Murphy's Multiverse

Tag: Movies

  • Dwayne Johnson Announces His Fast Franchise Future Plans

    Dwayne Johnson Announces His Fast Franchise Future Plans

    After once swearing off any possibility that he’d return to the Fast franchise following a feud with Vin Diesel, Dwayne Johnson has had an about-face. Following his surprising cameo in a Fast X post-credit scene, The Rock has announced his full-fledged return to the series via his social media.

    “Your reactions around the world to Hobbs’ return in Fast X have blown us away,” said Johnson before revealing plans for a Hobbs solo feature film. “The next Fast & Furious film you’ll see the legendary lawman in will be the HOBBS movie that will serve as a fresh, new chapter & set up for FASTX: Part II.” It’s likely that the Hobbs film will pick up where the Fast X cameo left off and could see Johnson go toe-to-toe with Jason Momoa‘s flamboyant villain, Dante Reyes. Given that the two never got to work together in the DC Universe, should Momoa co-star in the Hobbs film it would mark the first time the two action stars worked together.

    As for his well-known feud with Diesel, Johnson assured fans that the two stars have moved on and are moving forward. “Last summer Vin and I put all the past behind us,” said Johnson of the famous beef he held against Diesel dating back to 2016. “We’ll lead with brotherhood and resolve – and always take care of the franchise, characters & FANS that we love.” As part of the terms of their resolved conflict, Deadline reported that Johnson’s Hobbs may also end up appearing in the 11th film in the Fast series as well.

    Source: Deadline

  • A New Name Joins the List of Actors Up for the Role of Kal-El in ‘Superman: Legacy’

    A New Name Joins the List of Actors Up for the Role of Kal-El in ‘Superman: Legacy’

    With production on James Gunn‘s Superman: Legacy tentatively slated to get underway in January 2024, the search for the actors and actresses who will fill the film’s key roles is well underway. In May, a list of potential frontrunners for the roles of Superman, Lois Lane and Lex Luthor emerged and while that list was stocked with talent, there’s been no official word of anyone landing a spot just yet. Now, a new report from Variety indicates that Gunn may still be looking for his Superman and that a new name has joined his list of candidates.

    The trade is reporting that model and actor Pierson Fodé, best known for a 280-episode run on The Bold and the Beautiful, may have caught Gunn’s eye and be among those up for the role of Kal-El. Fodé‘s self-taped audition included a “montage” of the small-town farm in Montana on which the actor grew up and it apparently gave off some Clark Kent/Smallville vibes that Gunn reportedly enjoyed.

    Landing what must be one of the most coveted leading roles in Hollywood would be a major step up the ladder for Fodé whose biggest film credits include a supporting role in Woody Harrelson and Kevin Hart‘s Netflix original The Man from Toronto. Variety reported that no decisions have been made and that everyone’s reps declined comment. Superman: Legacy is currently set to hit theaters on July 11, 2025.

    Source: Variety

  • Amy Pascal Confirms Development on Live-Action Miles Morales Feature Film

    Amy Pascal Confirms Development on Live-Action Miles Morales Feature Film

    As audiences prepare for the return on Miles Morales in his second animated feature film, Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse, word comes that Sony plans to bring the character back to the screen in a live-action project. At the red carpet premiere of Across the Spider-Verse, producer Amy Pascal confirmed with Variety that the project is one of many in development at Sony.

    “You’ll see all of it. It’s all happening,” said Pascal when asked if the protagonist of the Spider–Verse trilogy would make his way into live-action. Created in 2011 by Brian Michael Bendis and Sara Pichelli, Morales quickly became one of Marvel Comics most popular heroes. After originally becoming the Spider-Man of the Ultimate universe after the death of Peter Parker, Morales jumped into the mainstream/Earth-616 continuity in 2015’s Secret Wars and has remained a prominent part of the company’s line of comics since.

    It’s unclear just how far into development the live-action Miles Morales project might be at this time and if it’s a project that Sony is tackling solo or in collaboration with Marvel Studios. Spider-Man: Homecoming featured Morales’ uncle, Aaron Davis, played by Donald Glover, and what has been interpreted to be a reference to Miles. While that reference could ultimately just be an Easter egg, it’s probably in both studios’ best interests to work together to define Miles Morales’ live-action future as allowing him to interact with the already-established MCU characters would benefit his development the same way it has with Tom Holland’s Peter Parker. As exciting as the news of a live-action Miles Morales film is, however, it’s best to temper expectations until the project is much further down the development pipeline.

    Source: Variety

  • THWIP! WGA Strike Webs Up Development on ‘Spider-Man 4’

    THWIP! WGA Strike Webs Up Development on ‘Spider-Man 4’

    For the better part of a year, leakers and scoopers in every corner of the internet have promised the imminent release of news concerning the status of the fourth movie in Marvel Studios and Sony’s ongoing collaborative Spider-Man franchise. Lo and behold it seems they were correct as news has finally arrived!

    At the red carpet premiere for Sony’s highly-anticipated animated sequel, Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse, Amy Pascal confirmed that while there will still be a Spider-Man 4, the development of the film has been paused during the ongoing strike by the Writers Guild of America. “Are we going to make another movie? Of course, we are,” said Pascal of the next Tom Holland-led adventure. “We’re in the process, but the writers strike, nobody is working during the strike. We’re all being supporters and whenever they get themselves together, we’ll get started.”

    What that means for the untitled fourth MCU-set Spidey flick remains to be seen but it probably won’t be making that oft-rumored Summer 2024 release date and even a projected 2025 release would be uncertain until some potential endpoint to the strike can be ascertained. At the very least, it’ll give Daredevil: Born Again stars Charlie Cox and Vincent D’Onofrio a nice respite following their year-long production on that ambitious streaming series before they step back into their roles in Spidey 4.

    Source: Variety

  • Classic Marvel Villain Avi Arad Has No Idea When ‘Spider-Woman’ Will Hit Theaters

    Classic Marvel Villain Avi Arad Has No Idea When ‘Spider-Woman’ Will Hit Theaters

    Short of Norman Osborn, no single man that has ever walked the fictional or non-fictional planet Earth has a greater vendetta against Spider-Man than Avi Arad. Unlike Norman, however, Arad seems relatively unaware of his ongoing destruction of all things Peter Parker. After producing Marvel Comic-based such as 1998’s Blade, 2000’s X-Men and 2002’s Spider-Man, Arad went on to produce some of the worst CBMs in the history of the genre and famously forcing Sam Raimi into including Venom into Spider-Man 3, tainting the franchise.

    As penance for his sins, Arad went on to ensure that Sony could produce a number of outrageously terrible films built around Spider-Man villains including Venom, Venom: Let There Be Carnage, Morbius and the upcoming Kraven the Hunter along with another half dozen films that certainly aren’t making the top 25 CBMs. Now Sony leans heavily into both animation and their relationship with Marvel Studios to resuscitate the studio’s reputation with the Web-Head, Arad reveals that, once again, he is clueless about another Sony project.

    In an interview with Variety, Arad claimed that a Spider-Woman movie–based on another character whose live-action right are shared by Marvel Studios and Sony–would be coming “sooner than you expect.” Wildly enough, since casting for Spider-Woman, which Sony exec Amy Pascal says “is happening“, was underway in prior to COVID shutting down Hollywood in 2020, fans have been expecting the film, once believed to be helmed by Olivia Wilde, to have been in theaters already. However, fans are set to be treated to Sony/Marvel fare such as Madame Web and, maybe, El Muerto instead while the theatrical future of Spider-Woman, a far more premiere Marvel Comics character, remains uncertain.

    Whether or not Wilde is still attached to the Spider-Woman project–which was slated to feature Jessica Drew–is unknown. However, given that Marvel Studios and Sony have a very strange and unfortunate relationship over the character’s live-action right, anything less than a Disney/Sony co-op will not do the character justice.

    Source: Variety

  • Disney’s Live-Action ‘Moana’ Reimagining Finds Director in Tony Award Winner Thomas Kail

    Disney’s Live-Action ‘Moana’ Reimagining Finds Director in Tony Award Winner Thomas Kail

    On the heels of their live-action reimagining of The Little Mermaid garnering an A Cinemascore and opening to largely positive critical reviews, the studio has found a director for one of its next big remakes. According to THR, Thomas Kail, who directed 2020’s filmed stage production of Hamilton as well as Broadway and Off-Broadway of Hamilton and In the Heights, has signed on to helm the Dwayne Johnson-led live-action Moana.

    Earlier this year during a conference call with investors and Bob Iger, it was revealed that Johnson and his Seven Bucks Production Company were leading the charge in developing a live-action reimagining of Moana, one of Disney’s modern classics.

    I’m deeply humbled and overcome with gratitude to bring the beautiful story of Moana to the live-action big screen. This story is my culture, and this story is emblematic of our people’s grace and warrior strength. I wear this culture proudly on my skin and in my soul, and this once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to reunite with Maui, inspired by the mana and spirit of my late grandfather, High Chief Peter Maivia, is one that runs very deep for me. I want to thank my partners at Disney for their strong commitment to this special endeavor, because there is no better world for us to honor the story of our people, our passion and our purpose than through the realm of music and dance, which is at the core of who we are as Polynesian people.

    Dwayne Johnson on the Moana reimagining

    While Johnson shared that he would be reprising the role of the demigod Maui, the studio made it clear that there was no timetable for when production might begin as they were searching for a director. Now, it seems they’ve found their guy in the Tony Award-winning Kail. After winning the 2016 Tony for Best Direction of a Musical for his Broadway production of Hamilton, Kail found himself on familiar ground when he led the Disney Plus production of the show which streamed to rave reviews in the COVID-ravaged entertainment landscape of 2020. Kail is currently in the midst of a Broadway run on Sweeney Todd and is also tapped to direct a feature film adaptation of Fiddler on the Roof.

    According to Disney, the live-action reimagining of Moana “will celebrate the islands, communities and traditions of Pacific Islanders as seen through the eyes of a young woman eager to pave her own path. Moana’s journey of self-discovery and reflection on the lives of her ancestors won hearts worldwide, as did her newfound friendship with an exiled demigod named Maui.”

    Source: THR

  • ‘The Flash’ Director Won’t Recast Ezra Miller in Possible Sequel

    ‘The Flash’ Director Won’t Recast Ezra Miller in Possible Sequel

    The hype surrounding The Flash is a troubled one. While the film has been in development hell for quite some time, Andy Muschietti is finally going to reveal it to the world in just a few more weeks. Yet, the discussion surrounding its leading star, Ezra Miller, has left some questioning his future as the iconic hero.

    In 2020, the actor made headlines due to choking a woman before it started going to new questionable levels in 2022. Miller was stated to be in treatment for “complex mental health issues” and is completely absent from the film’s promotional run. Yet, Muschietti believes that they are the only one right to play Barry Allen.

    If [a sequel] happens, yes. I don’t think there’s anyone that can play that character as well as they did. The other depictions of the character are great, but this particular vision of the character, they just excelled in doing it. And, as you said, the two Barrys — it feels like a character that was made for them.

    Andy Muschietti

    His wife and co-producer, Barbara Muschietti, also highlights Miller’s role during filming and highlighting that he was “the most committed” actor on set to bring the different variations of Barry to life.

    In principal photography, Ezra was brilliant and the most committed and the most professional [actor]. Ezra gave everything for this role — physically, creatively, emotionally. They were absolutely supreme.

    Barbara Muschietti

    It’s hard to say what people will take away from the film and if Miller will still stick around once the new era of the DC Cinematic Universe kicks off under James Gunn and Peter Safran’s management. Warner Bros. Discovery has put all its money into this film’s box office and we’ll see if it’ll manage to do just that once it finally releases next month.

    Source: Variety

  • Live-Action ‘How to Train Your Dragon’ Finds its Hiccup and Astrid

    Live-Action ‘How to Train Your Dragon’ Finds its Hiccup and Astrid

    While many have been hoping Disney’s attempt to bring their classic animated franchises to live-action would end, Dreamworks has just started with their own attempt. The animated film How to Train Your Dragon is heading back to the silver screen but not with an animated sequel or spinoff, but rather a live-action adaptation. With a March 14th release date in 2025, Dean DeBlois is attached to direct and it seems they found their leading duo.

    Deadline has reported that Mason Thames and Nico Parker will take on the roles of Hiccup and Astrid in Universel’s upcoming adaptation. They will retell the story of Hiccup’s journey as a young Viking that ends up bonding with a dragon, who he eventually names Toothless. Dreamwork’s original trilogy was nominated for Academy Awards and a Golden Globe, so it’s not surprising they want this adaptation featuring human characters to make its way to live-action

    Thames just had his first big hit with The Black Phone staring opposite Ethan Hawke. He even got the lead role in Incoming and is also going to star alongside Mel Gibson in Boys of Summer. Parker just had a role in The Last of Us alongside Pedro Pascal. She’s also appeared in the live-action Dumbo film by Tim Burton and is set to appear in HBO’s The Third Day.

    Source: Deadline

  • Latest Rumored ‘Fantastic Four’ Cast is Loaded with Talent

    Latest Rumored ‘Fantastic Four’ Cast is Loaded with Talent

    Marvel Studios Fantastic Four relaunch has struggled to get off the ground since it was announced by Kevin Feige at SDCC ’19. Original director Jon Watts left the project to take on his Star Wars streaming project, Skeleton Crew, and even though he was fairly quickly replaced by WandaVision’s Matt Shakman, the film’s 2024 release date was scrapped in favor of a tentative 2025 slot. However, it remains one of the most buzzworthy projects in development at Marvel and as the casting process starts to draw to a close, a new rumor suggests the First Family has been found.

    Twitter scoopster MyTimeToShineHello recently indicated that Marvel Studios has put together an incredibly talented cast for Fantastic Four, composed of some of the most consistently rumored talent. Should the rumor turn out to be true–and to be fair in coverage, one well-known sensationalist YouTuber has said no deals have been reached–it is quite a cast.

    https://twitter.com/MyTimeToShineH/status/1662535854273830912?s=20

    The rumored casting would see Adam Driver as Reed Richards, Margot Robbie as Sue Storm, Paul Mescal as Johnny Storm and Tony and Grammy Award winner Daveed Diggs as the Ever-Lovin’ Blue-Eyed Thing. If that is the cast Marvel Studio has assembled as the Fantastic Four, it would certainly stack up as one of their most talented ensembles to date. With a potential SDCC ’23 deadline looming, we’ll continue to monitor the rumor mill.

  • Disney’s ‘The Little Mermaid’ Heading to Strong $121M+ 4-Day Opening

    Disney’s ‘The Little Mermaid’ Heading to Strong $121M+ 4-Day Opening

    It looks like The Little Mermaid is going to continue the box office performance of Disney’s live-action adaptations of their beloved animated classics. While the internet continues to groan about the existence of taking an iconic animated fair and trying to put a realistic lens over it (as much as possible, poor Flounder), it does seem like audiences are continuing to eat it up as much as they can. The film pulled in a mighty $30M on Saturday after a $38M on Friday (including previews), which is on par with the Aladdin adaptation and is on its path to a strong Memorial Day weekend.

    As of now, it seems that the film will pull in around $97M+ in three days and wrap up the four-day weekend at $121M+. It seems the film boasted an 80M-worth global promo partnership that makes it one of the biggest for a non-Lucasfilm or Marvel Cinematic Universe cooperation. After being quite absent throughout the early parts of the year, it seems families are finally going back to theaters. That A CinemaScore is definitely also doing its job for strong word-of-mouth.

    Fast X is losing quite a bit of speed, as it is dropping around 67% in its second 3-day weekend which would rival any of the previous Marvel entries from the previous years. That on a soft $67.5M hurts far more than any of the frontloaded Marvel movies and perhaps continues to showcase that the current superhero fatigue is likely more than meets the eye given Transformers‘ latest entry isn’t coming in as hot as one would hope for such a mega tentpole franchise.

    Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3 is still hanging in there with a strong 26.6M over the four-day weekend. That’s just a 36% drop and further highlights that it’s all about keeping fans coming back to theaters. While some will call this an exception to the rule, the film still opened softer and positive word-of-mouth will keep the genre kicking. If The Flash manages to pull in a strong audience, it’ll also carry over into November’s release of The Marvels and so forth.

    Overall though, counterprogramming for this week isn’t doing what it should do as Machine and About My Father are falling a bit short. They both highlight the issue that grew out of the pandemic’s streaming focus that hit big films as well with mixed word-of-mouth scores: there’s a strong distinction between “what I’ll watch in theaters” and “I’ll wait to check it out on streaming eventually” mentalities than ever before. Big thank you to Disney+’s 45-day release window and Warner Bros.’ day-and-date strategy for that.

    Source: Variety, Deadline