Murphy's Multiverse

Tag: Movies

  • You Get a Captain Marvel, You Get a Captain Marvel…Samuel L. Jackson Reveals the MCU’s New Approach to the Shared Moniker

    You Get a Captain Marvel, You Get a Captain Marvel…Samuel L. Jackson Reveals the MCU’s New Approach to the Shared Moniker

    Across the decades, the House of Ideas has churned out multiple Captains Marvel. The Kree hero Mar-Vell, Monica Rambeau, Genis-Vell, Phyla-Vell, Noh-Varr, Carol Danvers and even a weird Skrull/Mar-Vell hybrid have all been known as Captain Marvel in the pages of Marvel Comics. The MCU has shown no interest in following the lineage laid out in those pages and has chosen instead to blaze its own trail, leapfrogging 5 Captains to get to Carol and revealing that on Earth-838, Maria Rambeau became Captain Marvel. Now it appears that much like the comics, the moniker of Captain Marvel is going to be shared by more than just those two characters.

    In an interview with Sway’s Universe, Secret Invasion star Samuel L. Jackson, whose Nick Fury is set to appear in November’s The Marvels, indicated that two more characters may be set to take shared ownership of the title of Captain Marvel. “After Secret Invasion, I’m moving on to The Marvels where you got like three different people who are Captain Marvel,” said Jackson. “You got Brie, you got a black Captain Marvel and you got a Muslim Captain Marvel,” continued the actor. Jackson is, of course, referring to Teyonah Parris’ Monica Rambeau and Iman Vellani‘s Kamala Khan, both of whom will share the stage with Brie Larson‘s Carol Danvers in the upcoming film.

    This is certainly the first time we’ve heard of the possibility of these characters sharing the distinction of being called Captain Marvel but it does fall in line with the way the title has been treated in the comics. It also certainly doesn’t preclude any of the characters from having other superhero names as not too many characters have sported the title Captain Marvel for long in the comics. Marvel Studios The Marvels will hit theaters November 11th.

    Source: Sway’s Universe via The Direct

  • James Gunn Calls Out Recent Superhero Movies as “Really Lazy”

    James Gunn Calls Out Recent Superhero Movies as “Really Lazy”

    James Gunn is going to have his hands busy with saving DC’s brand in the views of cinemagoers. The last few years haven’t been kind and going by The Flash’s box office, it’s not looking better. Still, the CEO and director took his time in the Inside of You podcast to bad-mouth other superhero entries. He goes as far to say it’s not quite the issue with volume but more with them being “really lazy.”

    People have gotten really lazy with their superhero stories. And they have gotten to the place where, ‘Oh, it’s a superhero, let’s make a movie about it.’ And then, ‘Oh, let’s make a sequel, because the first one did pretty well,’ and they aren’t thinking about, ‘Why is this story special? What makes this story stand apart from other stories? What is the story at the heart of it all? Why is this character important? What makes this story different that it fills a need for people in theaters to go see?’

    James Gunn

    While one can definitely argue that some films hold up better than others, the question remains what he’s talking about exactly. Marvel’s recent releases were still strong box office performers and seemed to have a hold. The only time a superhero movie really fumbled was Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania but this might be more of a comment on the DC Extended Universe. He mentions that “having very different genres” is a way to solve this which is pretty much how Marvel Studios handled the genre for many years.

    The Flash, Black Adam, Shazam! Fury of the Gods, and more have been showing a lack of interest in this particular brand. And, Gunn’s job moving forward is to ensure that isn’t the case. In the same interview, he goes on to highlight his approach to ensuring it’ll be “as good as it can possibly be.”

    We’re going to be very careful with the product that we put out and making sure everything is as good as it can possibly be.

    James Gunn

    That is a great statement and pretty much just echoes the overall quantity over a quality issue that people claim, but he also stated that The Flash was among the best films he’s seen in the genre. So, the question remains on why he wouldn’t go by that same rule with the latest release if this is a concern of his or is this a push towards what he’ll over with the DCU to be in contrast to the DCEU? We won’t know until Superman Legacy releases. Still, it seems a bit harsh for someone trying to push the genre forward to badmouth it at the same time.

    Source: Variety

  • Animation Wins the Weekend as ‘The Flash’ Drops by 72%

    Animation Wins the Weekend as ‘The Flash’ Drops by 72%

    Ouch! It looks like The Flash isn’t doing so well as it dropped by 72% in its second weekend. DC’s biggest release of the year is not performing as “the best superhero movie” would, as it’s been completely overtaken by two animated projects. Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse continues to show its legs and overtook the film while Elemental is only slightly behind. No Hard Feelings shows that R-rated projects still have some energy in them.

    The Flash overall pulled in $15.3M over the weekend, which is a sharp decline in its second weekend. As such, the film is only behind Morbius with the second-worst drop of any superhero film. As such, even bad performers Black Adam and Shazam! Fury of the Gods had better holds in its second weekend, the latter dropping around 69% on an even smaller opening. As such, the film may have passed $200M, but it’s unclear if it’ll even reach $300M at this rate.

    Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse returned to the top spot with $19.3M and already passed $560M globally. Has a decent chance of probably ending its total run at around $700M. Elemental even showed that a bad opening doesn’t mean the film could make up for it. It dropped only 37% which might not quite help with its $200M budget but if it keeps the pacing it could at least try to balance it out as much as possible. As of now, it placed second with $18.5M and stands at $121M.

    Jennifer Lawrence made her grand return to theaters with the raunchy No Hard Feelings, which opened pretty decent. $15M is a good start and better than some other R-rated comedies though won’t compete with Cocaine Bear. The big surprise is that not a single film managed to pass $30M this summer weekend, which is bizarre considering just how stacked the summer was going in. Either we’re seeing people become very selective about what they watch, or the box office still has quite a time to go before it heals.

    Source: Variety, Twitter, The Numbers

  • Bad Bunny Hops Off Sony’s ‘El Muerto’

    Bad Bunny Hops Off Sony’s ‘El Muerto’

    The announcement by Sony that they were developing an El Muerto project fans sent the dozens of fans of their Spider-Man cinematic universe without a Spider-Man to Google to learn just who the masked man was. After analyzing the brief Wikipedia entry, everyone remained confused as to why the film was in development other than as a vehicle for multi-hyphenate star Bad Bunny. Sony hoped that BB’s reach would generate enough interest to carry the project. Now, shortly after the film was scratched from Sony’s slate, further bad news has dropped.

    According to Big Screen Leaks, Bad Bunny has chosen to leave El Muerto.

    https://twitter.com/bigscreenleaks/status/1672312018882142211?s=20

    As BSL explains it, Bad Bunny‘s desire to continue touring plus the delays caused by the ongoing WGA strike combined to drive the star away from the project. However, despite Sony initially developing the project because of Bad Bunny, they are apparently–for reasons none of us will ever be able to come to understand–looking to recast the role and keep the project alive! What a world! While it would seem best for everyone to let El Muerto die, Sony has often continued to choose the road much less traveled, sometimes even opting to travel roads that nobody really wants to go down…or even know exist.

    Source: OTN

  • ‘The Flash’ Stumbles to a 70%+ Drop in its Second Weekend

    ‘The Flash’ Stumbles to a 70%+ Drop in its Second Weekend

    The Flash may be far removed from what Zack Snyder once started, but it seems it’s about to overtake Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice’s box office drop. After a soft opening in its first weekend at $55.7M, far below initial expectations, the film is seemingly on its way to a heavy drop that’ll be likely above 70%. If you have a strong opening you might be able to balance it out, but this isn’t the case. As such, the film is dropping to third place after opening to $4.5M on Friday, which is an 81% drop.

    That drop is quite a bit higher than that of Green Latnern back in 2011, which only made around $116M and it’s unclear if this film will face a similar fate. It’s not looking good for the film to make enough money to make up its $200M+ production budget. Whiles some are liking this to be a sign of superhero fatigue, The Flash isn’t the only film that has lost quite a bit of momentum, and perhaps expectations for blockbusters generally have risen.

    Transformers: Rise of the Beasts proves that fact after a sharp 66% drop in its second weekend, but things are looking up a bit as the third is going a bit softer than initially expected. The film will drop around 45% and could still push the film to pass Bumblebee and Transformers: The Last Knight’s overall domestic box office gross.

    The big surprise though is Elemental is holding on. After the worst opening weekend for a Pixar film, its A CinemaScore is proving useful with a strong hold. It’ll likely only drop around 40% in its second weekend, which would push it further but it is still not likely to take the top spot. At the moment, Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse is showing a stronger hold and has a good chance at retaking the top spot with a $18.2M weekend.

    The big release of the week, No Hard Feelings is doing pretty good. It pulled in $6.25M on Friday (incl. Thursday previews) putting it at the top spot for at least a day. It’s projected to make around $12M but it seems likely that the debut will land somewhere around $15M. It did take the day and while it’ll lose momentum it’s still not too bad of a showcase. Comedies sadly generally seem to be struggling at the box office, as many other films like The Machine, Bros, and Easter Sunday struggling with that R-rating.

    Source: Variety

  • DC Veteran to Compose ‘Kraven the Hunter’s Soundtrack

    DC Veteran to Compose ‘Kraven the Hunter’s Soundtrack

    Looks like Kraven the Hunter is in good hands. Well, depends on who you ask when it comes to the upcoming Sony spinoff film focused on the Spider-Man film. Still, there is some exciting news with the addition of Benjamin Wallfisch. The veteran composer has seemingly joined the production and will give Aaron Taylor-Johnson the right melody to hunt down his non-animal prey.

    What is interesting about Wallfisch is that he’s no stranger to superhero properties. He’s worked quite a bit with Andy Muschietti on The Flash, his two It films, and even was involved with 2019’s Shazam! though his best work might be Blade Runner 2049, which he worked on it alongside composing icon Hans Zimmer.

    It’ll be interesting to see what direction he takes the soundtrack for this film, as Wallsisch has quite an extensive background. So, they could go any way they want with it but it would seem fitting if they lean into the characters’ Russian background in their choice of melody. Though, it’s hard to say if director J.C. Chandor already went in with a rather specific vision.

    Source: The Hollywood Reporter

  • ‘Spider-Verse’ Threequel Unlikely to Release Next Year

    ‘Spider-Verse’ Threequel Unlikely to Release Next Year

    Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse has opened to much acclaim and is quite a success at the box office. Many saw it as the perfect showcase of what animation and superhero movies are capable of, but a recent announcement has unveiled that things were a bit rough behind-the-scenes.

    In a new report by Vulture, a lot of details on how the crew is overworked were unveiled. Not just that, but they also made quite a point to highlight that Phil Lord was a big part of the production leading to many rewrites and changes even with an almost finished product.

    Yet, the question remained if Beyond the Spider-Verse was even far along, but one of the anonymous animators has pointed out that they aren’t far along enough to even hit the next year’s release that was originally set when the film was split into two parts.

    The only progress that’s been made on the third one is any exploration or tests that were done before the movie was split into two parts.

    It’s definitely realistic that the film won’t be available in 2024. At this point, we don’t know how long the wait might end up being, but here’s hoping that for future developments of the project they’ll take their animation staff into consideration and avoid the issues that are currently being reported.

    Source: Vulture

  • Animators Speak Out on Turbulent Production on ‘Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse’

    Animators Speak Out on Turbulent Production on ‘Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse’

    For some time now, people have used the Spider-Verse films as a showcase of what happens if you respect animators and those working don’t the project. It has commonly been used as a point of comparison between how major studios utilize their VFX houses for live-action adaptations. Yet, it seems that there was a lot more happening behind the scenes than one might’ve assumed initially.

    Supposedly, while Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse cost only $150M to produce, it seems like things were quite messy and costly in the long run. Multiple crew members, who range from artists to production executives, have come out to share what has happened across the many years working on the film in a new article by Vulture. And, it seems that it wasn’t pretty.

    Around 100 artists have supposedly had to “flee the movie” before it was finished, as they share that the film sprinted in the last three years. One of the reasons is seemingly due to one of its producers, Phil Lord of LEGO Movies fame, having a hard time conceptualizing 3-D animation and seemingly prefers to edit with fully rendered work. This means, they finished an entire project and then end up having to scrap big chunks of it due to this editing style. Usually, these kinds of stages happen early on in production, but it seems they pretty much had to change elements that were already finished.

    Subsequently, their backlog started to pile on as time went by. It’s no wonder the film was postponed by more than a year from its initial April 2022 release. At the time, it was “pandemic-related delays” but it seems there’s more to that after all. Seems that Phil Lord’s partner, Christopher Miller was surprisingly absent throughout most of the production. Lord seemingly overshadowed even the trio of directors involved with the project.

    Of course, Sony executives have disputed the claim with producer Amy Pascal pointing out that “over a thousand” were involved and losing 100 isn’t too surprising. Though she did confirm that the project went through various major overhauls when it came to its visuals and narrative. Going as far as executive Vice President of Sony Pictures Imageworks, Michelle Grady, stating “It really does happen on every film,” which casts a darker shadow over their other work especially with Pascal’s stating: “Welcome to making a movie.”

    Though, it should be pointed out that one stated it was a harsh experience but one that is “extraordinarily rewarding” it’s still not a good sign that what VFX and gaming industries are going through also affects animation. We’ll have to see if the WGA strike might be a big milestone to push for better experiences of employees in these creative environments but it also is a sign not to point the finger at a single scapegoat and take a look at the bigger picture.

    Source: Vulture

  • ‘Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3’ Gets Digital, Physical Media Release Dates

    ‘Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3’ Gets Digital, Physical Media Release Dates

    Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3, James Gunn‘s farewell to the franchise that put him on the superhero map, has had a successful run in theaters and now, as it approaches the end of its run, Disney has revealed when the film will be made available for home theaters.

    Still reeling from the loss of Gamora, Peter Quill must rally his team to defend the universe and protect one of their own. If the mission is not completely successful, it could possibly lead to the end of the Guardians as we know them.


    Official Synopsis for Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3.

    Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3, which debuted in theaters on May 5th, will be available for purchase on digital platforms beginning on July 7th. Just about one month later, on August 1st, 4K Ultra HD, Blu-ray and DVD copies of the film will hit store shelves. Disney has yet to reveal when the film will release on Disney Plus.

    As of the time of publication, Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3 has grossed over $823M worldwide during its six-week run with $347M of that coming from the domestic box office.

  • Marvel Studios to Skip SDCC ’23

    Marvel Studios to Skip SDCC ’23

    After blowing the doors off Hall H last year, Marvel Studios has decided to skip San Diego Comic-Con this July. Though the move is sure to upset fans, it’s hardly surprising given the current climate in Hollywood. The ongoing WGA strike has caused Marvel Studios to put productions on several projects on hold and the looming SAG strike would mean the Hall H stage would be pretty empty as actors would sit it out.

    SDCC ’22 was a huge hit for Kevin Feige and company with the announcements of Avengers: The Kang Dynasty, Avengers: Secret Wars and Daredevil: Born Again leading the way. Feige also revealed that Phases 4-6 would make up the Multiverse Saga and dropped trailers for a few projects. Given Feige’s insistence that the studio won’t show up in San Diego unless it can over-deliver, sitting out 2023 makes sense. With talent likely to sit out the event, once the studio updated its theatrical slate via an official release, there’s not much left to deliver.

    Source: The Wrap