Murphy's Multiverse

Tag: Movie News

  • ‘Godzilla vs. Kong’ Sequel Eyeing a Production Start Later This Year

    ‘Godzilla vs. Kong’ Sequel Eyeing a Production Start Later This Year

    Godzilla vs. Kong was the film to revive the box office after the pandemic kept the entire industry on its toes. At the same time, it even managed to revive the franchise that was facing a bit of a downward spiral in its box office performance. Luckily, its success not only led to Adam Wingard getting signed on for the next MonsterVerse entry but also led to Apple TV+ getting its hands on a spinoff series. After a long bout of silence, it looks like the sequel film is finally picking up the pace.

    It is currently eyeing a production start later this year and will return to Australia. Gold Coast and Southeast Queensland will once again become the home for the latest MonsterVerse film, making it the third time. It’ll receive $11.8M through the federal government with an additional $4.66M subsidy being offered through the state screen agency. Producer Eric McLeod had the following to say:

    The highly skilled crews, first-rate facilities, and unique locations make filming in Australia a great experience. The support from both the federal government as well as Queensland has always been critical to our success in achieving a high level of filmmaking and an unparalleled audience experience.

    Eric McLeod

    It’s crazy that we haven’t heard anything about the project in some time, and now it’s already eyeing a productions tart. We have no real idea what the future has in store for the franchise, but there have been hints that it may explore a storyline focusing on the aftermath for Kong rather than Godzilla, who kickstarted the franchise. It’s also strange they aren’t building up multiple entries, as there is a surprising amount of silence on the project. So, we’ll see if this announcement builds up to a potential reveal on its title and direction.

    Source: Twitter, Variety

  • Angela Bassett Says ‘Black Panther’ Sequel Will Be Better Than The Original

    Angela Bassett Says ‘Black Panther’ Sequel Will Be Better Than The Original

    Black Panther: Wakanda Forever has seemed to have had far more hurdles in its pre-production and production processes over the past couple of years than its predecessor or even its fellow MCU films. Between the tragic passing of star Chadwick Boseman and lengthy delays, the Black Panther sequel has persevered.

    With some fans worried about the franchise’s future, Queen Ramonda actress Angela Bassett has declared that Wakanda Forever will be even better than Academy Award Best Picture nominee Black Panther, and she went on to praise director Ryan Coogler:

    It’s going to be amazing. It’s going to top [the first] one. Can I say that? Marvel, can I say that?…[Ryan Coogler] was such an example, such a leader, an amazing talent — we all know that. Big heart, great intellect, and we just hope to raise his standard. It will be amazing. Our director Ryan Coogler. Writer. Director. Perfect leader.

    Angela Bassett

    To give a film such high praise nearly 8 months out from its release is certainly a big statement, especially when the film is being compared to the incredibly successful Black Panther. Some may be skeptical of Bassett’s declaration, particularly given the fact that the MCU’s current Black Panther, T’Challa, will not be in the film. Wakanda Forever is expected to significantly expand the roles of Letita Wright’s Shuri and Winston Duke’s M’Baku among others, and introduce major new Marvel characters to the MCU such as Tenoch Huerta’s Namor and Domique Thorne’s Ironheart.

    The film is certainly set to be larger in scale than Black Panther considering the fact that it is introducing Namor and Atlantis and paving the way for so many future MCU stories. Fans will have to wait and see how Black Panther: Wakanda Forever stacks up to Black Panther when the film is released on November 11, 2022.

    Source: The Direct

  • ‘Crazy Rich Asians 2’ Sets Amy Wang as New Writer

    ‘Crazy Rich Asians 2’ Sets Amy Wang as New Writer

    The sequel to 2018’s hit Crazy Rich Asians is moving ahead with a new writer.

    The news comes courtesy of Deadline with the outlet revealing Amy Wang will take over writing duties on the long-awaited sequel. Wang replaces Peter Chiarelli and Adele Lim, who were part of a controversial pay parity in 2019 when it was revealed Chiarelli was set to earn $800,000 to $1 million for the first two films, while Lim was only set to make $100,000. Lim ended up walking away from the planned sequels, with director Jon M. Chu fully supporting her decision. Wang will take sole writing credit on the Crazy Rich Asians sequel.

    Wang has served as the story editor for Netflix’s Brothers Sun, and she has also worked on the Netflix title From Scratch. She has also directed an episode of Starz’ Blindspotting, as well as 2019’s The Birch for Facebook. Wang is currently attached to write and direct a horror feature for Paramount.

    Crazy Rich Asians, based on the hit novel of the same name, raked in $238 million worldwide in 2018. Two sequels were announced shortly after its successful debut, however, they’ve been slow-moving. Crazy Rich Asians 2 does not yet have a release date.

    Source: Deadline.

  • Marisa Tomei Wants to Play Aunt May in the Multiverse

    Marisa Tomei Wants to Play Aunt May in the Multiverse

    Marvel fans might have thought they’d seen the last of Marisa Tomei‘s May Parker, but the acclaimed actress isn’t ready to hang in the towel just yet. During the events of Spider-Man: No Way Home, the character met her tragic end at the hands of Willem Dafoe‘s Green Goblin. Her death served as an integral turning point for Tom Holland‘s titular hero, and Aunt May isn’t known for having any super resurrection abilities, so a return in the Marvel Cinematic Universe’s main timeline is probably out of the question. Luckily for Tomei, other timelines are exactly the sort of thing the MCU will be focusing on going forward.

    While appearing on Jimmy Fallon‘s late night show, the former My Cousin Vinny star was asked about No Way Home‘s exciting multiverse elements. While she admitted to not fully understanding how Marvel’s many universes work, she did state that she would love to use them as an excuse to play May again:

    Yeah, I would love to come back and be a part of that. I want to be. There’s history there, too. May Parker hooks up with Ant-Man in one of the – well, I mean she’s a stand-alone character, of course. But there are more avenues to explore.

    Marisa Tomei

    While a quick search didn’t turn up any information on a version of Aunt May getting involved with Ant-Man, it did reveal an issue of Marvel’s What If…? from 1982 where May becomes Ant-Man. Perhaps Tomei could lend her voice to a future episode of What If…? on Disney+, or maybe she already has. Believe it or not, Spider-Man’s mother figure has quite a few alternate variations scattered across the multiverse. So, if not an adaptation of Ant-May, maybe we’ll see a live-action version of that time she became a Herald of Galactus? One can only hope.

    Source: The Tonight Show

  • ‘The Batman’ Crosses $300 Million Domestically

    ‘The Batman’ Crosses $300 Million Domestically

    The Batman is continuing to dominate the box office.

    The Caped Crusader managed to take the top spot for the third weekend in a row, bringing in an additional $36 million this weekend. This helped to push the film past $300 million stateside. More impressively, though, the film only saw a 45% percent dip over the weekend, which, of course, was helped by there being no other major releases to serve as competition.

    Along with hitting $300 million domestically, the film is nearing the $600 million mark at the global box office. The Batman took in $49.1 million from international marks, which includes $12.1 million from China. The Batman should successfully cross $600 million worldwide by Monday.

    The Batman is in theaters now.

    Source: THR.

  • First ‘Kraven The Hunter’ Set Footage Teases Car Chase

    First ‘Kraven The Hunter’ Set Footage Teases Car Chase

    Sony continues to expand their universe of Marvel characters without Spider-Man with upcoming projects like Morbius, Madame Web, and Kraven The Hunter. Morbius is finally hitting theaters soon, while Madame Web is still casting, but it looks like Kraven The Hunter is officially in production as some footage from the set has made its way online.

    Twitter account KravenSource has shared footage from the set in London where production is underway. From the footage, it looks like Kraven is hanging off the side of the vehicle and attempting to break into it while also barefoot.

    That is not actually Aaron Taylor-Johnson, who will be playing the titular character, but a stunt double. It’s likely that the second unit has begun to film the stuff that does not directly require the cast of the film to be present.

    It looks like production will be picking up again on March 26th through March 29th at the London Wall. Due to a listing in production weekly, we know that Kraven is filming under the working title of “Spiral.”

    The film is presumed to follow the origin of the famous Spider-Man villain, Kraven the Hunter, a famous big game hunter and explorer who has found himself at odds with the webhead multiple times, most famously in the storyline Kraven’s Last Hunt.

    Kraven The Hunter is currently set to hit theaters on January 13th, 2023 with director J.C. Chandor at the helm. The film is set to star Johnson alongside Ariana DeBose, Russel Crowe, Fred Hechinger, Christopher Abbot, and Alessandro Nivola.

    SOURCE: Twitter

  • ‘Morbius’ Director Teases the Film’s Spider-Man

    ‘Morbius’ Director Teases the Film’s Spider-Man

    Spider-Man has had a presence in the marketing for Morbius since the first trailer dropped. The film, which takes place in Sony’s Spider-Man Universe alongside Venom and it’s sequel, clearly features a poster of the web-slinger with the word “murderer” thrown on top of it. What’s less clear, however, is which Spider-Man actually exists in the same timeline as Dr. Michael Morbius and Eddie Brock. Images we’ve seen thus far appear to be of Tobey Maguire’s original wall-crawler, but other universal elements also hint towards this world’s Peter Parker being the MCU’s Tom Holland or even cult favorite Andrew Garfield.


    In a recent interview with CinemaBlend, Morbius director Daniel Espinosa was finally asked outright whether there’s a Spidey active in the background of his film, and if so, which one it could be. His response is a bit of a tease, but an interesting tease at that:

    Of course! I mean, in almost all Spider-Verse or, you know… the Marvel string theory, if you would call it that. It’s very related to, if you remember, the alternative Seinfelds. You have a world where you have the same characters, and it’s ALL of the characters, but they are slightly different. So in almost all verses, you have Spider-Man, or a Fantastic Four, or a Tony Stark, or a Morbius. But they will be different in tone. That’s not quite the way that the Marvel Cinematic Universe (is) approaching the idea, but they’re remaining to some core truth.

    Daniel Espinosa

    The director continued his explanation to include a specific piece of lore from Marvel comics:

    Then you have the second kind of legend, which is about the totem. Which is that, in all universes, there is a spider totem. Which means that in all universes, there has to be a Spider-Man. Or a Spider-Woman.

    Daniel Espinosa

    It would seem Espinosa has done his research, and while he didn’t really clear up which hero we might see in Morbius, he did leave the door wide open for anything. Morbius finally hits theaters, and answers questions, on April 1st.

    Source: CinemaBlend

  • ‘Deadpool 3′ Will Be Marvel Studios’ First Non ‘Spider-Man’ Co-Production

    ‘Deadpool 3′ Will Be Marvel Studios’ First Non ‘Spider-Man’ Co-Production

    Here’s a surprising reveal, but it looks like Marvel Studios is starting to expand in new and interesting ways. Not only will Deadpool 3 be their first venture into R-rated fair, but they are also co-producing the film with Ryan Reynolds Maximum Effort Productions. It’s not their first time co-producing a film, as they also work alongside Sony to further expand their Spider-Man franchise. Still, this is a big step forward for Marvel Studios as they are no longer the main producer behind the project, and it’ll be interesting to see if others might also join them moving forward.

    Reynolds has taken a step back from his acting role to not only focus on some well-deserved family time but also further develop his footprint in the advertising and production world. He’s been actively involved in the development of Deadpool 3, which might also be the reason it might be the first to make that jump, especially as Maximum Effort was also involved with previous entries. We’ll see if Marvel Studios is also considering adding partners to other projects, as they continue to expand and may use the helping hand.

    If you’re wondering, the relationship with productions like The Incredible Hulk and the earlier days of the production before Disney purchased the company, Universal was a distributor but not a producer on the project. The same goes for projects like Iron Man, where Paramount Pictures was the distributor. So, while other companies were involved, they didn’t have an active production role to bring the project to life. That is why this is quite the move for Deadpool as an IP that fully belongs to Marvel Studios.

    Of course, the IP remains with Disney and Marvel Studios, but them opening up to others’ involvement may also showcase what they’ve learned from their time with Sony. The biggest benefit in this project is that Sony isn’t holding the IP of one of their biggest characters over their head, as that did briefly fall apart ahead of Spider-Man: No Way Home. Luckily, they remained cooperative and ended up with one of the biggest releases of the entire pandemic. The future is going to be quite interesting from a creative and production side.

    Source: Forbes

  • First ‘Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3’ Set Photos Offer First Look at Pom Klementieff and Dave Bautista

    First ‘Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3’ Set Photos Offer First Look at Pom Klementieff and Dave Bautista

    It looks like we finally got a look at the returning Guardians from the set of Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3. While we don’t see anything of the actual set, we do get a look at Pom Klementieff‘s return as Mantis and Dave Bautista‘s Drax. We don’t get a good look at Mantis’ design for the threequel, but it looks like Drax has finally accepted that he should wear a jacket. Of course, it could just be something he is wearing on his way to the set, but who knows what kind of trouble they are getting into that he’ll take the risk and put it on.

    https://twitter.com/guardiansupdate/status/1504923133584814080

    There have been a lot of hints that the Guardians as we know it will disband after the events of this film, especially with it being James Gunn swansong in the MCU before focusing more on his DC projects. We know very little about what the future has in store for this team, or even if any of these characters will exit the film alive. Bautista has also kind of hinted at his interest in moving on after the next film, even if he seemed to enjoy his time with Marvel. It’s not uncommon that some of the actors are open to leaving the franchise behind after enough time.

    There’s sadly not much to take away from these photos, but it’s great to know that production is still underway. Gunn has been cheekily sharing teases of Rick and Morty figurines showing up on his workspace. It almost seemed like he’s building up to something, but has been mostly just having fun sharing the fact that he’s still busy working on the film. He’s always been one of the more active users of Social media and we’ll see if he’ll share something from the set.

    Source: Twitter

  • Paul Dano Writing a New ‘The Batman’ Prequel Comic on Riddler

    Paul Dano Writing a New ‘The Batman’ Prequel Comic on Riddler

    The Batman finally released giving us a look at a superhero noir storyline, as Paul Dano‘s Riddler makes Bruce Wayne’s life a living hell. While we do learn quite a bit about the character, there’s a lot of history on how he created his elaborate traps and plans that we haven’t explored. Luckily, it seems that DC Comics had the same thought and revealed a new comic titled Riddler: Year One. Besides the cliché “YEar One” naming, what stands out is that the Riddler himself, Paul Dano, will be writing the storyline of the character he brought to life on the silver screen.

    The idea makes sense, and it seems very unlikely we’d get a spinoff series on HBO Max focused on the Riddler. So, it’s a great way to further explore his character and maybe even drop a few hints about his future in the newly established Batverse from Matt Reeves. As of now, only Colin Farrell‘s Penguin is getting his spinoff, as HBO Max officially announced it shortly after The Batman‘s release. We also know that another series is in development that will focus on Arkham, which originally was going to be about the GCPD but changed throughout production. It was the first series in development but seemingly production has been dragged out quite a bit. We’ll see what the cinematic future has in store for Dano‘s Riddler.

    Source: Twitter