Kronos and uncle to Thanos; the Kree and also the malevolent entity known as the Dragon of the Moon. Additionally, the timeless foes of the Eternals, the Deviants, have several interesting connections themselves. Their longtime, underwater capital city of Lemuria could certainly portend some interesting possibilities as could the fact that Skrulls, set to debut in Captain Marvel, are also Deviant offshoots in the comics. Once thought to be a film that could tangentially connect to Thanos and maybe be backdoored via Vol. 3, it’s possible that The Eternals could become a central hub from which many other future story lines emerge.

If we’ve learned anything in the past week, it is that films which seem to have the firmest of release dates (Wonder Woman 1984, for instance) can be shuffled around in an instant so I’m not here to tell you to go get in line for tickets just yet. In a business that’s always in motion, this represents a snapshot of Marvel Studios plans today as I write this, which isn’t even the same day you’ll read it, at which point plans could already have changed.

October 26, 2018
EXCLUSIVE: SONY’S ‘MORBIUS’ VILLAIN REVEALED

Note: This article was originally published by Charles Murphy at That Hashtag Show on October 16, 2018

The box office success of Sony’s Venom means that their planned Universe of Marvel Characters will continue. Up next for Sony is the Jared Leto-led Morbius, which tells the tale of Dr. Michael Morbius. Morbius is a biochemist who in an attempt to cure a fatal blood disease injects himself with a treatment serum derived from bats. Morbius is transformed into a creature with vampire-like traits, including super strength and reflexes and a thirst for human blood. Back in July we brought you the first details on the film’s leads, including the first descriptions of the film’s villain and Martine Bancroft. With filming projected to begin sometime in the first quarter of 2019, Sony has begun searching for its cast and we now have an update on the film’s villain!

In our July exclusive we revealed that the film’s antagonist would be a friend of Morbius’ who turned on him and that still remains true. However, at the time we speculated that friend might be Emil Nikos. While Nikos will be in Morbius (though this iteration of Nikos will be very different from his comic book counterpart), he is not the film’s villain. Michael Morbius will face off against his good friend Loxias Crown!

If that name doesn’t quite ring a bell it’s because Loxias Crown doesn’t exist in the comics…not by that name anyway. It seems as though Sony might be adapting the mutant supervillain Crown, who later went by the name Hunger and came into conflict with Spider-Man and Morbius.

Crown first appeared in 1997’s Spider-Man #76. If Sony is adapting Crown here, they’re making some serious alterations to the characters history. In the film, Loxias Crown suffers from the same rare blood disease as his good friend Morbius. Like Morbius, Loxias will be transformed by the serum that Moribus developed to cure them and the film’s main conflict will center on Morbius trying to stop the killing machine Loxias has become while also fighting off his own blood lust.

With the film hoping to start production early next year, casting for Loxias could happen at anytime, but as of now Jared Leto remains the only actor who has signed on for a role. Stay tuned to That Hashtag Show for more on this story as it develops.

October 16, 2018
EXCLUSIVE: New Details About ‘Captain Marvel’ Revealed

Note: This article was originally published by Charles Murphy at MCU Exchange on August 2, 2017.

The excitement around the SDCC announcement that Captain Marvel would be a period piece taking place in the 1990s was absolutely tangible. From the time period to the involvement of the Skrulls, people were absolutely blown away but also left asking a lot of questions. We reached out to our most trusted source who helped us out with the Children of Thanos and Nomad stories and were able to land a few details that should hold us over until Marvel Studios is ready to give us more info.

In 2014, Badass Digest revealed that Carol Danvers would make her debut in Avengers: Age of Ultron. The introduction, they reported, would be an end of the movie cameo that would include Ms. Marvel among the new members of the Avengers. The site included a disclaimer that while it was possible, it was just as possible that the studio was a little concerned about introducing such a major character in a short cameo.

Avengers: Age of Ultron did debut a new team of Avengers (which we never saw in action, by the way) but there was no Carol Danvers. With her own film having been announced in the time between the initial report and the premiere of the film, it seemed Marvel Studios chose to hold off and give her an introduction more in line with her high profile. The reports, however, were confirmed and Marvel even went as far as to shoot VFX plates for her entrance into the New Avengers facility, but those shots were ultimately used on Scarlet Witch’s arrival in her new costume. Kevin Feige explained his decision in keeping Danvers out of the film:

“There were drafts that maybe people somehow got their hands on and read early on that included some characters – maybe others, but certainly one, which is why it’s dangerous to read scripts early on, and talk about them early on…

[Captain Marvel] was in a draft. But to me, it would have done that character a disservice, to meet her fully formed, in a costume and part of the Avengers already when 99% of the audience would go, ‘Who is that?’ It’s just not the way we’ve done it before.”

And so Carol Danvers’ introduction to the MCU was put on hold as the minds at Marvel Studios went to work on how to best introduce her, but what was revealed was that Captain Marvel would have been a fully formed, known quantity as a superhero at the time. Now, we at the MCU Exchange have exclusive details on how Kevin Feige, Anna Boden and Ryan Fleck will bring Meg LeFauve and Nicole Perlman’s script to the screen and we think you’re going to love it!. As noted above, it is still very early in the process (they won’t film until winter 2018) and all of this is subject to change, but what we currently know sounds absolutely amazing.

Brie Larson’s absence from the filming of Avengers: Infinity War has people asking just where the most powerful of Earth’s Mightiest Heroes was when they most needed her. While it was widely believed that Carol wasn’t in the fight because she hadn’t been powered up yet, we now know that’s not the case; however, if she’s been a superhero for 20 years so you think she would show up when the fate of the entire cosmos was at stake!

So where has Carol been all this time? We are told that the comments by Marvel Stuido’s physics consultant, Dr. Spiros Michalakis, about the Quantum Realm playing a major part in Captain Marvel have an awful lot to do with where she’s been and why she sat out the events of Infinity War. With Captain Marvel releasing between Infinity War and the as-yet-untitled Avengers 4, we believe we have an answer to Danvers’ location and see her return to join the fray in Avengers 4.

Long time members of the Carol Corps are going to love the way the story pays homage to her long history. We know the Kree will have a large presence in the film and, according to the source, the film will absolutely include the Kree hero Mar-Vell! It’s well-established in Marvel Cinematic Universe mythology that the Kree have been to Earth before, so we aren’t surprised to find out that Mar-Vell might have been on Earth in the past to observe and report on the activities of humans especially given that film’s plot is expected to be driven by the longstanding Kree-Skrull war.

Though we don’t know if we’ll be seeing him on Earth as Dr. Lawson, we are told to expect to see a version of the Psyche-Magnitron accident from the comics and that accident will be responsible for altering her DNA and giving her powers. Furthermore, we are told that her unique half-Kree/half-human DNA will be used to explain why she hasn’t appeared to age since her disappearance, meaning they won’t need to age/de-age Brie Larson. Just like Thor and the Asgardians before her, Carol won’t necessarily age in the MCU.

Additionally and in somewhat of a surprising move, the earliest drafts of the script include references to her functioning as Ms. Marvel and that there will be a version of her early Ms. Marvel costume seen onscreen. Marvel Studios have been great about updating classic looks that respect the mythology without causing too much controversy and we expect something similar will be done here.

We’ll keep working with our source to find out more, but Marvel Studios has been on lockdown for a long, long time but this is a genius move by Marvel Studios. With the film being set in the 90s it gives them the opportunity to do a lot of things in the 20 years that have passed and also deal with the repercussions of those events.

August 2, 2017