Murphy's Multiverse

Tag: Netflix

  • ‘Squid Game’ Season 2 Won’t Release Until the End of 2023 or 2024

    ‘Squid Game’ Season 2 Won’t Release Until the End of 2023 or 2024

    It looks like Squid Game‘s second season will take quite a while to get rolling, as the series creator Hwang Dong-hyuk has revealed that Season 2 will very likely not release until the end of 2023 or even 2024. In his interview with Vanity Fair, he talked about his plans for the next entry of Squid Game, and confirmed that he “only has about three pages worth of ideas that he plans to turn into a script.”

    He also talked about what his hopes for the sequel season will be, which seems to be a strong focus on exploring more what it means to cooperate with your fellow contestant; the possibility of there being multiple winners. Perhaps moving away from people “focused on wanting to kill each other off” in the next round.

    I want to ask the question, ‘Is true solidarity between humans possible.

    Hwang Dong-hyuk

    It definitely would mix up the way we explore the Squid Game in the universe, and having the chance of multiple winners could twist up the way the characters have to interact. Perhaps the cooperative version acts as a way for existing winners to get another chance at winning more or might explore how the Line Man ended up with his current position. No matter what may happen, it’ll take some time before we find out.

    Source: Vanity Fair

  • Ava DuVernay’s Animated ‘Wings of Fire’ Adaptation Canceled by Netflix

    Ava DuVernay’s Animated ‘Wings of Fire’ Adaptation Canceled by Netflix

    It hasn’t been easy for Ava DuVernay‘s projects as of late. Not only did her New Gods project get canceled by Warner Bros but her new CW series adaptation of Naomi won’t be returning for a second season. Now, it looks like her animated adaptation of the Wings of Fire‘s fantasy book series.

    It looks like her series is one of many animated series that were cut as a result of Netflix’s recent subscriber drop. The adaptation would’ve explored Tui T. Sutherland’s books, which would’ve run for a ten-episode season. It explores an ongoing war between dragon tribes of Pyrrhia. A prophecy proclaimed that five young dragons would lead to peaceful times, who would set out on a quest to uncover themselves and just what led to the war in the first place.

    Dan Milano and Christa Starr were working on the project as showrunners and executive producers. DuVernay and Sutherland were also executive producing alongside Sam Register and Sarah Bremner. Sadly, Netflix has generally been on a cancelation spree with their projects, which also included Boons and Curses, Dino Daycare, and Pearl.

    The news also comes in addition to recent mumblings that 150 people are about to lose their job, as their revenue growth has slowed down. Netflix right now is weighing its options and those productions that are further in may not be affected, but it seems they have set their eyes on animation as their main way to save money moving forward when it comes to active pre-productions.

    Source: Deadline

  • Netflix Exploring a 45-Day Theatrical Release of ‘Knives Out 2’

    Netflix Exploring a 45-Day Theatrical Release of ‘Knives Out 2’

    It was only a question of time, but it looks like Netflix is opening up its streaming-focused business model to also explore a cinematic release. While they’ve released films in the past, they are now considering a 45-day release window, starting with Knives Out 2. There’s been a lot of back and forth by the streaming service, but the recent scare after they’ve dropped in subscriber count for the first time has pushed them to try out new ventures.

    As of now, Rian Johnson‘s Knives Out 2 and the Alejandro González Iñárritu‘s Bardo are being considered. The former makes a lot of sense considering it pulled in $165M in the United States as well as $311M worldwide back in 2019 with a production budget of $40M. The move to purchase any sequels for $400M was quite the move and with the recent scare, its box office draw makes sense.

    Yet, there are going to be some issues with this move if they don’t play their cards right. Netflix’s usual bare-minimum marketing strategy won’t pull in the general audience to check out a film, as they may have forgotten it weeks after seeing the initial trailer. Plus, there’s also the fact that while it provides a new revenue stream, there might be some concerns due to moving away from its digital users to embrace a whole new target audience.

    They have released Don’t Look Up and The Power of Dog for two weeks in theaters, but the new 45-day window is becoming the staple for theatrical and streaming hybrid models. The only question will be if Netflix can pull this new model off and start a strong focus to ensure it reaches

    Source: Business Insider

  • Ed Skrein To Replace Rupert Friend in ‘Rebel Moon’, Fra Free and More Join Cast

    Ed Skrein To Replace Rupert Friend in ‘Rebel Moon’, Fra Free and More Join Cast

    Zack Snyder has found himself quite a comfortable home at Netflix after his stint over in the DC Extended Universe. Just last year Snyder released his first project, Army of The Dead, with hopes that it could spawn a franchise for Netflix. Snyder isn’t sticking to just one franchise, as he is currently developing yet another film titled Rebel Moon with hopes that it could also lead to sequels and spin-offs later down the road.

    Production on Rebel Moon has already begun but it seems some issues have led to the film having to recast its main antagonist. Rupert Friend was initially set to play the role of the tyrant Regent Balisarius, who’d set out to conquer a colony on the edge of the galaxy. The role now belongs to Deadpool actor Ed Skrein. Joining him on the project are Cleopatra Coleman, Fra Fee, and Rhian Rees whose roles in the film currently remain under wraps.

    The film is set to follow a Seven Samurai-inspired story in which a young woman, played by Sofia Boutella, sets out to recruit warriors from neighboring planets so that they can band together and take a stand against the incoming invasion from Balisarius. Rebel Moon is sporting quite the impressive cast with Boutella and Skrein starring alongside Charlie Hunnam, Ray Fisher, Cary Elwes, Corey Stoll, Alfonso Herrera, Djimon Hounsou, Doona Bar, Stuart Martin, and Michiel Huisman.

    The film is set to be directed by Snyder who co-wrote the script alongside Shay Hatten and Kurt Johnstad. This is the first project to come from Snyder’s recent first-look deal with Netflix and will be produced under his production company Stone Quarry.

    Source: Deadline

  • Geeked Week Trailer Offers First Look at ‘The Sandman’s Gwendoline Christie as Lucifer in Action

    Geeked Week Trailer Offers First Look at ‘The Sandman’s Gwendoline Christie as Lucifer in Action

    A new trailer has arrived teasing early June’s Geeked Week, which will be a special event hosted by Netflix to talk about all their upcoming projects. We’ve gotten teases that we’ll get some news on the live-action One Piece series by then, though a trailer seems very unlikely given they only recently wrapped work on two episodes, and more information on the new The Sandman adaptation. With a new trailer released to celebrate the occasion, Netflix also included quite a few sequences including our first look at Gwendoline Christie as Lucifer in action. Luckily, Fandom pulled the small set of footage showing off Christie’s charming take on Lucifer.

    It’s amazing to see how they’ve adapted Lucifer’s design to live-action and we’ll see what role she’ll have in the story, especially with not knowing how exactly they may tackle the adaptation. The graphic novel’s original creator Neil Gaiman is heavily involved and the footage shown seems like it’s staying true to his vision in many ways. It’s an exciting prospect to finally get a live-action adaptation after many pitches seemingly failed over the years. So, we’ll see what the future has in store for us once we get another full trailer during Geeked Week.

    Source: Twitter

  • Netflix Working on ‘Black Mirror’ Season 6

    Netflix Working on ‘Black Mirror’ Season 6

    It looks like Black Mirror will make a comeback after a three-year hiatus. The dystopian series made its last premiere with SEason 5 back in June of 2019, but the anthology series may be making a comeback. Variety has just reported that work may be underway on the sixth season, which will consist of even more episodes than the previous one. Season 5 surprised many when it mainly consisted of three episodes but had quite the talent to back it up.

    It seems Black Mirror is trying to treat each episode as its own film with a”more cinematic in scoop” approach. That was one of the reasons we got fewer episodes but they started to go beyond just the 60-minute mark with high production values. It’s unclear who is currently working on the project as its creator, Charlie Brooker alongside creative partner Annabel Jones left the production company House of Tomorrow in 2020. They’ve since set up a new production banner, Broke and Bones, while the rights to Black Mirror remained with House of Tomorrow.

    Brooker was unclear if there would even be a future for the series, as he wanted to move away from the more depressing outlook the series provided, especially given the current situations. It’s still crazy to think that the dystopian series initially started on Channel 4 before becoming a worldwide phenomenon under the Netflix umbrella, which then led to it adding big-name actors like Miley Cyrus, Topher Grace, Anthony Mackie, and more. We’ll see what the sixth season might have to offer without its original creative team.

    Source: Variety

  • ‘The Sandman’s Tom Sturridge and Neil Gaiman on Bringing Morpheus to Life

    ‘The Sandman’s Tom Sturridge and Neil Gaiman on Bringing Morpheus to Life

    Netflix has been busy promoting its upcoming fourth season of Stranger Things, but that’s not all that is heading our way. This summer will see the release of the highly-anticipated The Sandman live-action series. After getting a very popular audio adaptation, there’s been a lot of hope for seeing the series finally get adapted.

    Creator Neil Gaiman certainly has been hoping so, as he reveals in an interview with Entertainment Weekly that he’s gone through “1,500 Morpheus auditions” since the project was hoping to adapt the story of the Lord of the Dreaming. Joseph Gordon-Levitt started a project that didn’t get picked up, but luckily their casting led them to Tom Sturridge taking on the role.

    Tom Sturridge also got to talk about the lengthy casting process, but is quite okay with it, as he understands the importance of the role.

    It was entirely necessary, because this is a character who is so utterly beloved — by me more than anyone. That requires you to spend time with a human being to discover if they can live up to the dream you have of who he is. I think The Sandman pervades culture. Even the name Morpheus, King of Dreams, kind of haunted me in my youth.

    Tom Sturridge

    The actor also jokingly talked bout taking on the role, especially as his first appearance is naked, as the story takes place during World War I, just as some humans try to capture Death but end up with her brother Dream. While joking about ending up naked in front of the people he has nine months to work with, he highlights the challenge of bringing this character to life.

    I cared very much about the physicality and image of Morpheus. We’ve all seen those pictures, we know about his skeletal, muscular, otherworldly physique. Something that’s very exciting about the physical aspect of things is you can solve that problem. I can make my body look like that — it requires A, B, C, and D — in a way that I can’t easily get into the soul of an Endless. There was something quite satisfying about beginning with a task that was achievable, and I worked hard to create this physicality that I felt that was unusual.

    Tom Sturridge

    Gaiman goes on to highlight how they approached the dialogue, and how much work went into the project under showrunner Allan Heinberg‘s supervision.

    Morpheus’ dialogue is incredibly specific. It was probably the thing I was most obsessive about. Someone would have written a fabulous script, [showrunner] Allan Heinberg would have rewritten a fabulous script, and I would have seen it at every iteration, but there would always be a point at the end where I would still be noodling on the Morpheus dialogue: Making sure the words were right, that the rhythms were right

    Neil Gaiman

    Sturridge added to the view of how Dream talks, as everything he says has been “etched in stone” due to the way he’s seen everything there ever was, is and will be.

    I remember you said to me that everything he says has to feel like it was etched in stone. He’s never improvising. He has experienced and perceived every thought, dream, and moment, and therefore he knows what you’re going to say. That was very helpful.

    Tom Sturridge

    It definitely sounds like a lot of work went into bringing this series to life, and The Sandman is definitely an ambitious adaptation. Neil Gaiman‘s heavy involvement definitely adds that special something, and the fact they went out of their way to ensure they can cast the right actor as Dream highlights how much work went into it. Here’s hoping we get a new look soon.

    Source: Entertainment Weekly

  • ‘Somebody Feed Phil’ Gets a Season 6 Renewal, Was Filmed Back-to-Back

    ‘Somebody Feed Phil’ Gets a Season 6 Renewal, Was Filmed Back-to-Back

    If you’ve ever needed a show to just make you smile, Somebody Feed Phil might be the show for you. The culinary travels of Phil Rosenthal are about to premiere its fifth season which consists of five episodes, but it turns out that they actually filmed a sixth season back-to-back. In an interview with Variety, Rosenthal confirmed that an additional season is on the horizon, as well as confirmed that they had to postpone one location due to the pandemic.

    We filmed 10 episodes in the sweet spot between Delta and Omicron. Remember that? So from August to January, we pretty much filmed everything. We only had to postpone one location because of Omicron, but we swapped in another one in the United States for that. And we’ll go back to [that other location eventually.

    Phil Rosenthal

    The upcoming fifth season will include locations from Oaxaca, Portland (Maine), Portland (Oregon), Madrid, and Helsinki. So, there’s a good variety of Portland and other international locations that Rosenthal got to visit. Sadly, they wouldn’t confirm what the other five locations are going to be for the sixth location but it’s good to know that there’s more Somebody Feed Phil on the horizon no matter what. With a title like that though, you’d think the poor guy is starving.

    Source: Variety

  • Disney+ Adds 8M Subscribers and Avoids Netflix’s Downward Trend

    Disney+ Adds 8M Subscribers and Avoids Netflix’s Downward Trend

    There has been a lot of worry about the streaming market ever since Netflix faced its first subscriber drop in over ten years. So, everyone was wondering if others in the market would also face a slow down in subscriptions, or even worse, an additional drop. It turns out Disney managed to avoid the trend, as they have added 8M subscribers, beating Wall Street’s estimates.

    The service now stands at a total of 137.7M subscribers with its second-quarter growth. As such, its shares went up by 4.5% which definitely shows some of the hesitations that were out in the market. Hulu has also added 300K subscribers to stand at 45.6M while ESPN+ reached 22.3M with one million additional subscribers. So, there’s a general growth across all streaming services currently owned by the House of Mouse.

    Disney has taken a hit of $1 billion ending its content licensing agreements, but even while they wouldn’t solidify which ones, Netflix is a definite part of it with their Marvel series. Their only real challenge now remains with Disney+ Hotstar being a cheaper offering of the service that increases its subscriber growth but not the profit pulled from it. Spending will continue to grow, but we’ll see how it continues to move forward in the future.

    Source: CNN, THR

  • REPORT ‘Daredevil’ & Co. May be Heading to Disney+ Brazil in June

    REPORT ‘Daredevil’ & Co. May be Heading to Disney+ Brazil in June

    While being surprised that the Marvel Netflix series wasn’t seeing an international release, they are slowly starting to roll them out in other countries. While there’s no official reveal on the official Twitter account, a Twitter user by the name of @almanaquedisney has shared a familiar visual to those that were hyped when the Marvel Netflix series were making their way to Disney+ stateside.

    According to them, Daredevil, Jessica Jones, Iron Fist, and the rest of the Defenders will make their way to Disney+ Brazil on June 29th. They will also come with the same parental controls as the United States got with their initial release. There is currently still no word if it’ll also find its way to European countries around the same time, as there was a statement from the Netherlands that hinted at a June release. So, we might see a similar release date. The release has not yet been officially released on the official Twitter page and may have only been shared through a newsletter.

    Here’s hoping an official statement drops soon, but the June release is motivating that the series will be made available for all Disney+ subscribers at some point. It’s still surprising that there has been a delay with an international release, especially as those countries with the Star branding already have a function age restriction service built-in. So, we’ll see if more countries get the announcement in the coming weeks.

    Source: Twitter