Murphy's Multiverse

Tag: Movie News

  • Live-Action ‘Lilo and Stitch’ Film Adds Zach Galifianakis

    Live-Action ‘Lilo and Stitch’ Film Adds Zach Galifianakis

    Disney has been quite busy with its live-action adaptations and already has quite a few in some form of development to further capitalize on their nostalgia franchises. Dean Fleischer Camp is busy working on bringing Lilo and Stitch to life once again for Disney+, and it seems he may have already found one of its stars. It seems that Hangover star Zach Galifianakis will be joining the production by the director of Marcel the Shell With Shoes On.

    As you might guess, his role is still a mystery and it’s unclear who he might be playing. There’s a good chance he could be playing someone completely original though he would make for a good choice to play Pleakley, the loveable assistant that ends up stuck with Jumba Jookiba, who also has yet to be cast. DisInsider has pointed out that their sources heard he’s playing the character of Pleakley.

    Of course, we don’t know how close they are sticking to the original, as we’ve already heard rumblings that some aspects will get changed. It comes with the territory when you’re adapting something as iconic as a Disney animated film and want to give viewers a reason to see the new version of it. Still, we’ll have to wait a bit longer to find out who Galifianakis might end up playing, and the big question: who will be Lilo?

    Source: The Hollywood Reporter, DisInsider

  • BREAKING: First ‘The Marvels’ Poster Reveals New November Release

    BREAKING: First ‘The Marvels’ Poster Reveals New November Release

    Here’s a surprise, but it looks like Marvel Studios wasn’t lying about giving their projects more time to breathe. The Marvels has finally received its first poster as many theorized we’d see a trailer soon given its July 28th release. Yet, the poster reveals comes with one major addition: the film is delayed by quite a few months. It looks like The Marvels won’t release until November 10th

    It does seem like a smart move, as it spaces out their projects more evenly throughout the ear. While Marvel Studios president Kevin Feige always talked about having four films a year, their Disney+ ventures may have shifted that plan to a three-films-a-year cycle moving forward. It would give them some strong box office contenders, and stretch out the future phase while balancing it out with whatever series they have planned.

    It should be noted that Disney isn’t keeping that July date open, as they have seemingly decided Haunted Mansion is ready for a summer release. That is quite bizarre given it’s commonly an October/Halloween-centered release for these types of films, but they may just believe it’ll offer the right amount of summer zaniness.

    Marvel Studios is still set to make a splash at the box office and still remains a good seller for anyone wanting to follow along. We’ll expect a sizable drop in Quantumania‘s second weekend, as per usual but could also be a bit lower due to the box office not being as grandiose as last year. Interest in Kang the Conqueror will keep people interested and perhaps even if word-of-mouth isn’t hitting an A on the CinemaScore, it could boost future releases. Whatever it might be, it will be interesting to keep an eye on the releases of this year.

    Source: Twitter

  • ‘Quantumania’ Preview Night Box Office on Par with ‘Avatar: The Way of Water’

    ‘Quantumania’ Preview Night Box Office on Par with ‘Avatar: The Way of Water’

    While it’s on pace to have a nice opening weekend and likely be the highest-grossing Ant-Man film, Quantumania’s Thursday night previews take looks to be coming in significantly lower than any of Marvel Studios’ 2022 theatrical offerings. According to industry estimates, the third installment in the Ant-Man franchise raked in $17.5M on its first night in theaters.

    That figure puts it well below last year’s 3 MCU properties, though those 3 films led the way in Thursday night preview take. Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness ($36M), Thor: Love and Thunder ($29M) and Black Panther: Wakanda Forever ($28M) all opened to much stronger Thursdays than Quantumania, however, 2022’s box office champion, Avatar: The Way of Water, pulled in a comparable $17M on its first Thursday. It’s all a matter of perspective as the $17.5M night (the same amount Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 2 took in back in 2017) places Quantumania’s preview night in the top 40 of all time.

    Quantumania’s Thursday intake is the highest to date for the Ant-Man franchise. Ant-Man and The Wasp took in $11.5M in 2018 while Ant-Man grossed $6.4 in 2015. Some estimates have the new film taking in $120M over its opening weekend, though it remains to be seen what impact the largely negative reviews of the film (you can read ours right here) will have on general audiences.

    Source: Deadline

  • M. Night Shyamalan Signs Multi-Year Directing and Producing Deal

    M. Night Shyamalan Signs Multi-Year Directing and Producing Deal

    Warner Bros. Pictures Group is teaming up with Oscar-nominated director M. Night Shyamalan on a multi-year first-look directing and producing deal. With the agreement, Shyamalan and his production company, Blinding Edge Pictures, will develop original projects for Warner Bros. Pictures and New Line Cinema. The deal is a dramatic shift from the way Shyamalan produces his films. He reflects on the new venture with some intriguing thoughts on why he made the switch:

    “Warner Bros. has a storied history of cinema. Through its recent experiences, the company has rediscovered its love and appreciation for filmmakers, and the impact of the theatrical experience. “

    Angelique Jackson, Variety

    With the slate of new projects, moviegoers can expect to see movies such as Trap (August 2024) and The Watchers (June 7, 2024), the directorial debut of Shyamalan’s daughter, Ishana Night Shyamalan. Warner Bros. Pictures Group co-chairs and CEOs Michael De Luca and Pam Abdy are excited about the possibilities. They believe that Shyamalan will create “compelling original” stories and offer audiences a “unique experience at the theater.”

    Audiences can check out the filmmaker’s latest flick, Knock at the Cabin, which is now playing in theaters.

    Source: Deadline.

  • ‘Hellboy’ Headed Back to Theaters in Another Live-Action Reboot

    ‘Hellboy’ Headed Back to Theaters in Another Live-Action Reboot

    Third time’s a charm… hopefully. After a 2019 reboot of Hellboy led by David Harbour failed to catch on, the character is getting new, new life in another live-action film.

    Discussing Film broke the news that Brian Taylor (Ghost Rider: Spirit of Vengeance) will helm the new Hellboy film for Millennium Media. It seems that the new film may adapt 2011’s three issue miniseries, Hellboy: The Crooked Man.

    The report indicates that the script for the film ready to go and that filming is slated to kick off in April.

    Source: Discussing Film

  • ‘Fantastic Four’ Casting Update Teases a Sue-Centric Story

    ‘Fantastic Four’ Casting Update Teases a Sue-Centric Story

    Reed Richards is the brains of the Fantastic Four but Susan Storm has always been the heart and soul of Marvel’s First Family. As casting for Marvel Studios Fantastic Four gets underway, it looks as though the studio heads and director Matt Shakman understand just how important of a character the Invisible Woman is to the success of the project.

    According to Deadline’s Justin Kroll, as Shakman and Marvel Studios casting department, led by Sarah Finn, start the search for the MCU’s Fantastic Four, Sue is at the center. Kroll states that “the focus” of the casting process is finding their Sue Storm “and building out the rest of the team” from there.

    Given the importance of Sue to the rest of the cast, it would seem that the character will be the centerpiece of whatever story Shakman intends to tell, something that has long been the case in the comics. The report’s indication that casting is just now gearing up is interesting as a slew of names has been passed around as “top contenders” for months now. It also makes Shakman’s recent meeting with star Mila Kunis a bit more interesting as it could indicate potential interest in Kunis for the role of Sue.

  • Peyton Reed Addresses the Absence of a Fan Favorite Character in ‘Ant-Man And The Wasp: Quantumania’

    Peyton Reed Addresses the Absence of a Fan Favorite Character in ‘Ant-Man And The Wasp: Quantumania’

    Ant-Man And The Wasp: Quantumania broadens the horizons of the Ant-Man franchise and continues to expand on the Multiverse, now featuring the time-travelling Kang the Conqueror. The movie received mixed reactions from reviewers after the review embargo ended on Tuesday, widely criticising the screenplay but praising Jonathan Majors‘ performance as Kang. It currently stands at a critics score of 51% on Rotten Tomatoes.

    The movie left out some prominent fan-favorite secondary characters, such as Michael Peña’s Luis, Dave, and David Dastmalchian’s Kurt Goreshter. Although Dastmalchain managed to return to the movie’s cast as Veb, as well as composing a song for the movie’s soundtrack titled “Holes”, Luis was a no-show.

    In an interview with The Hollywood Reporter, Quantumania director Peyton Reed was asked if earlier versions of the movie during the development process ever featured Michael Peña’s Luis.

    Peyton responded to it by saying that “no versions of [the] movie” ever featured Luis. He went on to explain that fitting the Lang, Pym, and Van Dyne families, Kang, MODOK, Krylar, the freedom fighters, and including Luis and co. wouldn’t give them enough space to breathe and grow.

    There were no versions of this movie [with Luis]. There are a lot of characters in the movie. We obviously have our Lang, van Dyne and Pym family, but then we also introduced Kang, MODOK and all of our Freedom Fighter characters. So we had to make decisions early on about what stories we could tell and what stories we couldn’t tell.

    Peyton Reed

    He admitted that Luis, Kurt, and Dave were “really, really, fun” in the previous Ant-Man installments, but because the movie sends the Ant-Fam to the Quantum Realm pretty early on, it “didn’t make sense” to include Luis and the gang in the movie.

    I love those characters. They were really, really fun and part of the Lang family, but as we got further and further into [development] and knew we wanted to bring the family into the Quantum Realm pretty early in the movie, it just didn’t make sense [to include Luis and co.].

    Peyton Reed

    Marvel Studios’ Ant-Man And The Wasp: Quantumania releases exclusively in theaters on February 17, 2023. Read our review of the film here.

    Source: The Hollywood Reporter

  • ‘Guardians of the Galaxy 3’ Reaches Pre-Pandemic Super Bowl Records

    ‘Guardians of the Galaxy 3’ Reaches Pre-Pandemic Super Bowl Records

    The Super Bowl has once again arrived and did its usual thing by squeezing a lot of money out of advertisers for the chance of getting the most views they possibly could for their product. Of course, it’s also a big opportunity for studios to showcase some of their upcoming big releases. This year had some of the biggest films of 2023 included such as The Flash, Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3, Fast X, and more.

    In a big and exciting development, it seems that Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3 finally broke a pre-pandemic record of pulling in more than 100M views within 24 hours after premiering at the Super Bowl. It’s even beaten Marvel Studios’ own Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness, which pulled a still impressive 93.1M views last year. And that is quite a move considering its also their second released trailer. It’s impressive and a good sign of the summer blockbuster push.

    The Flash wasn’t too far behind, as it managed to pull in an impressive 97.4M, which is also major considering Warner Bros. was more of a sideline during these events. So, they returned with quite a bang but were also closely followed by Fast X’s 94.1M views within 24 hours on Social Media. The latter does also have the added effect that they where the only one of the top three to drop the trailer in advance.

    13 trailers were dropped during the Super Bowl with the Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania and Heineken collaboration also pulling in the fourth highest viewing with 87.9M. It may be facing some critical backlash but interest is definitely there for the film and the collab may have been a clever way to sneak in a second preview for Marvel Studios. Transformers: Rise of the Beasts was a bit further behind with 43.3M, a surprisingly soft starter considering how big its initial trailer drop was.

    Disney’s other major release, Indiana Jones and the Dial of Destiny also were on the smaller side at 34.2M, but it also didn’t really include much new footage in its release outside of a few lines. It’s still some time away and the buzz may not be as big, but it’s still curious to think that the return of Harrison Ford wouldn’t have brought more buzz with it. It’s also not first-party data from studios but measured through RelishMix, which also can vary depending on its data basis. Still, it seems superheroes are still quite attractive going by public viewings.

    Source: Deadline

  • Marvel Veteran Hints Ian McKellen Already in Talks to Return as Magneto

    Marvel Veteran Hints Ian McKellen Already in Talks to Return as Magneto

    Sir Patrick Stewart‘s cameo in Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness wasn’t the biggest secret for a long time, but the potential return of Ian McKellen as Magneto also made the rounds. At one point, it was even theorized to be Michael Fassbender. Yet, once the project was released though, he was the only mutant as part of the Illuminati.

    Still, it seems Ian McKellen might already be making some plans for the future as revealed by Patrick Stewart in an interview with ET Online. While asking if he got any feedback from his long-time collaborator returning to the role of Charles Xavier, he drops the rather curious mention of “we got plans.”

    Actually, it went very well. He did say something like [‘Hey, I would’ve done this!’], yes that’s true. But we’re not done, Sir Ian and myself. We’re… we got plans.

    Sir Patrick Stewart

    This isn’t a confirmation of course, but the tease is quite unsubtle. It wouldn’t be too surprising for Marvel Studios to map out all the cameos they want or need to be prepared once they start rolling on some of their true multiversal projects. Not only is there Avengers: Secret Wars, which might be the most obvious place to have both reappear, but also the rumors surrounding Deadpool 3.

    Not only is he being reunited with Hugh Jackman‘s Wolverine but it’s potentially going to include others from the 20th Century Fox line of mutants and characters. There have even been rumors that they’ll use this opportunity to create the Deadpool Kills the Marvel Universe storyline without it affecting the actual MCU and as a great segway for him into the overarching franchise. It’s unclear if Marvel Studios would even go that far with a film, but theorizing is going to get crazy the closer we get to these projects.

    Source: ET Online

  • ‘How to Train Your Dragon’ Live-Action Film in Development

    ‘How to Train Your Dragon’ Live-Action Film in Development

    No, you read that right. Dean DeBlois is seemingly set on adapting How to Train Your Dragon into live-action for Universal. It seems they are dead-set on repeating the same mistakes as Disney that somehow still end up pulling billions at the box office, such as the “live-action” adaptation of The Lion King and Aladdin. It seems Universal Pictures is dead set on this franchise revival in a new format and already dated the film for a March 14th, 2025 release.

    The surprising thing is that this franchise does have the potential to adapt its own take on the franchise without just recreating the story of Hiccup and Toothless, but it seems they are deadset on remaking the trilogy that was released throughout the 2010s. It’s a shame given that live-action adaptations can be more than just straight adaptations of existing stories, especially in more expansive worlds like these.

    As the franchise mostly focuses on the relationship between Vikings and dragons, it does lend itself to live-action. It should also be noted that DeBlois directed the animated films and has an extensive history with the project. It’s also already in the middle of its casting process. So, they’ve been working on this for some time and it isn’t just a quick announcement. We’ll have to see how this attempt at a live-action adaptation of an animated classic works out.

    Source: The Hollywood Reporter