Strange World, the next entry in Disney’s long history of animated projects, features an absolutely stellar voice cast. Brokeback Mountain star Jake Gyllenhaal headlines a group of performers that also includes Twitter icon Jaboukie Young-White, former Jaws 3-D actor Dennis Quaid, one-time Love & Basketball breakout Gabrielle Union, and Charlie’s Angels standout Lucy Liu. With such an insanely talented cast, one would likely not be alone in asking the simple question – “how did they pull that off?“.
During a recent interview, Murphy’s Multiverse got the chance to question co-director Don Hall on just that. The veteran filmmaker, known for previous works Big Hero 6 and Winnie the Pooh, began his answer by crediting casting director Amy Roberts, revealing she had these specific casting choices in mind from the very beginning of the creative process:
We had an amazing casting director named Amy Roberts who, after reading – I think – the first draft of the script…it could have just been the treatment, probably, kind of suggested these actors and we were blown away. Y’know, of course. We’re fans of all their work, we love all of their films and everything.
Don Hall
Hall continued to explain how the team locked Gyllenhaal and company in, allowing them a real chance to impact their characters and the film’s final product:
We just fell in love with that idea, pursued that idea, met with them, tried to give them an insight of what we were trying to do, and then open up a real collaboration. So that it wasn’t just, they’re coming in and reading some lines and leaving. It was about investing in the character and letting them shape their character as well.
Don Hall
Strange World hits theaters on November 23rd, and is set to follow the Clade family of adventurers as they traverse an unknown landscape in search of something that may save their home. Hall and co-director Qui Nguyen have promised character relationships are central to the story, so it sounds like the cast will have plenty of room to flex their creative muscle along the way.
The space race is on, as we finally have some tips on what to expect from Indiana Jones‘ upcoming return to theaters. Harrison Ford is back to take on Nazis but this time in a very new setting as we’ll join the archeologist in 1969, smack-dab in the middle of the space race. While the original movement has long moved on, according to the film’s co-writer Jez Butterworth, the moon landing may have had some sinister minds trying to make it work.
The simple fact is that the moon-landing program was run by a bunch of ex-Nazis. How ‘ex’ they are is the question. And it gets up Indy’s nose…It’s not just that they’re looking for something where there’s nothing up there – it’s like Reno without the gambling, or whatever his line is. But the people that are behind it are, you know, his sworn enemies.
Jez Butterworth
It definitely raises a few interesting questions. This story element could imply that Indiana Jones may somehow end up in space. After the last film introduced aliens into the franchise, it wouldn’t be too far out there but definitely could raise some questions on how it forces his hands into the story.
Jones is an archeologist and has nothing to do with space travel directly. So, the story could likely see an event from his past, perhaps even involving Mads Mikkelsen‘s Voller, who is inspired by Wernher von Braun, a former Nazi that would become a NASA engineer. In the same interview with Empire, the actor teases that perhaps there is something they are both chasing down.
He’s a man who would like to correct some of the mistakes of the past. There is something that could make the world a much better place to live in. He would love to get his hands on it. Indiana Jones wants to get his hands on it as well. And so, we have a story.
Mads Mikkelsen
It definitely is going to be quite interesting to see how they tackle the 1969 space race with an aging Jones stuck in the middle of it all. It definitely sounds like an interesting setup and here’s hoping the trailer isn’t too far to finally unveil our first look at Jones back in action.
The Deadpool franchise is back in action with Deadpool 3 in the active works. The film marks the Merc with a Mouth’s Marvel Cinematic Universe debut after the Disney-Fox acquisition. Ryan Reynolds will star alongside fan favorite Hugh Jackman’s Wolverine for an event that is sure to be special on its own but also within the context of Marvel Studios utilizing newly obtained Fox properties. Still, the threequel apparently is not the only Deadpool movie impacted by the Disney acquisition.
Just in time for the holidays, Reynolds revealed to The Hollywood Reporter that a fully-written Deadpool Christmas movie exists, but that it never got made. The actor and producer said:
Four years ago, Rhett Reese, Paul Wernick and I wrote a Christmas movie starring Deadpool. But it got lost in the shuffle of Disney acquiring Fox and it never got made…Maybe one day we’ll get to make that movie. It’s not a musical, but it’s a full DeadpoolChristmas movie. So one day.
Ryan Reynolds
It is not often that shelved and forgotten movies make a magical comeback. But with Marvel Studios leaning into holiday specials like Werewolf By Night and the Guardians of the Galaxy Christmas-themed special, anything is possible.
Deadpool 3 is slated for a November 8, 2024 release date.
As always, Disney has assembled a fantastic voice cast for the project, including Jake Gyllenhall as Searcher Clade and Dennis Quaid as his father, Jaeger, a legendary, larger-than-life explorer whose life’s work took him away from his family. Strange World isn’t the first time Quaid and Gyllenhall portrayed a father-son duo on screen, having played Jack Hall and Sam Hall, respectively, in the 2004 disaster flick The Day After Tomorrow; however, as Quaid revealed in the global press conference for Strange World, the two stars had never previously met!
When asked about what parallels there were in the chemistry between him and Gyllenhall in the two film, Quaid laughed, saying “This is the first time Jake and I have been in the same room, actually.” The actor went on, seemingly jokingly, to say, “I’ve never seen any of those films, so I didn’t know what he looked like.” Gyllenhaal backed up Quaid’s comments, saying “I literally never met Dennis until this moment, which is really –yeah.” Quaid continued saying, “In Day After Tomorrow, we really didn’t have scenes together.” In an effort to answer the original question, Quaid did point out that the pair of actors have swapped one key part of their arc in the two films, saying to Gyllenhall, “The only difference is, is that I was searching for you and now you’re searching for me.”
Despite working “together” on two projects, it took a press junket to bring Gyllenhall and Quaid into the same room together for the first time. A glitch in the matrix if ever there were one. Strange World hits theaters November 23rd.
When Ryan Reynolds revealed that Hugh Jackman was returning as Wolverine for Deadpool 3, it was met with equal measures of shock and excitement. Fans, and even Jackman, believed that Logan was the swan song for the actor in the role he’d dedicated the better part of two decades to play. As the film draws nearer to its scheduled April start of production, more information about it has begun to trickle out, including a working title that might give an idea of just how big Jackman’s role in the film will be.
According to insider Daniel RPK, the working title of the film is no longer Deadpool 3, but rather Untitled Deadpool and Wolverine Film. If the character’s name is in the title, audiences can definitely expect a heavy dose of Wolverine and not just a glorified cameo. If anyone has doubts, the title confirms that Wolverine will absolutely share the spotlight with Deadpool in the Marvel Studios film.
As information about the plot of the film has begun to leak out, it sounds increasingly more likely that at least part of the plot will involve time travel and/or multiverse shenanigans. Owen Wilson is rumored to be reprising his role as TVA Agent Mobius and recent rumors have pointed to the film visiting the universes inhabited by the characters from Marvel films not made under the Marvel Studios banner. One possibility could see the film adapting the comic arc Deadpool Kills the Marvel Universe, and which could lead to a wild ride for everyone involved as Deadpool Kills multiple non-MCU universes.
The currently untitled Deadpool and Wolverine Film will hit theaters in November 8, 2024.
Strange World, the upcoming 61st film from Walt Disney Animation Studios, looks like it will deliver on its pulpy title. Trailers for the film, which stars Jake Gyllenhaal in the lead role, have promised a grand adventure through an unknown landscape, with plenty of gorgeous visuals to aid in the excitement. Of course, designing a brand-new world is not easy work, and the visual development team likely went through several iterations before landing on the final product. During an exclusive interview with Murphy’s Multiverse, co-director Don Hall was asked how the creatives decided upon their look for the “Strange World” presented in the film, and his response was far funnier than anticipated:
It’s a very broad aesthetic, which is just organic and round. There’s just not a lot of hard edges or straight lines. Everything’s very organic and kind of goopy. One term that kept coming up, and it became a term for all of the vis dev, but it started with the Venture. When the Venture was being designed, it was like you took an air ship and just went [mimics squishing]. It kind of made it ‘chonky’, and so that became our word for everything in the strange world. ‘Just make it chonkier’. ‘Can you up the chonky?’. “A little bit more chonky’. It’s like everybody knew what you were talking about.
Don Hall
“Chonky” might not be a word in the English dictionary, but it’s certainly one everybody understands. Adorably plump cats come to mind, as well as large babies and, apparently, fictional airships flown by an animated Gabrielle Union. Hopefully, the film’s “chonky” aesthetic lands with audiences when Strange World hits theaters on November 23rd.
James Mangold, famous for his work on Logan and Ford V Ferrari, is taking on a daunting task. He’ll be the first new director to helm an entry in the Indiana Jones franchise, which has all been directed by Steven Spielberg, who is still actively a producer on the project. Still, it seems that he wasn’t scared of tackling this story once again and shared in an interview with Empire how he approached the material, especially with an older Harrison Ford in the leading role.
It became really important to me to figure out how to make this a movie about a hero at sunset. The issues I brought up about Indy’s age were not things I thought were being addressed in the material being developed at the time. There were ‘old’ jokes, but the material itself wasn’t about it. To me, whatever you greatest liability, you should fly straight towards that. If you try to pretend it’s not there, you end up getting slings and arrows the whole way.
James Mangold
It’s definitely interesting that he’s avoiding the age topic completely, even if some jokes may have found their way into the script. Still, the topic was even the main focus in the last entry that released back in 2008, especially with the set-up of a new generation taking over that wouldn’t lead to anything. So, we’ll see just how the story will revolve around Indiana Jones and what is even the main mystery, as we still haven’t heard what the title will be for the latest entry in the franchise.
Indiana Jones is finally making a return, and Harrison Ford is still set to take on the role even after all these years. It was 2008 when we last saw him take on the mantle with a few hints at a new generation taking over, but new director James Mangold alongside writers Jez and John-Henry Butterworth managed to convince the actor to return to the role once again.
In a new interview with Empire, he shares what we can expect from the project and seems quite excited about the adventure he joined, even if it seems like production wasn’t easy on this latest action-adventure production.
It’s full of adventure, full of laughs, full of real emotion. And it’s complex and it’s sneaky. The shooting of it was tough and long and arduous. But I’m very happy with the film that we have.
Harrison Ford
He goes on to highlight that he was always open to potentially returning to the role, and it mostly depended “if a script came along” that was just right to truly return to Doctor Jones.
I just thought it would be nice to see one where Indiana Jones was at the end of his journey. If a script came along that I felt gave me a way to extend the character.
Harrison Ford
It seems that his heart was definitely in it and Mangold managed to tease him with a story that was worth exploring once again. It’s not the first time he took a look at an aging hero in a world that changed, as he did the same with Logan and it’ll be interesting to see if this film manages to hold that same level of weight.
Black Panther: Wakanda Forever delivered a fascinating backstory for the underwater nation of Talokan and its God-king, Namor. Writer/director Ryan Coogler created a unique version of the legend of Atlantis that allowed for the Marvel Cinematic Universe’s take on the Sub-Mariner to stand apart from the comics while still staying true to the character’s core characteristics. Interestingly enough, despite nearly entirely recreating the character, Coogler also left room down the road for Namor to retroactively become a part of a comic book-based team with which he’s long been associated: the Invaders!
In the pages of Marvel Comics, the story of the Invaders was first told via flashbacks to World War II. Originally comprised of Namor, Captain America and John Hammond, the Original Human Torch, the Invaders were a group of heroes who sought to take on the Axis powers of Europe in the 1940s. The team grew to include teen sidekicks Bucky Barnes and Thomas “Toro” Raymond and, over the years, dozens of other characters. The original members of the team have reunited over the years but the bulk of their great stories took place during WWII fighting against one of the greatest evils the world has ever known. Despite just being introduced into the MCU in its present day, it seems that nothing about Namor’s known history could prevent him from being a part of such a team in the MCU.
As shown in Black Panther: Wakanda Forever, Namor is over 450 years old and despite his desire to keep Talokan and its people hidden from the surface world, the film’s events do not depict the first time he’s had contact with humans. Not only has Namor been spotted on beaches in and around the Yucatan Peninsula, but he also burned down a plantation and murdered several of its inhabitants as a young boy. Though he serves as the antagonist of Wakanda Forever, Namor is no villain. Arrogant, prideful and extremely temperamental, Namor is also compassionate and has a strong sense of justice, so while he holds no love for the surface world, you can be sure that he would share Captain America’s sense of disdain for the Nazis.
Historically speaking, the Nazis had a very real fascination with the lost continent of Atlantis and undertook several attempts to find it. As outlined here, it wouldn’t take much to retcon what audiences know of the MCU’s WWII era to bring Namor, Steve Rogers and John Hammond (who was introduced in Captain America: The First Avenger) together to fight Nazis. In fact, all it would take would be a threat to Talokan to invoke Namor’s imperious impulses and find himself compelled to fight alongside other righteous heroes. If Marvel Studios did it right, it might even explain why Nick Fury had an icon in the Atlantic Ocean on his map of superhero hot spots seen in Iron Man 2.
That map has been widely interpreted to represent the locations of heroes Fury was following closely. The icon in the Atlantic has been thought to be Atlantis while the one in Africa thought to be Wakanda. However, there’s no reason to believe that those icons couldn’t simply represent places where interesting activities have taken place in the past rather than events that were taking place in and around the events of Iron Man 2. Fury didn’t have to know the exact location of Wakanda, for example in order to have become aware of some past incident in the area that drew his attention. The same could be said for the area in the Atlantic. The Nazis were known to be searching the seas far and wide for any potential signs of Atlantis so there’s no reason they couldn’t have engaged with Namor and the Invaders in that region, which is not insignificantly located near Tristan da Cunha, the most remote island archipelago in the world with a current population of only 264 inhabitants. Should a battle involving the Nazis, a flying fish man, a flaming, flying android and the Star-Spangled Man with a Plan have taken place in such a location, it wouldn’t take much imagination to figure out why it wasn’t part of the history books in the MCU but a guy like Fury would have means to find out about it.
Black Panther: Wakanda Forever delivers a great origin and introduction for K’uk’ulkan and does an equally wonderful job of not cutting off any more stories for the character, past present or future.
Black Panther: Wakanda Forever is in theaters now.
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