Murphy's Multiverse

Tag: Movie News

  • James Gunn Hints at Talks for a Marvel-DC Cinematic Crossover

    James Gunn Hints at Talks for a Marvel-DC Cinematic Crossover

    James Gunn is now the co-CEO of DC Studios and has the unimaginable task of righting the ship that was the DC Extended Universe. Now, simply pushing it forward as the DC Cinematic Universe, he aims to wrap up what was filmed before him while setting his sights on the future. Interestingly enough, it seems his friendship with Kevin Feige has led to some “light and fun” talks about a potential DC-Marvel crossover down the line.

    In an interview with Empire, he reveals that while his first priority is to ensure that he fully takes charge of the DCU after wrapping up work on Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3. But he seems quite open to potentially working on some kind of crossover; even if it likely would require a lot of legal work to make it happen.

    I’m certain that’s more likely now that I’m in charge [at DC], Who knows? That’s many years away, though. I think we have to establish what we’re doing [at DC] first. I would be lying to say that we haven’t discussed it. But all discussions have been very, very light and fun.

    James Gunn

    With Gunn at the charge, it definitely will change many of the restrictions that we saw in the past for the franchise. While some corners of the Internet have already cried out in terror, there’s a bright future ahead for a truly interconnected franchise. While juggling TV and video games in addition to films might sound quite a bit challenging, if anyone could make it work it’s definitely Gunn.

    Source: Empire

  • First Look at Blumhouse’s ‘Five Nights at Freddy’s’ Hints at Familiar Storyline

    First Look at Blumhouse’s ‘Five Nights at Freddy’s’ Hints at Familiar Storyline

    Five Nights at Freddy’s was a project that everyone was keeping a close eye on. It was trapped in production hell for quite some time, as creator Scott Cawthon seemingly couldn’t really find the right script for this project. Yet, that all changed when it finally started filming in February.

    Only a few months later, they confirmed that the film will already arrive later this year on October 27th. Not just that, but it’ll be a simultaneous release; something we thought forgotten in the COVID era of cinematic releases. Five Nights at Freddy’s is going to release in theaters and also streamed on Peacock for those excited to check out their favorite horror franchise in live-action.

    Not just that, we also got a first look at the series, which includes the animatronic of the iconic bear with a young child in his arm staring at the Pizza restaurant that is seemingly falling apart. Curiously though, this imagery hints that the storyline of the first entry might be quite similar to that of the recent game release Five Nights at Freddy’s: Security Breach, where a Freddy animatronic helped out a young child with the others trying to eat him.

    They definitely have some big plans for the franchise, as one of its stars, Matthew Lillard, has confirmed he’s signed on for three films. Rumors have it that he’s going to play its main antagonist, who is best known as Purple Man and they might be taking elements from multiple games and scattering them across the trilogy. With an October release, we might expect a trailer in the coming months to give us a better hint at what they have planned for us.

    Source: Twitter

  • ‘Super Mario Bros. Movie’ Warpinig Towards $195M+ 5-Day Opening Weekend

    ‘Super Mario Bros. Movie’ Warpinig Towards $195M+ 5-Day Opening Weekend

    It looks like early estimates have been quite off for The Super Mario Bros. Movie, as the biggest Nintendo adaptation of one of their most popular characters is on its way to ending its five-day domestic run at $195M. There’s a chance it might even go beyond the $200M mark but either way, it is already far ahead of its initial expectations.

    As such, it’ll also beat up Finding Dory‘s $135.1M three-day opening as it’s set to land at around $137M and will be the second-biggest opening for an animated film just behind Incredibles 2. Its initial expectations had it at around $127.5M and it’s now only a question of time before they announce a sequel.

    While critics weren’t too kind to the film, families are loving it and it even managed to pull in an A CinemaScore. It also makes the biggest opening for Illumination and is likely to become the second-biggest 5-day release since the first Transformers film.

    That Easter release was a clever timing to get this film out as it’s mainly getting its boost from the generation that grew up with these games; giving git that boosts that family audience would lack on their own with past releases this year.

    Source: The Hollywood Reporter

  • First Details Emerge on James Mangold’s Star Wars Film

    First Details Emerge on James Mangold’s Star Wars Film

    One of the great surprises of Star Wars Celebration 2023 was the news that James Mangold had signed on the direct a movie set in the all-new Dawn of the Jedi era. Little about the film was revealed during Lucasilm’s Showcase other than it would be set in “the deep past, telling the tale of the first Jedi to wield the Force and harness it as a liberating power in an era of chaos and oppression.” However, in a pair of trade interviews, Mangold has reveales more details about the upcoming untitled film.

    Set 25,000 years before A New Hope, Mangold says the film, which he calls “Star Wars Zero”, will feature “all-new characters in an all-new era.” Despite it being set in the “deep past”, don’t expect it to be full of sticks and stones. While there may not be lightsabers since the main character will be the first Jedi, Mangold says the film, which he’s also writing, will not be “pre-tech.” It might be ancient history but it’s the ancient history of a galaxy far, far away.

    LONDON, ENGLAND – APRIL 07: James Mangold and Dave Filoni onstage during the studio panel at Star Wars Celebration 2023 in London at ExCel on April 07, 2023 in London, England. (Photo by Kate Green/Getty Images for Disney)

    While it’s unclear at the moment if the film will tell the story of the Prime Jedi, a canonical character who debuted a part of a mosaic in the Jedi temple on Ahch-To in The Rise of Skywalker, Mangold says the project is “a chance to tell the entire story of its own: the birth of the Force.” Mangold said he pitched the film to Lucasfilm president Kathleen Kennedy as “a kind of Ben-Hur or The 10 Commandments about the birth of the Force.”

    “The Force has become a kind of religious legend that soans through all these movies,” said Mangold. “But where didn’t come from? How is it found? Who was the first Jedi?” asked Mangold, causing legions of Star Wars fans to wonder if midichlorians will make an appearance in the film.

    Those are questions that fans will have to wait to have answered. While there are Star Wars films slated for theaters in 2025 and 2027, no date was given for Mangold’s project.

    Source: The Wrap, Variety

  • SWCE: Dave Filoni to Direct a ‘Star Wars’ Film Wrapping Up the “Mandoverse”

    SWCE: Dave Filoni to Direct a ‘Star Wars’ Film Wrapping Up the “Mandoverse”

    It seems that they might be wrapping up the franchise that started with The Mandalorian, as during Star Wars Celebration it was announced that the one and only Dave Filoni is going to direct a Star Wars film. Now just that, but it’ll also seemingly wrap up everything that has been building up since the first season of The Mandalorian.

    His involvement with a film was hinted at for some time now with a rumor dropping right before the Celebration event even kicked off. The question does remain if this will be a Disney+ original film given how it connects to the other entries, or if this is perhaps a cinematic release that just uses story bits from the various characters and brings them all together. We#ll have to wait to find out.

    Source: Twitter

  • SWCE: James Mangold Set to Direct New Star Wars Film about the First Jedi

    SWCE: James Mangold Set to Direct New Star Wars Film about the First Jedi

    Star Wars fans have been doing some serious handwringing over the theatrical future of the franchise. Kathleen Kennedy did her best to ease those concerns at Star Wars Celebration 2023 by announcing multiple films, including one by director James Mangold.

    Set before the Old Republic in a new era called Dawn of the Jedi which takes place 25,000 years before the event of The Mandalorian, Mangold’s film will follow the “first Jedi to wield the force” in what was called a “biblical epic.” The new film provides an opportunity for Mangold to break ground and really dig into the foundations of the Jedi Order. Canonical stories set during the High Republic era have recently revealed that the Jedi were just one of several factions of Force users in the galaxy, so it’ll be interesting to see if any of those come into play in Mangold‘s film.

  • ‘Quantumania’ Writer Jeff Loveness Confirms One of the Film’s Major Rewrites

    ‘Quantumania’ Writer Jeff Loveness Confirms One of the Film’s Major Rewrites

    Ant-Man and The Wasp: Quantumania‘s theatrical run had a less than stellar theatrical run as it ran out of steam pretty quickly after a big opening weekend in mid-February. Much of the dropoff has been attributed to the generally poor word of mouth around the film, which was essentially an offbeat sci-fi B movie dressed up as an MCU flick. Writer Jeff Loveness has been the target of significant ire from fans who have consistently criticized some odd edits and lack of stakes in the film’s third act. Interestingly enough, in an exclusive interview with Murphy’s Multiverse, Loveness confirmed that one part of the film’s ending was significantly altered from his original drafts; now, in a new interview, he’s revealed further changes to the film.

    In an interview with Backstory Magazine, Loveness confirmed that he had written the death of a member of the Ant-Family into an early draft of Quantumania. “We were going to kill Hank at one point,” said Loveness, “and I was going to have him be, like, reanimated.” Loveness is a huge comic book fans and has written books for Marvel Comics. When he was hired for Quantumania, I was told that his understanding of the source material was key to Marvel Studios being brought on board, so it’s not too surprising that he was going to “reanimate” Hank Pym in a very comic book-y way. “His consciousness was going to live on through the ants, and he was going to be like mentally controlling them,” he explained before adding, “yeah, he was going to be almost like this hive mind of the ants, and I like that… that didn’t go too far.“

    Given Loveness‘ admission that he liked his own idea, it’s hard to believe he was the one who cut the idea from the script and that it was likely done by the studio somewhere during the editing process. The revelation by Loveness continues to call into question just what went on between early drafts and even early screenings of the film and the final product. Reliable plot leaks suggest a much different cut of Quantumania existed at one point and set photos confirm that the final scenes of the movie were reshot roughly 6 weeks before release. While this news won’t stop the “bad writing” bandwagon from rolling, it’ll hopefully at least give some fans a reason to stop and think about who’s responsible for what when they see a film. Writers write. Editors edit. And someone else makes all the final decisions.

  • ‘The Super Mario Bros. Movie’ Wahooing Towards $127.5M 5-Day Opening Weekend

    ‘The Super Mario Bros. Movie’ Wahooing Towards $127.5M 5-Day Opening Weekend

    Even as the reviews from critics are surprisingly harsh, it seems that the collaboration between Illumination, Universal, and Nintendo is heading towards that 1-Up Mushroom, as The Super Mario Bros. Movie is looking to make quite a big bang at the box office this weekend. Wednesday previews are already looking strong and are heading towards $26M sans Tuesday previews, which would potentially mean an $86.2M 3-day opening.

    Luckily for it, this will be a 5-day opening and it’ll likely end up around $127.5M, which would put it on the path to becoming the biggest opening for a video game-based adaptation. Sonic the Hedgehog 2 opened to $26.3M but that was including Thursday previews. It held the 3-day record at $72.1M and while critics haven’t loved the Nintendo film, audiences seemingly do going by its Rotten Tomatoes.

    Not just that, this film will also pull in the best 5-day debut for Illumination since Despicable Me 2‘s $143M back in 2013. With some strong legs, the film has a good chance of starting its own cinematic universe, as post-credit sequences have already been teased (Luigi’s Mansion, anyone?). The only question is if the legs will hold as family audiences haven’t really been reliable going by previous entries, but this film might be why they weren’t showing up; COVID has led to many saving up for the big releases.

    Source: Deadline

  • Jason Momoa’s ‘Minecraft’ Movie Gets 2025 Release Date

    Jason Momoa’s ‘Minecraft’ Movie Gets 2025 Release Date

    It seems a blocky adventure is on the horizon, as Minecraft finally has a release date. It was in April of last year that it was unveiled Jason Momoa would potentially star in a film based on the popular indie game, Minecraft. While the franchise went on to have more story-focused offerings, it mainly was about a simple concept: survival. In its very simplistic design, you play a character gathering resources and trying to survive the dangers of the night. Now, April 4th 2025 is when we’ll get to enter this blocky world.

    There’s no detail on what exactly we can expect from this film and if they might take inspiration from the Minecraft: Story Mode game or even focus on concepts taken from the Dungeons spinoffs. Some time ago, it was hinted it would follow a version of the female protagonist from the game that was on a hunt for the Ender Dragon alongside a group of adventures; not too dissimilar from the recent Dungeons & Dragons film.

    Steve Carrel was even at one point set to star when the film had multiple directors attached but now seems to be actually moving forward. Napoleon Dynamite director Jared Hess is still seemingly involved. For now, we’ll have to wait and see what the future has in store for the game adaptation, especially as The Super Mario Bros. Movie faced a surprisingly negative reaction from critics even after positive early reactions. So, we’ll see where the future is heading towards for video game adaptations.

    Source: Deadline

  • ‘Aquaman 2’ Hitting Theaters Earlier This Holiday Season

    ‘Aquaman 2’ Hitting Theaters Earlier This Holiday Season

    As the tides at DC continue to change, the sequel to one of the most successful DC films to date has gotten a new release date. Aquaman and the Lost Kingdom, which was originally slated to release on Christmas Day, will now hit theaters on December 20th.

    James Wan’s sequel, which will now now on a Wednesday rather than a Monday, will be going head to head in theaters with the sequel to Ghostbusters: Afterlife which recently began production.

    Updating…

    Source: Deadline