Murphy's Multiverse

Tag: Movie News

  • DC’s Scrapped ‘Batman Beyond’ Film Featured the Return of Another Burtonverse Icon

    DC’s Scrapped ‘Batman Beyond’ Film Featured the Return of Another Burtonverse Icon

    Amid the wreckage created by THR’s bombshell report that Wonder Woman 3, Man of Steel 2 and a Black Adam sequel were all falling apart under the newly minted DC Studios label came word that a Michael Keaton-led Batman Beyond film had also been in the works. The film, which was set to spin out of the events of The Flash, was being written by Christina Hodson (The Flash, Birds of Prey) but development on it was halted once James Gunn and Peter Safran took over.

    A new report from THR has now added a little more detail to what Hodson had in mind and how things fell apart. According to the report, Hodson was given the green light to develop the script prior to the hires of Gunn and Safran. Just a couple of weeks after they came on the scene, probably just enough time for the two of them to get the lay of the land, they asked Hodson to put down her pen.

    Integral to Hodson’s pitch, it seems, was the return of Selina Kyle/Catwoman, who appeared in the Burtonverse sequel Batman Returns in 1992. The Batman Beyond film would have seen Catwoman “resuscitate” a romance with Keaton’s Bruce Wayne which was left open-ended at best in the 1992 film. It’s highly probable that had the film gone forward, the studio would have approached Michelle Pfeiffer, whose performance as Catwoman in Batman Returns was genuinely iconic, to reprise the role. With the film being scrapped, fans will never know if she’d have returned.

    Source: Heat Vision

  • Walter Hamada’s Original DCEU Plan for Henry Cavill’s Superman Revealed

    Walter Hamada’s Original DCEU Plan for Henry Cavill’s Superman Revealed

    Marvel Studios has been busy developing their own Multiverse Saga with Kang the Conqueror at its core, but it seems that DC had their own multiversal plans beyond just The Flash‘s upcoming release. While Walter Hamada is no longer involved with DC or Warner Bros, it seems his original plan was to develop a Crisis on Infinite Earths film but have Henry Cavill‘s Superman slowly build up that storyline through breadcrumbs in various movies.

    It seems likely that The Flash was going to unleash the multiveerse unto the DC Extended Universe with Ben Affleck and Michael Keaton‘s versions of Batman’s existing simultaneously. Ironically, it seems that Dwayne Johnson‘s own plans to make Black Adam a Superman rival and forcefully bringing Cavill back in the role may have also derailed those plans somewhat. Though, it’s uncertain just how far they mapped out the concept and if they were trying to test the waters.

    The idea to not give Superman a sequel but rather use him for cameos is curious–pretty much the Nick Fury for the DCEU. It may have also been a decision based around Cavill‘s booked schedule with The Witcher (ironic given recent developments) and the Enola Holmes movies. Once a Warhammer 40K or World of Warcraft project picks up any steam, he’ll likely throw his hat into the ring for those as well. So, even if he won’t truly return as Superman, there are many franchises that’ll definitely catch his attention.

    Source: The Hollywood Reporter

  • ‘Peaky Blinders’ Creator Worked on the ‘Man of Steel’ Sequel Pitch

    ‘Peaky Blinders’ Creator Worked on the ‘Man of Steel’ Sequel Pitch

    Well, it looks like after all these rumors we finally know who was the one working on a potential sequel to Man of Steel. In Hollywood Reporter’s weekly Heat Vision blog, they’ve shared that their sources unveiled the news that Peaky Blinders and See creator Steven Knight was involved in pitching the Superman sequel. It seems that this pitch was initially made before James Gunn and Peter Safran joined the newly formed DC Studios to spearhead the franchise moving forward.

    There are sadly no details on what exactly the story was going to focus on, but it seems that Warner Bros. executives weren’t thrilled and “gave notes” that has become a common element. There’s also uncertainty if they even hired someone else to rewrite the project afterwards but it definitely was their dream to bring back Henry Cavill while it was still under Walter Hamada‘s supervision.

    The creator behind Peaky Blinders definitely is an interesting choice to bring the franchise back to life, and it would’ve been great to see what his original plans may have been. There are many questions if they would’ve stuck to the vision introduced by Zack Snyder, or try to go for a more hopeful version that is closer to how the character works in the comics. Either way, we may have a very different version at some pint in the future going by recent events.

    Source: Hollywood Reporter

  • ‘Doctor Strange’s Charlize Theron Shares How She Got Into the MCU

    ‘Doctor Strange’s Charlize Theron Shares How She Got Into the MCU

    Marvel Studios’ is no stranger to attracting fresh and veteran talent to become part of their Marvel Cinematic Universe. No matter the discussions online, they still have attracted some amazing talent throughout the years, such as the recent addition of Charlize Theron as Clea in Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness. It wasn’t a major role, but they definitely set the seeds for some massive storylines featuring the sorceress.

    In an interview with The Hollywood Reporter, the actress revealed just how she ended up being inspired and getting into the franchise. Surprisingly, it seems that she’s just a recent joiner of the franchise, and has seemingly been pushed by her Old Guard crew to check it out. Not only did she give it a chance, but it seems that she’s fallen for the franchise and ended up binging it to catch up.

    The simple answer to it is that it’s everything that I’ve said about Old Guard. If I can find the anchor, then I’m never going to be a snob about, like, ‘Oh, does this make me less of a powerful actor?’ I was ignorant, I didn’t know those [Marvel] movies well enough until a family who I consider, like, my adopted family had me watch them. They’re crazy Marvel fans, and I always used to make fun of them. Like, ‘Oh my God, you guys are such f-cking nerds.’ Then one spring break we rented a house and our kids were in a camp and they were like, ‘You need to fucking sit down and watch.’ So, we watched all the movies, and I was like, ‘Oh my God, they’re so fucking good.’ And the kids got in on it, too, and it was such an enjoyable ride. And there’s a mythology around it and it’s been thought out over decades with Clea, and I’m challenged by that. Like, how do you reinvent that? So, I’m excited, but I honestly don’t know what the fuck it’s going to be.

    Charlize Theron

    The experience Theron is sharing is surprisingly not uncommon for those that didn’t join the hype train early on and ended up only recently becoming part of its development. It’s interesting to see that her binging may have also become an inspiration to join the franchise, and here’s hoping that we’ll see more of Clea in the near future after her introduction in Multiverse of Madness.

    Source: THR

  • DC’s Change in Leadership May Not Be Able to Resurrect ‘Justice League Dark’

    DC’s Change in Leadership May Not Be Able to Resurrect ‘Justice League Dark’

    Once upon a time, director Guillermo del Toro was deep into development on a big screen adaptation of Justice League Dark for Warner Bros. Even after del Toro left the film in order to work on Pacific Rim Uprising, work continued on bringing his vision to the screen. That vision would have featured DC Comics’ characters John Constantine, Swamp Thing, Deadman, Etrigan the Demon and Zatanna, along with appearances from others such as Doctor Fate and Detective Chimp and was far enough along in development that a great deal of concept art was generated for the project.

    Obviously, the film never came together with several directors opting for other projects instead. Earlier this year, JJ Abrams announced plans to develop Justice League Dark characters for a series of projects on HBO Max but those plans seem to have already materialized as well, causing fans of the characters to wonder if they’ll ever find their way together on screen.

    However, the silver lining there is that without Justice League Dark ever having been made by anyone, the option for del Toro to pick the project back up remains. While nobody is suggesting that any of the others who passed would have done poorly, it’s hard to imagine many creatives better for the job than del Toro. In a recent interview with Comic Book, the question of whether or not the director had any interest in revisiting the project now that there was a new team of visionaries in place at DC. Unfortunately, it doesn’t sound promising.

    Oh, I don’t know. My love for Swamp Thing, The Demon, knows no bounds, but I don’t know. You don’t get a manicure from a big machine, that’s what I learn, you lose a few fingers. So I don’t know if I want a manicure from a big machine. As Danny Glover would say, “I’m too old for this shit”.

    Guillermo del Toro

    That’s certainly not a no, but it also isn’t a yes. Perhaps a sit down with DC Studios co-heads James Gunn and Peter Safran might turn del Toro around on this, but given all the uncertainty surrounding the future of the newly minted studio, there’s no telling if Justice League Dark is in the plans now or ever will be.

    Source: Comicbook.com

  • Rumored ‘The Kang Dynasty’ Leak Has the Avengers Finding a Wild New Ally

    Rumored ‘The Kang Dynasty’ Leak Has the Avengers Finding a Wild New Ally

    As fans await the beginning of Marvel Studios’ Phase 5, they are already looking ahead to Phase 6 where a pair of Avengers movies will wrap up the Multiverse Saga. The first of those is Avengers: The Kang Dynasty, which is set for a 2025 release and is beginning to sound like it will have serious ties to Ant-Man and The Wasp: Quantumania which kicks off Phase 5 in February as the Variant of Jonthan Majors’ Nathaniel Richards introduced there will be the main threat to the Multiverse moving forward. According to a new rumor, the Variant introduced in Quantumania isn’t going to be the only previously introduced one to play a key role in The Kang Dynasty.

    According to a rumored plot leak by Heavy Spoilers, He Who Remains, who was last seen being murdered by Sylvie in the Season 1 finale of Loki, will play a key role in The Kang Dynasty. He Who Remains is a Variant of Kang who inhabited the Citadel at the End of Time and watched over the Sacred Timeline. Upon his death, the Timeline splintered and created the Multiverse.

    According to the rumor, He Who Remains won’t have ascended to that lofty station quite yet in The Kang Dynasty and will still go by Nathaniel Richards. What’s even more interesting is that Richards will ultimately join the Avengers in their fight against Kang the Conqueror. Their alliance will continue into Avengers: Secret Wars where he and the Avengers will collect heroes from across the Multiverse to take on Kang.

    As absolutely fascinating as this sounds, it’s important to note that Avengers: The Kang Dynasty is still more than 2 years away, making this and any other rumor, no matter how great they sound, nothing more than fun topics for discussion!

    Source: Heavy Spoilers

  • James Cameron Wrote ‘Avatar 1.5’ to Prep the Cast for ‘Avatar: The Way of Water’

    James Cameron Wrote ‘Avatar 1.5’ to Prep the Cast for ‘Avatar: The Way of Water’

    It’s been 13 years since fans fell in love with Pandora and its inhabitants in Avatar. James Cameron’s long-awaited sequel, Avatar: The Way of Water, is now just a week away from releasing in theaters and just as fans have lived a life full of experiences since the first film released, so have the characters they met in the first film. At the heart of the film was a love story between Zoë Saldaña’s Na’vi character, Neytiri, and Sam Worthington’s Jake Sully, a Na’vi-human hybrid.

    The new film finds the pair over a decade later and with a family of their own which means much of who they are now was shaped by events that happened off-screen. During the global press event for Avatar: The Way of Water, Worthington talked about stepping back into the role and the lengths that Cameron went to in order to make the transition seem as authentic as possible, which included a fully-realized script for “Avatar 1.5” “[Cameron] gave me a script that was Avatar one point five that you know, unto itself is amazing and detailed and full of what they’ve kind of gone through over that gap,” explained Worthington.

    Worthington explained that Cameron seemed to understand that while Avatar: The Way of Water will focus on Sully and Neytiri fighting for their way of life, knowing exactly what their way of life had been for the past 10 years and the dynamic within the family they protect was an essential part of his prep for the role.

    And I think it was part of, you know, Jim realized that story was about them being warriors, and taking on the battles of the clans and things like that. But it almost didn’t feel… as you said, you wanted to explore what this family dynamic is, the natural extension of this love story. But it gave us a good jumping-off point to understand how to fill in that gap that’s missing, you know? To be honest, most people would, would’ve stuck on that one, but not this guy. It was pretty amazing, yeah.

    Sam Worthington

    Fans won’t have the added benefit of going through the experiences contained within Avatar 1.5, but from all early accounts of the film, it’s much more emotional which makes it sound like Cameron’s investment in writing it paid off.

    Avatar: The Way of Water opens in theaters on December 16th.

  • RUMOR: ‘The Flash’ Spinoff Focused on Michael Keaton’s Batman Scrapped in DC Studios’ Restructuring

    RUMOR: ‘The Flash’ Spinoff Focused on Michael Keaton’s Batman Scrapped in DC Studios’ Restructuring

    Everything is changing over at DC Studios, as the future of the former DC Expanded Universe seems quite uncertain. We’ve had the reveal that Wonder Woman 3 has lost its director Patty Jenkins, a Black Adam sequel seems unlikely at this point and so much more. Now, it seems a new rumor has popped up from Jeff Sneider that another project has been canned as James Gunn and Peter Safran restructure the new DC universe.

    It seems that The Flash and Birds of Prey‘s Christina Hodson has been working on a spinoff from The Flash that would’ve acted as a reboot of the original Michael Keaton-led Batman franchise. Keaton would further explore his character that is set to return in the upcoming film, though details on how the project would’ve explored his return remain uncertain. There’s also no word just how far they got with the script, as they may have just kicked around the idea before it was scrapped.

    It does seem more and more likely that The Flash might end up as a hard reboot for the DC Cinematic Universe moving forward, even if there are still no specific plans set by DC Studios’ new co-leads. Though, once the roadmap for the next ten years have been set, we might get a better look at what the future has in store for us.

    Source: YouTube via The Direct

  • ‘Rush Hour’ Revival is Happening According to Jackie Chan

    ‘Rush Hour’ Revival is Happening According to Jackie Chan

    There has been a lot of talk over the years that we’d might finally get a return of the Rush Hour franchise. In an era of legacy sequels, it is surprising that the Chris Tucker and Jackie Chan-led film series hasn’t already been greenlit. Any streaming service would be quite excited to get their hands on such an iconic franchise. Chris Tucker has often alluded to talks about it potentially being brought to life, but we still haven’t heard a single thing.

    Well, it seems that Jackie Chan has given us an update, as they are still seemingly working on getting the project started. He doesn’t truly give away how far along they are on bringing the project to life, but mostly just that they are still actively working on getting Rush Hour 4 off the ground.

    We’re talking about Rush Hour 4 right now.

    Jackie Chan

    The original trilogy has been quite beloved and there’s always a lot of potential of returning to the characters of Lee and Carter. While we’ll likely still have to wait a while, the moment a director and writer are found, then we can truly get a feeling for when the wait will finally come to an end. For now, it’s great to know that Chan and Tucker are so behind the project and want it to return in style.

    Source: Variety

  • New Report Adds Clarity to ‘Man of Steel 2’ Drama

    New Report Adds Clarity to ‘Man of Steel 2’ Drama

    Amid yesterday’s DC bombshell came the news that a Man of Steel sequel was unlikely to happen and that Henry Cavill’s return to the character in Black Adam looked to be incredibly short-lived. While fans immediately attributed that major change of direction to new DC Studios co-heads James Gunn and Peter Safran, a new report from Deadline indicates that may not be the case after all.

    As previously made clear by Black Adam star Dwayne Johnson, Cavill’s return for that film was orchestrated by Johnson and the leadership at Seven Bucks Productions. Producer Hiram Garcia even went so far as to lay out some ambitious plans for the future of Cavill and Superman as they’d been pushing for his return for a number of years. Cavill went on Instagram to declare he’s returned to the role and up until yesterday, everyone assumed that was the case…until THR’s report.

    While the report didn’t explicitly assign the “shuttering” of Man of Steel 2 to Gunn, the implication that he and Safran had shut it down as they transitioned to their new role was there. However, according to Deadline, Warner Bros. Motion Picture heads Michael De Luca and Pam Abdy had shut down a pitch for the film from producer Charles Roven before Gunn and Safran came on board. The report from Deadline indicates that at no point had the sequel ever been given the go-ahead nor is the idea that one might still happen off the table. It simply all depends on the pitch.

    This may go some way in helping to decode Gunn’s social media response to THR’s story in which he said “some of it is true, some of it is half-true, some of it is not true, & some of it we haven’t decided yet whether it’s true or not.” It turns out that as always, hardcore fans are best off waiting for an official announcement from DC Studios before getting too excited one way or the other.

    Source: Deadline