Tag: Movies

‘Iron Fist’ Star Jessica Henwick Turned Down a Role in ‘Shang-Chi’

Jessica Henwick’s star has been on the rise over the last couple of years. Beginning with her turn as Nymeria Sand in Game of Thrones, Henwick began stealing the show more and more frequently. Such was the case in Marvel’s Netflix series Iron Fist, where Henwick’s performance captivated audiences and lead to fans clamoring for a spinoff. Henwick’s next big thing is a role in next month’s The Matrix Resurrections and, as it turns out, it came at the expense of another Marvel role.

In an interview with EW, Henwick revealed that she was up for a role in Marvel Studios Shang-Chi and The Legend of the Ten Rings at the same time she was auditioning for WB the role of Bug in the fourth Matrix film. According to Henwick, both studios knew about the other roles and forced Henwick to make a choice, which Henwick cleverly referred to as a “red-pill/blue-pill moment” as she was not guaranteed either role at that time.

Henwick didn’t share what role she was up for in Shang-Chi, but given her age, it would seem the roles played by Meng’er Zhang and Fala Chen would be appropriate and, likely in that order. It’s interesting that Marvel Studios was open to working with Henwick once again given that she ended the second season of Iron Fist in a position of prominence. One could argue that this would be furhter evidence that Marvel Studios does not consider the events of Iron Fist, and by association any of the Defenders projects, to be canonical in the Sacred Timeline. While Marvel Studios has worked with Gemma Chan on multiple projects, her minor role in Captain Marvel saw her face painted blue and gave her relatively few lines making it easier for her to move into Eternals in a main role. It’s hard to make the same argument for Henwick and Blade star Mahershala Ali, who had major supporting roles in their respective Netflix series.

The Matrix Resurrections will debut in theaters and on HBO Max on December 22nd.

Source: EW

November 30, 2021
Deep Thoughts: One Hypothetical Timeline for the Second Spider-Man Trilogy

In just over 2 weeks, Marvel Studios and Sony’s Spider-Man trilogy will conclude in Spider-Man: No Way Home. By the time it’s all said and done, Tom Holland’s iteration of Spider-Man/Peter Parker will have appeared in 6 MCU films stretching all the way back to 2016’s Captain America: Civil War; however, thanks to Amy Pascal, we now know this isn’t the end of the road for Holland as the Web-Slinger’s time in the MCU as Sony and Marvel Studios have extended their deal to collaborate on the character’s solo films. With Pascal indicating the two studios will now be working on another trilogy, its seems like a good time to look ahead and think about when we might see those new solo Spidey films in theaters.

Spider-Man 4: Fall/Winter 2023

Part of the original deal with Marvel Studios and Sony revolved around a solo Spidey film being in theaters every 2 years. This meant that Holland spent a whole lot of time in spandex from 2015 through 2020, but that’s the life of an actor! Sony is scheduled to kick of the 2023 superhero slate with Kraven the Hunter in January and Marvel Studios currently has The Marvels, Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3 and Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania spread out from February through late-July with an as yet unannounced film on the slate for November 3rd. That won’t be Spidey 4 because Sony picks those dates, but December of 2023 is currently unclaimed by Marvel Studios, Star Wars or DC. A December 2023 date would mean Spidey 4 wouldn’t need to start filming until late 2022, giving the studio plenty of time to get a script together (if they haven’t already started) and give Holland some time to do some other work as well.

Spider-Man 5: Summer 2025

The first two MCU Spidey films hit theaters in July and 2025 provides the opportunity to do just that, assuming they keep the 2 year gap between films. Marvel Studios hasn’t announced any plans for 2025 as yet, but Lucasfilm currently has a Star Wars film on the books for December of 2025. So, back to summer it goes for Spidey 5.

Spider-Man 6: Summer 2027

It’s hard to fathom talking about a film that could take place in 2027, but here we are. Again, assuming a 2-year gap, we’re looking at Spidey 6 concluding the second trilogy in the Summer of 2027.

Of course, at this point we don’t know much at all about how this will ACTUALLY play out. According to a trade report, the deal Pascal talked about isn’t even finalized yet and as we’ve seen in the past, there’s many a slip ‘twixt the cup and the lip when it comes to these things. However, it’s sure fun to think about.

November 30, 2021
Third ‘Magic Mike’ Film Heading to HBO Max, Channing Tatum Returning

It looks like Channing Tatum and Steven Soderbergh are back to continue the story of stripper Mike Lane, the titular Magic Mike. Warner Bros. has greenlit a third entry in the franchise that’ll premiere exclusively on their streaming service, HBO Max. Soderbergh will bring the script to life from Reid Carolin, who is also returning from the previous two entries. Magic Mike XXL‘s director, Gregory Jacobs, also return was the producer on this project alongside, Nick Wechsler, Peter Kiernan, and writer Carolin. Warner Bros. Pictures Group chairman, Toby Emmerich, shared his excitement on the third film that’ll be titled Magic Mike’s Last Dance:

Is there anybody on screen more charismatic and appealing than Magic Mike? We’re thrilled to be back in business with Channing, Steven and their creative team to bring back Magic Mike’s wonderful combination of dance, drama, romance and humor.
Toby Emmerich

The title of “Last Dance” seems to imply this might be the final film in the franchise moving forward. Tatum is quite excited to return to the character and highlights that “The stripperverse will never be the same.” Turns out, the reason they decided to add a third was due to the work on their live show. So, we’ll see what Mike Lang’s future will be like with the new

November 29, 2021
BREAKING: Sony and Marvel Studios Have Officially Extended Their Spider-Man Deal

It looks like Tom Holland may just be stuck playing Spider-Man until he’s 30 after all. In an interview with Fandango, Sony Pictures producer Amy Pascal revealed that Sony and Marvel Studios have plans to continue to work together on a new trilogy of Spider-Man films, saying “Marvel and Sony are going to keep going together as partners.“

Tickets for Spider-Man: No Way Home went on sale last night and caused chaos. With press screenings for the film set for this week, the press cycle has officially kicked off and Pascal told Fandango that not only is No Way Home not the end of the road for the unprecedented deal, but that the two studios are planning another trilogy:

This is not the last movie that we are going to make with Marvel – [this is not] the last Spider-Man movie. We are getting ready to make the next Spider-Man movie with Tom Holland and Marvel. We’re thinking of this as three films, and now we’re going to go onto the next three. This is not the last of our MCU movies.

It’s unknown what further collaboration between the two studios will look like, but with Tom Hardy’s Venom crossing over into the MCU it’s possible that future could include Holland’s Spidey coming face-to-face with the symbiote.

We’ll continue to cover this story as it develops.

Source: Fandango

November 29, 2021
‘Encanto’ Leads Thanksgiving Weekend Box Office After Tight Race with ‘Ghostbusters: Afterlife’

The numbers are finally in for the weekend, as Encanto has taken the top spot for the weekend with $40.3M over 5-days. It’s noticeable that 52% of its cume is from Latino and Hispanic audiences. Internationally, the animated Disney film kicked off with $70M. Ghostbusters: afterlife was the film’s biggest competition with a strong $35.3M weekend. As Deadline points out, their audiences had a strong crossover and may have taken a bite out of each other’s success over the weekend.

Technically, Encanto made $27M over three days. That is a tight race for the top spot if you discount the early release for the film. The positive aspect is that it proves families are slowly entering theaters more and more again. Universal and Illumination have high hopes for the upcoming December release of Sing 2 that has a similar audience structure. Still, it was a mellow weekend overall which was down quite a bit in comparison to pre-pandemic numbers.

Still, House of Gucci was the first drama to really find an audience over the weekend, as it had the highest opening for a drama with $14.2M in three days, even growing to $21.8M in five. For comparison’s sake, as Deadline points, we haven’t had a strong drama opening since 2910’s Little Women over Christmas. We’ll see if this is a sign that they will also see more recovery in the coming weeks.

Source: Variety, Deadline

November 28, 2021
Report: ‘Spider-Man: No Way Home’ Locks in Final Runtime

With the first press screening reportedly taking place next week, the final cut of Spider-Man: No Way Home has been prepared and, thanks to a new report, we know exactly how long it will be…down to the second. According to Big Screen Leaks, an account that leaks information about projects seen on a big screen, the threequel will clock in at 148 minutes and 1 second.

https://twitter.com/bigscreenleaks/status/1464441402645962755

Earlier this week, RPK News revealed that Andrew Garfield and Tobey Maguire’s screen time in the film would be roughly 30-minutes. With the news of the film’s runtime now available, we can calculate that the 2 non-Holland Peters will be on screen for 20 percent of the film, kindly leaving 80 percent for the rest of the actors, including Charlie Cox.

As always, reported runtimes include mid and post credit scenes and the credits, so you can expect the film to be a little closer to 2 hours and 15 minutes in length, but the reported 2 hour and 28 minute runtime places it just ahead of Captain America: Civil War’s 2 hour and 27 minutes and just behind Avengers: Infinity War’s 2 hours and 29 minutes and as Marvel Studios fourth longest film behind Avengers: Endgame (3:01), Eternals (2:37) and the aforementioned Infinity War. No Way Home will be the longest MCU Spider-Man film, with Homecoming having clocked in 2 hours and 13 minutes and Far From Home running 2 hours and 9 minutes. It will also be the longest running Spider-Man movie to date, with only The Amazing Spider-Man 2 coming close at 2 hours and 22 minutes. With so many characters sharing the stage and so much to do as the final film of a trilogy, it’s no surprise we’re seeing an extended runtime.

Spider-Man: No Way Home will hit U.S. theaters December 17th.

Source: Twitter

November 27, 2021
‘Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness’ Reshoots are to “Realize the Full Potential of the Film”

It came as a shock to many that Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness had to restart a new wave of reshoots. Yet, it’s also quite a regular occurrence for any modern production to try to nail a few additional shots and make up for things they couldn’t make work due to scheduling conflicts. There were also some rumors hinting that the reshoots were a way for them to add a few more cameos that didn’t manage due to scheduling conflicts.

Luckily, in the latest edition of Empire, leading star Benedict Cumberbatch offered a little insight into why they were tackling the reshoots, especially with how extensive they were teased to be. He goes on to highlight logistics and COVID as reasoning, but also that they want to “realize the full potential of the film,” which is a rather curious remark. Here’s the full quote:

We’re in the middle of reshoots and we’re working incredibly hard to make a schedule work to realize the full potential of the film – bits that we want to do better but also bits that were just impossible to do on the day because of logistics, COVID, etc. We were so delayed in production because of that. Luckily, not during production too much. Although everything is just a little slower.
Benedict Cumberbatch

The quote is certainly curious as it does add that a multiversal storyline wants to “realize its full potential.” So, it adds to the rumors that they are likely adding a few more appearances, especially with the reference to COVID as a major cause. Here’s hoping that recent developments don’t affect the current production, which is currently eyeing a May release.

Source: Empire via The Direct

November 26, 2021
‘Encanto’ Eyeing Top Spot at the Box Office Over Thanksgiving Weekend

It looks like Encanto has taken the top spot over the Thanksgiving weekend with a Thursday preview earning of $5.8M. Though, while even House of Gucci is shaping up to be connecting with audiences with a strong showing of $3.4M in previews, it’s still a much weaker overall ticket sale in comparison to pre-COVID times. Still, Disney’s animated musical

Encanto is currently on its way towards a $13.3M cume by Friday, which puts it on a good track on a strong weekend. Especially with a softer Disney budget of $120M. Lady Gaga is also proving her box office prowess once more and could make the $75M quite a popular film. Dramas have been fighting their way through the box office since the pandemic, which makes sense as audiences are going to be way more selective in their viewing choices.

Resident Evil: Welcome to Raccoon City also opened over the weekend and earned around $1M in its previews with a Friday gross of $3.5M expected. It’s a cheap production at around $25M but has not been strongly advertised and gone under most people’s radar up until its release. It’s still a bizarre decision by Sony not to invest in such an iconic gaming intellectual property that has proven successful in the past.

Still, Ghostbusters: Afterlife continues to pull in good numbers and now stands at $63.3M domestically. Eternals now stands at a still impressive $142.7M. While hard to compare to pre-pandemic times, the numbers are still there showing that people are slowly going back to cinemas and House of Gucci‘s performance might also add some hope that dramas are back in the upswing as well for stronger performances moving forward.

Source: Variety

November 26, 2021
New ‘The Marvels’ Crew Merch Highlights the Main Trio

Not too long ago, we learned that production has wrapped on The Marvels. The Captain Marvel sequel will expand its cast in a new way, as it’s no longer just a story about Carol Danvers but also her new fellow Marvel’s, Iman Vellani‘s Kamala Khan and Teyonah Parris‘ Monica Rambeau. The official logo already teased the blend of all three icons and it seems that trend continues in the newly shared crew merch by prosthetic makeup artist Kate Wakefields on her Instagram page.

While it doesn’t reveal anything new, which sometimes can be the case such as She-Hulk‘s merch accidentally including the wording “Season 1.” This time around, it’s more a tease of our main trio and highlighting each individual characters’ logo.

https://www.instagram.com/p/CWsGHApK82X/

There have been rumors that the character of Blue Marvel is potentially being included in the production, which would be fitting given the sequel’s new naming. It might be quite the leak if he was included in crew merch, which has a tendency to find their way online at some point. So, they’d likely just focus on the three characters that have been officially announced.

Source: Twitter

November 26, 2021
New Toy Leak Indicates Sleepwalker and D’Spayre Among the ‘Multiverse of Madness’ Wave Figures
Very few people cover the future Marvel Legends wave on the level of YouTuber Rektangular. His channel is full of leaks and updates of any kind, which makes it worth a follow if you’re a collector. In his most recent update, Rektangular spilled the beans on what to expect from Hasbro’s Marvel Legends collection for 2022.

Obviously, the further out the waves, the less info that’s available, but Rektangular seemed very certain about what to expect from the first two waves set to launch in 2022. The best part is that both will feature figures from upcoming MCU films.

The first wave of Legends is currently scheduled for a January release and will feature characters from Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness. The wave will feature a mix of seven MCU and comic book characters who are currently only known by the following code names:
- Runes
- Bleeker
- Bleeper
- Stripes
- Master
- Sleep
- Dreamy
According to Rektangular, two of those figures will be comic book sculpts of Sleepwalker and D’Spayre. A digital rendering of D’Spayre, who is a demon and one of the Fear Lords that feed upon the souls of humans for power, leaked some time ago. However, this is the first mention (to my knowledge) of Sleepwalker joining the wave. A relatively obscure character, he has a bit of a cult following and has taken on the Fear Lords, specifically Nightmare, in the comics. Of course, these characters being in the wave is in no way an indication that they will appear in the film.

It’s likely that Sleepwalker and D’Spayre are “Sleepy” and “Dreamy” while the other characters are from the film. Given what we know, it’s possible that Wanda is “Runes”, Strange is Bleeker (a reference to the NYC Sanctum’s location), America Chavez is “Stripes” and Wong is “Master.” That just leaves “Bleeper”, who could be Rintrah. Keep in mind this is the first wave and won’t be spoilery, so Rintrah seems safer than say members of the rumored Illuminati.

April will reportedly see the release of a 7-figure wave featuring characters from Thor: Love and Thunder that we recently covered here. According to Rektangular, the rest of the year will see 6 additional waves released:
- April: Vintage wave
- May: X-Men wave
- June: Classic wave
- September: Avengers wave
- September: Black Panther: Wakanda Forever wave
- October: Avenger wave
It’s likely that characters from Marvel Studios’ streaming series She-Hulk, Moon Knight, and Ms. Marvel will be sprinkled into some of the waves listed above. It’s also possible that additional waves could be planned. Check out Rektangular’s report below and give him a follow if you’re into such things.

Source: YouTube
November 26, 2021