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Tag: TV News

  • ‘Thunderbolts’ Director Jake Schreier Joins Impressive List of ‘Skeleton Crew’ Skippers

    ‘Thunderbolts’ Director Jake Schreier Joins Impressive List of ‘Skeleton Crew’ Skippers

    Though the project has long since completed filming and is now in post-production, the Star Wars streaming series Skeleton Crew continues to sound more promising by the day. Billed as an Amblin-esque adventure set in the Galaxy far, far away, Skeleton Crew has assembled quite the group of directors. Now a new report suggests another hot name has joined the list.

    According to One Take News, Jake Schreier directed an episode of the series for Lucasfilm. Schreier Joins The Daniels and David Lowery on an impressive list of talented directors who have worked with creator Jon Watts behind the camera.



    Skeleton Crew tells the story of four kids who find themselves lost in in the vastness of the galaxy trying to find their way home.

    Official synopsis of Skeleton Crew via Lucasfilm

    A year ago, Schreier was known more for his work on music videos than major projects. That all changed when Marvel Studios selected him to direct the 2024 film Thunderbolts, which will begin production this Spring. Schreier’s first major project, the streaming series Beef, hits Netflix soon and has already been the subject of a lot of positive critical buzz. Interestingly enough, Thunderbolts will serve as a bit of a Beef reunion for Schreier with star Steven Yeun and screenwriter Lee Sung Jin joining him on the Marvel Studios project.

    Lucasfilm has not officially confirmed the team of directors for Skeleton Crew. However, it’s expected that the project will be a part of the upcoming Star Wars Celebration presentation on April 7th in London.

    Source: OTN

  • Great Scott! Chapter 22 of ‘The Mandalorian’ Rocks Out with a Trio of Juicy Cameos

    Great Scott! Chapter 22 of ‘The Mandalorian’ Rocks Out with a Trio of Juicy Cameos

    Bryce Dallas Howard returned to direct Chapter 22 of The Mandalorian and she brought some big names along with her. The episode, titled Guns for Hire, saw Din Djarin, Grogu and Bo-Katan head to the planet of Plazir-15 where they looked to enlist Axe Woves, Koska Reeves and their team of Mandalorian mercenaries into their quest to reclaim Mandalore. While the series Mandalorian leads found who they were looking for, they also met a trio of new faces who made surprising cameos in the episode.

    The grandiose world of Plazir-15 is new to the Star Wars universe which gave Howard and creator Jon Favreau room to get creative and they did exactly that. Shortly after landing on the planet, Din, Grogu and Bo-Katan were escorted to a rather extravagant party. And who invited the Mandalorians to have a seat at the table, take a load off and sip on secretions? The planet’s rulers, The Dutchess and Captain Bombardier, played by Lizzo and Jack Black, respectively.

    As the plot of the episode moved ahead, it turned out it had one more surprise cameo in store. Before Din and Bo-Katan would be allowed to meet with their fellow Mandalorians on Plazir-15, they had a small task to complete for the Dutchess and Captain Bombardier. Plazir-15, as it turned out, had recently experienced some unpleasant business with some rogue droids. To get to the bottom of the matter, Din and Bo-Katan met with the planet’s head of security, Captain Helgait, played by the iconic Christopher Lloyd. Though Helgait was revealed to be behind the droid attacks and exiled from the planet, he did live to see another day.

    It’ll be interesting to follow both the reaction to the trio of cameos and any forthcoming information from Lucasfilm about them. For his part, Black has created a few social media videos expressing his fandom for Star Wars and, in particular, The Mandalorian. His 2022 May the Fourth Be With You and Revenge of the Fifth Tik Toks made quite a splash.

    Chapter 22 of The Mandalorian is now streaming on Disney Plus.

  • Amazon’s ‘The Lord of the Rings’ Series Only Finished by 37% of its Domestic Viewers

    Amazon’s ‘The Lord of the Rings’ Series Only Finished by 37% of its Domestic Viewers

    Here’s a rather shocking reveal, but it seems Amazon’s gamble with The Lord of the Rings: The Rings of Power may have not paid off as initially hoped. The series is one of the most expensive productions out there and already has a second season on the horizon, but new internal data has revealed that the first season was only finished by 37% of its viewers domestically. Internationally, it’s not too far off at around 45% with 50% usually considered a “solid” performance.

    There’s a bit of irony to this story, as the series is not viewed as a failure, even if it didn’t even become a major awards contender either. The series had the biggest debut for the streaming service and that does mean its smaller finish rate still would rival any other series on the platform. Up until now, The Boys seems to remain their biggest release (throwing another wrench into the superhero fatigue blender) and Amazon Studios chief seemingly views The Rings of Power quite a bit more positively.

    This desire to paint the show as anything less than a success — it’s not reflective of any conversation I’m having internally. That’s a huge opportunity for us. The first season required a lot of setting up.

    Jennifer Salke

    Netflix dominates the Nielsen ratings and there’s quite a bit of difficulty in truly pinpointing a series’ success. The service with the highest viewership seemingly also sets the highest bars of what makes a successful series. Amazon also seemingly has a problem in that there’s “no vision of what an Amazon Prime show is” which stands in an interesting juxtaposition to just how easy it is to figure out if Netflix or Disney+ is behind the wheel on a project.

    Source: The Hollywood Reporter

  • ‘Guardians of the Galaxy 3’s James Gunn Believes in Superhero Fatigue

    ‘Guardians of the Galaxy 3’s James Gunn Believes in Superhero Fatigue

    Superhero fatigue has been all the rage right now. Mostly due to some pointing out that they’ve seemingly reached their limits and reading too much into box office performances of two distinct projects earlier this year. Shazam: Fury of the God couldn’t pull in an audience and opened with a depressing $30M while Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania lost steam surprisingly fast after a bombastic opening.

    While there’s more to this given just how superhero films performed last year, James Gunn gave his thoughts on the topic and seemingly believes that there is such a thing. Yet, he points out that it’s not as simple as “superhero movies” but rather spectacle films that lack the heart that really drags us into these stories.

    I think there is such a thing as superhero fatigue. I think it doesn’t have anything to do with superheroes. It has to do with the kind of stories that get to be told, and if you lose your eye on the ball, which is character. We love Superman. We love Batman. We love Iron Man. Because they’re these incredible characters that we have in our hearts. And if it becomes just a bunch of nonsense onscreen, it gets really boring. But I get fatigued by most spectacle films, by the grind of not having an emotionally grounded story. It doesn’t have anything to do with whether they’re superhero movies or not. If you don’t have a story at the base of it, just watching things bash each other, no matter how clever those bashing moments are, no matter how clever the designs and the VFX are, it just gets fatiguing, and I think that’s very, very real.

    James Gunn

    It’s not completely wrong, as many spectacle films sometimes can overshadow the heart of the story. Ant-Man‘s third film is quite a bit “bigger” than the previous and perhaps just went overboard on what defined the franchise initially. Even Shazam‘s sequel seemingly started going in a bigger direction and there’s no surprise that the first two very family-centric franchises may have struggled a bit earlier this year.

    Of course, the topic of superhero fatigue is also quite a bit important for James Gunn, as he’s the head of the newly formed DC Studios. With him set to also direct the next Superman film that’ll define a future new cinematic universe, he’ll put a lot of weight into ensuring that fatigue doesn’t take away their opportunity to build this franchise.

    Source: Rolling Stones

  • Aegon’s Conquest Eyed as a New ‘Game of Thrones’ Prequel

    Aegon’s Conquest Eyed as a New ‘Game of Thrones’ Prequel

    It almost seems like HBO’s entire Game of Thrones story is to build a series around the Targaryen family line rather than the many houses that exist. While there were a wide variety of projects hinted at early on, there was a hint that they are potentially readjusting their focus after the success of House of the Dragon. A new report by Variety has revealed that HBO how hopes to go even further into the Targaryen past.

    While the project is in its early stages with no writer attached, HBO seemingly wants to explore the story of Aegon the First. The story would revolve around his conquest of Westeros alongside his wives/sisters Viseny and Rhaenys. It seems they aren’t going to jump headfirst into another series but rather wants to take a different approach this time around.

    They seemingly want to produce a feature film that would then set up a series, though nothing is set in stone. As they have no writer or director attached, who knows if this project will truly move forward but it’s no surprise they want to go 300 years into the past before the events of the original Game of Thrones, as even House of the Dragon continued to praise what the original Aegon has accomplished.

    What truly stands out is HBO slowly trying to move into the theatrical market. There is an ever-growing market after the pandemic, and there is seemingly a hope to make good use of it. Game of Thrones is one of the biggest IPs that HBO has produced. So, who knows just how much potential a high-budget fantasy film would offer with the iconic dragons at war? If House of the Dragon is anything to go by, it’s no wonder they want to make use of it.

    Source: Variety

  • ‘Just Mercy’ Director of Photography Brett Pawlak Joins ‘Wonder Man’

    ‘Just Mercy’ Director of Photography Brett Pawlak Joins ‘Wonder Man’

    Production on Marvel Studios streaming series Wonder Man, starring Yahya Abdul-Mateen II, looks to be getting underway in Los Angeles and while the cast has been growing by the day, the team behind the camera is also coming into focus. In a post on his Instagram, Wonder Man executive producer Destin Daniel Cretton has revealed that Brett Pawlak will serve as the series director of photography.

    A quick check of Pawlak’s resume, located on his website, confirms that Pawlak has taken the gig. Cretton and Pawlak are frequent collaborators with the two most notably teaming up on Just Mercy and the Disney Plus streaming series, American Born Chinese. Wonder Man is being written by Brooklyn 99‘s Andrew Guest and will be directed by a team consisting of Stella Meghie, James Ponsoldt and, potentially, Cretton. Of course, Cretton is also pretty busy writing the sequel to Shang-Chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings and preparing to direct Avengers: The Kang Dynasty, so he may choose to simply oversee the creative team of Wonder Man.

    Given Marvel Studios has been ordered to drastically slow down their output of streaming series, it’s unclear when Wonder Man may stream on Disney Plus but it doesn’t seem as though it could be any sooner than late 2024.

    Sources: Instagram, brettpawlak.com

  • ‘Secret Invasion’: Marvel Studios Rolls Out New Synopsis, Cast of New Streaming Series

    ‘Secret Invasion’: Marvel Studios Rolls Out New Synopsis, Cast of New Streaming Series

    Who do you trust? That question will be at the center of Marvel Studios latest streaming series, Secret Invasion, when it hits Disney Plus beginning June 21st. Unlike its comic book namesake, Marvel Studios Secret Invasion won’t be an epic, Avengers crossover event but rather a paranoia-laden spy thriller with the spy of all spies, Nick Fury, right in the middle of it all. Marvel Studios recently rolled out the first full trailer for the new series and also provided an official synopsis and partial cast list for the show!

    In Marvel Studios’ new series “Secret Invasion,” set in the present day MCU, Nick Fury learns of a clandestine invasion of Earth by a faction of shapeshifting Skrulls. Fury joins his allies, including Everett Ross, Maria Hill and the Skrull Talos, who has made a life for himself on Earth. Together they race against time to thwart an imminent Skrull invasion and save humanity.

    Samuel L. Jackson‘s Nick Fury will be joined by Talos, once again brought to life by Ben Mendelsohn. They will be joined by fellow MCU returnees Cobie Smulders as Maria Hill, Martin Freeman as Everett Ross and Don Cheadle as James Rhodes. Kingsley Ben-Adir joins the MCU as Gravik, the leader of an extremist faction of Skrulls that includes Emilia Clarke‘s G’iah, the daughter of Talos, and Killian Scott, whose Skrull character has not been officially named but has been referred to as Fiz in various reports. Charlayne Woodard, who is rumored to play Nick Fury’s wife, Priscilla, Samuel Adewunmi, Dermot Mulroney, Christopher McDonald, Katie Finneran and Olivia Colman, who will play MI6 operative Sonya Falsworth, were also revealed to be part of the cast.

    Ali Selim (Manhunt, Condor) directed and executive-produced Secret Invasion, along with fellow executive producers Kevin Feige, Jonathan Schwartz, Louis D’Esposito, Victoria Alonso, Brad Winderbaum, Samuel L. Jackson, Kyle Bradstreet and Brian Tucker. Bradstreet is also the head writer, and Jennifer L. Booth, Allana Williams and Brant Englestein serve as co-executive producers.

  • New Rumor Puts a Number on Marvel Studios’ Future Yearly Output

    New Rumor Puts a Number on Marvel Studios’ Future Yearly Output

    Quality over quantity has been the long-echoed outcry on the internet surrounding Marvel Studios’ direction during the pandemic. With up to four shows on top of three films, it seemed like they were hoping too put out as much as they could. There were hints that Bob Chapek‘s era has forced them to also enforce more Disney+ releases to promote the streaming service while also trying to adjust to something no one ever expected to delay their releases for two years.

    Marvel Studios was playing catch-up but there was enough drama to overshadow the troubles most production companies are facing in the current timeline. CG over specific shots in a 2+ hour project were the signs of this development, and many discussions have surfaced online. Ironically, most of this discourse only really arrived during 2022 and has been hyper-fixated on in the current mythos.

    That was until Bob Iger once again took over as Disney CEO and many new rumors have surfaced hinting at a new yet old direction. Ironically, the number of rumors of potential projects was one of the causes for concern, these new rumors are potentially doing the same thing. On The Hot Mic, Jeff Sneider has added more fuel to the fire of a more regulated output in the form of an exact project count moving forward.

    Marvel’s target output has been reduced. I don’t know if this has been reported, or if this was a line in the trades, or whatever, but I’m told that the target output has been reduced from four shows and four movies a year to two shows and three movies a year. And of course that’s malleable. You could get one on either side of that, or whatever.

    Jeff Sneider

    Two series and three films a year seem to be the current direction for 2023. We just recently saw Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania release with Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3 and The Marvels on the horizon. We also had the longest pause between series releases with Secret Invasion finally getting its June release and likely only the second season of Loki on the horizon. While some future schedules might hint at a different schedule, they have reshuffled their schedules quite a bit as of late.

    It is kind of funny to think that this schedule matches what we had with the Netflix series and the Marvel movies, as we had two series and three films every year. Yet, we also had additional Marvel series like The Runaways, Agents of SHIELD, as well as Cloak and Dagger. 2018 to 2019 technically had more projects airing with a higher number of episodes compared to the “stuffed” 2022 but perhaps the Marvel studios branding is creating the illusion of such. Either way, the current rumor mill will likely have many happy to see the studio dial it down.

    Source: YouTube via The Direct

  • Marvel Studios Confirms When ‘Secret Invasion’ Will Launch on Disney Plus

    Marvel Studios Confirms When ‘Secret Invasion’ Will Launch on Disney Plus

    Recently a listing on Disney Plus indicated that Marvel Studios upcoming streaming series, Secret Invasion, was set for a June 21st debut. Shortly after word of the listing begin to circulate online, the listing and any reference to the streaming project was removed from the service. Now, ahead of a new trailer for the series, the release date has been confirmed by a new poster for the project.

    Sporting the familiar “Who Do You Trust?” tagline from the comic book crossover event, the new poster features a fascinating image of Nick Fury’s face intercut with a Skrull…and a release date!As indicated by the recent D+ listing, Secret Invasion will kick off its 6-episode run on June 21st.

    The streaming series will see Samuel L. Jackson’s Nick Fury and Ben Mendelsohn‘s Talos try to stop the takeover of Earth by an extremist faction of Skrulls led by Kingsley Ben-Adir’s Gravik and Emilia Clarke‘s G’iah, the daughter of Talos. Rather than calling in Earth’s Mightiest Heroes, Fury will rely on a team comprised of Talos, Cobie Smulders‘ Maria Hill, Martin Freeman‘s Everett Ross, Don Cheadle‘s James Rhodes and, sometimes, Olivia Colman’s Sonya Falsworth to stop the Skrulls from claiming Earth for their own.

  • New Marvel Studios’ ‘Legends’ Episodes to Release in April

    New Marvel Studios’ ‘Legends’ Episodes to Release in April

    Marvel Studios: Legends was first announced in late 2020, ahead of the release of WandaVision on Disney+. The series was meant to act as a recap for first-time viewers and kicked off with episodes highlighting Wanda Maximoff and Vision. Episodes of the series were released all throughout Phase 4, highlighting notable events of the Infinity Saga and moments that defined who our beloved characters were.

    Earlier this year, Season 2 of Legends was announced with the onset of Phase 5, starting with episodes featuring characters from the Ant-Man franchise. The next episodes coming to this series have now been confirmed, bringing the episode count to 9.

    In an official “Next On Disney+ | April 2023” video by Disney+, it was confirmed that episodes 4-9 of Legends will release on April 28, one week before Guardians Of The Galaxy Vol. 3 hits theaters. Although the titles of the episodes haven’t been officially confirmed, the episodes will likely focus on Star-Lord, Rocket, Groot, Gamora, and Drax, the founding members of the Guardians.

    Legends

    The Guardians were previously featured in Legends episodes for The Guardians Of The Galaxy Holiday Special.

    As of now, the following episodes of Marvel Studios: Legends are available to stream on Disney+:

    • “Wanda Maximoff”
    • “Vision”
    • “Falcon”
    • “The Winter Soldier”
    • “Zemo”
    • “Sharon Carter”
    • “Loki”
    • “The Tesseract”
    • “Black Widow”
    • “Peggy Carter”
    • “The Avengers Initiative”
    • “The Ravagers”
    • “The Ten Rings”
    • “Hawkeye”
    • “Doctor Strange”
    • “Wong”
    • “Scarlet Witch”
    • “Thor”
    • “Jane Foster”
    • “Valkryie”
    • “Bruce Banner”
    • “King T’Challa”
    • “Princess Shuri”
    • “The Dora Milaje”
    • “Mantis”
    • “Drax”

    Source: Disney+