Hollywood Reporter is revealing that the Stargate remake is finally getting writers as Nicolas Wright and James A. Woods are in final talks to pen the script. The pair of writers recently wrote the sequel to Independence Day for 20th Century Fox.
The original film from 1994 starring Kurt Russell and James Spader, is actually one of the more coherent movies directed by Roland Emmerich. Also, one of the better science fiction films of that decade I'm excited to see what they end-up doing with the franchise.
Fans of the show might be holding-out hope those actors will be reprising their roles which is extremely unlikely considering the film is indeed a relaunch. Plus, when it comes to movies costing studios $100M+ they tend to hire film actors who can help sell the film internationally on larger scale than television.
Deadline is reporting that Warner Bros. is resurrecting the live-action Robotech film with 300 screenwriter Michael Gordon set to pen a new script. The project is based on the widely beloved anime series which has been circling Hollywood for ages.
It's possible that the renewed interest could stem from a mix of the success of Pacific Rim, which has since moved to Universal after Legendary Pictures and Warner Bros. splitting-up.
Along with the largely positive reaction to Edge of Tomorrow which is also adapted from Japanese sci-fi source material. I'm curious if they'll put the amount of effort into the project as they did with Edge.
Not to mention Fox's amping-up the huge sci-fi genre with James Cameron's Avatar sequels that could feed the demand for more of these types of films to be made.
I've been hearing about a Robotech movie as long as I've been blogging which is almost a decade and this might be more of the same since every couple of years there's a new creative team announced. The team never getting too far and each time would go back into limbo.
Writers Akiva Goldsman (I Am Legend, A Beautiful Mind) and Lawarence Kasdan (Raiders of The Lost Ark, Empire Strikes Back, Force Awakens) trying to develop the film previously without anything to show for it.
I'll be trying my best to keep optimistic about this new development but we've been down this road many times before.
There's a bit of hope on my part to see Warner Bros. possibly turning these anime/manga films into one single cinematic universe which could include Edge, Robotech and even Akira. Of course, certain things would need to be tweaked to allow this to happen but might give the studio a strong reason to keep the Japanese roots to something like Akira instead of Americanizing it and whitewashing it's casting.
A couple of months ago Neill Blomkamp starting posting concept artwork for an Alien movie project on his Instagram and Twitter accounts. The project using the working title of Alien: Xenomorph and was completely under the radar of the people at 20th Century Fox, who would end-up greenlighting such a film.
The premise being this film would take place sometime after Aliens, I assume with the aged-up cast returning to their roles and ignoring that the two previous films ever happened.
Something that is already going on at Paramount with their Terminator franchise as Terminator Genisys coming this summer is a reboot of sorts. That film is systematically pretending that the last two films aren't canon and is seeming going back to 1984 (other time periods as well). If Arnold's coming back they might as well do the same for Ripley.
Alien Resurrection didn't really leave much room for this to be an option for Alien 5 unless Hicks is still alive somehow. They'd have to do a lot of explaining to bring Hick back in that timeline.
Rebooting the franchise entirely has always been a taboo subject at the studio, even though fans assumed that Prometheus was going to be exactly that. Of course, if they had followed the production process they would know the film was always going to focus on the origins of the Space Jockey aka the Engineers.
Now let's consider where Blomkamp got this idea to bring back Dwayne Hicks and the derelict ship.
It actually might have been inspired by the video game Aliens: Colonial Marines which for most was a massive disappointment. The game was terrible in almost every aspect and had huge potential because it's developer Gearbox had access to all the materials from the Aliens production. Colonial Marines was expected to actually become a semi-sequel to Aliens and would even attempt to bring back characters including Hicks reprised by Michael Biehn.
In the game's downloadable expansion single-player mission titled Stasis Interrupted, it's revealed that Hicks wasn't in the cryo-tube when the escape pod crashed in Alien 3. This allowing Hicks to have had an unseen storyline explored in the game. Some fans have actually embraced this expansion but it's unlikely any have really heard of it.
Michael Bishop Weyland
The mission also had Lance Henriksen in the role of Michael Bishop Weyland which he played in Alien3, further connecting the game to existing canon. The character confirms to Hicks that he and the company have indeed retrieved the alien ship and were using/testing it's contents on the planet.
Weyland gets ahold of the derelict ship and starts experiments on both LV-426 at the Origin Facility and his own ship using unsuspecting colonists as hosts for the xenomorphs. This base of operations was also teased in the production artwork posted by Blomkamp.
Check out the comparisons between the Weyland facility from the game and the one posted by Neill Blomkamp.
Origin Facility on LV-426 from Stasis Interrupted
Derelict Ship at Weyland Facility posted by Blomkamp
The expanded mission's story was seemingly being pulled from old Fox scripts that had Dwayne Hicks as the lead of the third film, a precaution at the time as the studio and producers kept finding ways to exclude Weaver from returning. There were indeed versions that did have Hicks taking-over as protagonist of the series but that never did end-up happening.
This of course wasn't James Cameron's idea for the third film as he had envisioned that family dynamic created at the end of Aliens being further explored. He was gutted when Fox killed both Newt and Hicks in the third film, and would eventually turn his back to the franchise once they passed on his Alien 5 pitch to make AVP instead.
Having a video game inspire his direction for an Alien movie pitch wouldn't be crazy for Blomkamp, remember was once set to direct the live-action Halo movie and previously made live-action ads for the game as well.
Let's not also ignore that Sledgehammer Games took direct designs from his film Elysium for a lot of the design work on Call of Duty: Advanced Warfare. To the point I'm shocked there wasn't a lawsuit.
Honestly, it couldn't be any less ridiculous than producers pulling story elements from The Hobbit for most of the Alien 3 script. Trying watching the film now after seeing Desolation of Smaug, the producers obviously scrambling for material were writing scenes just before they were shot.
Fox getting on board might be a tough sell since they did take a huge hit from Aliens: Colonial Marines turning out to be a huge clusterfuck, having a film slightly connected to the game might be a reason why they could turn it down.
Then again, with Blomkamp involved it could see more interested parties include Sigourney Weaver who just worked with the director on Chappie. Weaver has been vocal since the 90s and even up until recently to finally give Ripley another shot in fifth Alien film. I'm also sure that Michael and Lance would jump at the chance to reprise their roles as well.
Neill Blomkamp hasn't announced his next film but it's expected his next film could be based on his short film Yellow which focuses on cyborgs. However, he did sound like he was interested in returning the Alien project at some point in the future with studio backing it could be enough to push him into serious development.
During an interview with Movies.com, co-directors Chad Stahelski and David Leitch of the action-packed breakout flick John Wick revealed a sequel is already in development.
“We’re in development right now,” Stahelski told us. They didn’t go into any specifics on story or if Reeves would return, though Stahelski did hint, “If we could work with Keanu Reeves for 10 movies you’d have a really cool career.”
“We have ideas for days and without blinking twice we know we can outdo the action from the original,” Stahelski said. “It’s the matter of story and how much you like the character. That’s always the most important. If there’s great action but you have a character that no one likes and doesn’t have charisma you’re not going to watch it. Look at any great action star, whether it’s Harrison Ford or Liam Neeson or Robert Downey Jr., pick a name, you love the guy first. Good action, bad action, you just love them in action. So we want to make sure we have a story and a character that everybody loves and then we’ll dress it with action that we promise will be awesome.”
This could make for a worthwhile franchise when the R-rated action genre is really struggling to find audiences.
A lot of attention to detail and time was put into setting-up the mythology for this underworld of assassins. It's only natural to consider they have many different angles they could pursue with sequels. Plus, I'm sure they do operate outside of New York and New Jersey.
The question of when this sequel will come together is another thing entirely as the directing duo could make Cowboy Ninja Viking starring Chris Pratt next. They also have a television project Rain which would see them re-teaming with Keanu Reeves.
Wick is currently out on hardcopy/digital platforms and is extremely worth checking out.
Disney blog Stitch Kingdom has got ahold of a batch of high resolution images from Marvel's Avengers: Age of Ultron. The images include a still of Andy Serkis and reveals his character to indeed be Ulysses Klaw as listed by Marvel.
We had our senses that Serkis was playing Klaw just by his facial hair alone. Not to mention his necklace that included an animal claw, very subtle Marvel.
This character confirmation of sorts seemingly also gives the impression that Wakanda's presence will be bigger than previously expected. Something that might have been hinted to in the second trailer.
Klaw is primarily known as the most well-known of Black Panther rogues.
There hasn't been word if we'll see Chadwick Boseman's T'Challa in the film but there have been hints he could show-up at the very end with a cameo but that remains to be seen.
It's expected some of T'Challa's story will be told in Captain America: Civil War, we shouldn't be shocked to see Serkis' Klaw involved in that film as well since the role is expected to crossover a couple of films.
Hollywood Reporter has word that Oscar nominated actress Felicity Jones (Amazing Spider-Man 2, Like Crazy, The Theory of Everything) is now in talks with Lucasfilm for the female lead in Gareth Edwards' untitled Star Wars film. Jones had been linked along with actresses Rooney Mara, Kate Mara and Orphan Black's Tatiana Maslany.
Rumors had suggested otherwise as it was said that Tatiana Maslany was the frontrunner, that seems to be untrue from this new trade report. The film she's working on that led to her dropping out of a play is actually a indie starring opposite Dane DeHaan.
They are also reporting that actors Aaron Paul (Breaking Bad) and Edgar Ramirez (Zero Dark Thirty) in the mix for the male lead. There had been suggestions that male lead could be Han Solo and Paul was rumored for that part. This might mean that Edgar could be taking that Boba Fett, but nothing says that's indeed the role.
After Lucasfilm hiring Oscar Isaac in The Force Awakens, there is hope they'll be hiring more latino actors for lead roles.
Latino Review recently suggested that both Boba Fett and Solo would be featured in the film, could there be two male leads?
We should come to expect not to really trust the word of pop-up sites when it comes to Star Wars news. There have been a couple of interesting ones but likely very untrue rumors circling recently.
They include the very busy Michael Fassbender linked for the Boba Fett role (unlikely due to X-Men and Assassin's Creed productions) and Tatiana Maslany playing Sabine from Rebels.
Just a couple of days ago we speculated on the latter, but nothing actually is pointing to that being factual besides the timeline. It's funny that one site's speculation can be another's rumor.
The talk ever since Fox decided to move forward with their Fantastic Four reboot was that they would eventually crossover the characters with the X-Men franchise in some sort of super film like Avengers. EW was able to speak with the best person to know if this was happening, writer-producer Simon Kinberg responds to the crossover talk.
“The reboot of FanFour really needed to work in and of itself,” he says. “We were doing something pretty radical with the tone of the movie.” Still, the opportunity for a crossover is there. “If we wanted to find a way to connect them to the X-Men, we could,” says the writer. “There’s a lot of precedent from the comics.”
We know that X-Men/Fantastic Four producers like Hugh Jackman, Lauren Shuler Donner and Kinberg are friendly with Marvel Studios' Kevin Feige, but the studios themselves seemingly have some bad blood.
While we're talking about Sony and Marvel working something out for sharing Spider-Man is looking more likely than ever before. Fox and Marvel working something out for those universes to become shared is a massive uphill battle, that seems less achievable for Marvel.
A Fox crossover between their own Marvel franchises will eventually happen but at this point both franchises are set in two different time periods which could be a big problem, unless Reed Richards builds a time-machine. Fantastic Four 2 could setup a tiny opening for a crossover but from these statements from Simon give the impression the first film will be it's own thing.
Over the last two years or so we've been getting conflicting reports about Fox's plans for their Marvel cinematic universe.
Mark Millar was proclaiming himself as the mastermind behind Fox's Marvel cinematic universe and it's main consultant, but then we found out that he hadn't met Bryan Singer (Days of Future Past) or James Mangold (The Wolverine) until after they shot their films. This means that he really didn't even speaking to the filmmakers who were also shaping the script, no he didn't consult on the films.
Sites ate up his original statements and were reporting Millar was indeed the brain-trust for the franchises, which was never really true. If anything can be said about Mark, he loves to get media to print his bullshit. He was the first person to start talking a crossover was in the works, but was never confirmed by other sources.
Millar is out for Millar, and trying to make himself out to be this big industry insider because he's selling his comics as movie pitches to studios. He's way too busy with his own film projects at Fox and other studios, along with creating new comics to really have any sort time to give to these movies.
Simon Kinberg is actually that mastermind that Millar was claiming he was, producing and directly writing the scripts for both X-Men and Fantastic Four movies. Kinberg isn't some piker, he's also writing and producing Star Wars franchises for Lucasfilm including canonical series Rebels.
He's also godfathering Sony sci-fi films with Chappie and Elysium.
If you're looking for Fox's creative hive that would put all these films into one universe, it would be led by Kinberg. At the moment it's looking like Simon is Fox's version of Kevin Feige.
Entertainment Weekly has word from writer-producer Simon Kinberg that we'll be seeing a familiar face from X-Men First Class in Bryan Singer's X-Men Apocalypse.
Simon confirms that Aussie actress Rose Byrne (Bridesmaids, Neighbors) will indeed reprise the role of CIA agent Moria MacTaggert in the sequel. Affirming that Moira is a "a significant character in the movie". Kingberg expands on what else we should expect to see in the film. “We ended First Class with Charles having wiped portions of her memory of her experience with the X-Men. They are, essentially, strangers to her when she meets them.” “It’s certainly a rich relationship that we started to dig into in First Class, and would like to mine more in this one,” “This movie is the completion of the first arcs of Charles, Eric, Raven, and Hank, who are essentially our main characters,” he explains. “They’re such young actors and young characters, so there’s a lot more story to tell. But as a first phase of their lives, there is this feeling of closure by the end of the movie.”
He also talks about the film's setting in the 1980's which has been confirmed ages back and even teases a possible cameo from Dazzler. “That’s the era that I grew up in,” he says. “The music, the fashion, the videogames: We really want to integrate all of that in the movie, and have it infuse the movie with a different vibe.” Does this mean they’ll finally find some room for disco clubkid Dazzler? “Could happen,” laughs Kinberg. “We’re certainly looking at mutants that would fit into the period.”
Production will begin in Montreal this April with new cast members added to the franchise including Oscar Isaac as Apocalypse, Tye Sheridan as Cyclops, Sophie Turner as Jean Grey and Alexandra Shipp as Storm. Returning in their roles will be Jennifer Lawrence, James McAvoy, Michael Fassbender and Nicholas Hoult.
We haven't had official confirmation that Hugh Jackman's Wolverine will be in the film but he's expected to be apart of it, Channing Tatum's Gambit could show-up as well.
It's release date is set for May 27th, 2016 which will be months after the release of Ryan Reynolds' X-Men spin-off Deadpool next February.
BuzzFeed was able to get writer-director Joss Whedon to sort of expand on his comments from his interview with Digital Spy, where he voiced distain for Hollywood's handling of the female superhero genre. Mainly, about Marvel Studios moving forward with Captain Marvel.
Yes, and not expecting it to get any traction, honestly. That’s something that [Marvel Studios chief] Kevin [Feige] has been working on for a while. And I obviously was a cheerleader, but he had to get all the ducks in a row and get all the minds in agreement. I think being a part of Disney maybe makes it easier, because they’re open to it. And Marvel now is in a position to shake up its own paradigm, because it’s got such a success record. Honestly, you know, Guardians [of the Galaxy] might have helped it, just because that was outside what was considered to be their box and did so well that— Well, let’s put it this way: If a raccoon can carry a movie, then they believe maybe even a woman can.
They then directly ask him if he'd be willing to make Captain Marvel.
Um, I would never rule anything out, because I like working here. By the same token, the biggest thing for me is that I need to do something that I create myself. It’s been way too long since I created a universe. The last thing I did before The Avengers was [directing an episode of] Glee, and in between I did Much Ado About Nothing. So I haven’t created my own universe for over five years. That feels wrong. You know, my own universe might be a book of haiku. I’m not necessarily saying I’ve got a grand scheme.
I will say that when I was thinking about, Well, if I wasn’t going to do Avengers 2, what would I want to do? — of course the first thing I thought of was “turn-of-the-century female Batman.” Not Batman actually. But, you know, something cool. One person. Can’t stress that enough. Movie about one person — not a team, not 10, just one. But [I would] do a nice sort of hard action movie that combined all my favorite things. Something that would be the love child of Sam Fuller and Edward Gorey. You know, I’ve had many thoughts since then. Oh, I could do this! Oh, I could do that! But it is my instinct to want to tell those stories. Captain Marvel I don’t know as well. There have been a few [versions] of her. I have the first issue of Ms. Marvel, back when she was that, and had the Farrah hair. My only issue with her is that she always felt sort of on top. She was very driven. A winner. I always like to dig into the soil of things to find my heroes, if I can.
This is actually the first time we've heard Joss talk about making a turn-of-the-century female Batman film. We know he tried to get Warner Bros. to make his Wonder Woman adaptation, maybe they'll warm-up to this idea now that they know he's open to developing new superhero projects.
I mean, what studio in their right mind would reject a superhero film project from Joss after The Avengers? Plus, this isn't the first time DC Comics has played with timelines with their heroes.
Imagine Whedon making a steampunk Justice League movie.
Latino Review has an interesting bit of news concerning what aliens we might be seeing return for The Force Awakens. They've learned that J.J. Abrams had a couple of expensive Hutts created for the film, and there is talk they could end-up being redressed or altered to be included in the spin-offs.
Here's what the site has to say about the Hutts returning.
Well, I can forward that timeline for you today: there are Hutts in The Force Awakens, we know because those Hutts have been practically built. I know there is more than one Hutt, but unsure how many exactly are going to show up. The process of constructing these Hutts began over a year ago, so you can imagine how my ears perked up when it was rumored that the Star Wars spin-off film would be “sharing assets” with The Force Awakens, despite being in different time periods. Last time I speculated this would mostly be ships and interiors, but how hard can it be to re-dress a Hutt? Reaching out to a source, I was told: “I’m sure their existence could have factored in to them being included, or the expenditure was made because it was all coordinated.” In other words: if JJ wanted expensive Hutts, it might have been okay since they could be used down the line.
The site previously reported that to save money on the productions Lucasfilm would be repurposing sets and props across different films. This makes a lot of sense and could allow the studio to turnout more in-camera shots, which according to Oscar Isaac during his interview on The Daily Show is "mostly practical with limited green screen work".
The Hutt Fleet
In the case of the Hutts, they are just as important and influential as the Empire itself along with the Mandalorians. Considering they basically run the criminal underworld which includes bounty hunters, smugglers, pirates and assassins in their employment. Controlling entire systems, planets and commanding fleets of their own attack ships. There inclusion wouldn't be a spoiler in the least, considering they have been heavily involved in the Clone Wars and will likely have a role to play in Rebels as well.
We're not just talking about Jabba, as there are many different Hutts operating all over the galaxy not just on Tatooine. It's possible that we could see Jabba's replacement in The Force Awakens, since it's said we could be returning to desert planet which might be homestead of Daisy Ridley's Rey.
A lot of leaked concept art points to the return to Tatooine include Rey's home which is made out of a destroyed AT-AT imperial walker.
This isn't the first time we've heard the Hutts mentioned for new Star Wars films.
AICN reported that Lucas had been talking-up story ideas Jabba during the meetings for the spin-offs. Then again, they were also citing a Yoda spin-off becoming the first of the standalone films which at this point isn't the case.
Oh - and I've also heard tale of a JABBA story that Lucas has floated to some of his buddies.
By the sounds of things Gareth Edwards' film could very well be a combo of a lot of these ideas which could include bounty hunters, Han Solo and Boba Fett. We know that all them have a history together which could be explored in the spin-offs.
During an Q&A on Reddit's AMA actor Terry Crews got a chance to answer fan questions about his career and his future. Of course Luke Cage was brought-up as the actor was a huge fan-favorite for the role and even expressed interest in taking the role in the upcoming Netflix series.
Marvel placed Mike Colter in the Cage role which means he'll have to campaign for another hero. Terry might be already setting his sights on another iconic comic book role. That character being The Silver Surfer which happens to still be at 20th Century Fox.
Again... it's hard to pick a favorite super-hero. I always did love Luke Cage, and I'm really, really happy about who they cast in the Netflix version of Luke Cage. So that's something that's already done. But you know who else I'd like to play? The Silver Surfer. I always LOVED - I thought I had the build, the body, I could get on that surfboard, and if they ever do a live-action version of Silver Surfer, I think that would be perfect for me.
We all know that Crews has a huge personality and would be perfect for this genre, hopefully he get's a shot with Surfer. Let's not forget that Terry has a good relationship with Fox working on two of their shows currently with Brooklyn 99 and World's Funniest Fails.
At the moment there aren't immediate plans to have the character used in feature films.
However, with Josh Trank's Fantastic Four sequel being fast-tracked for a 2017 release date, it's possible they could incorporate the character into the sequel.
Another possibility is that Fox could finally move forward with their solo Silver Surfer movie.
The studio had tried for a while to make that project happen. Alex Proyas (The Crow, Dark City, Gods of Egypt, I Robot) was attached to direct but when speaking to MTV in 2012, he had some choice words for 20th Century Fox being the reason he would never make the film.
“Because it’s a Fox picture..And I’m determined never to work with them ever again because of my experience on ‘I,Robot.’” “It’s like the origin of Silver Surfer was in that movie, and I’m going, ‘This is such a f--king great story, why throw it away?’” Proyas wondered. “I think they messed it up.” “You know, there aren’t that many [good comic book characters] left,” [Proyas] sighed. “Silver Surfer would have been something I would have loved to have done. He’s one of the last cool ones left, really.”
At that era at Fox we can't blame Alex for ditching the studio as they were making horrible superhero films at the time. Some of the those titles include Daredevil, Elektra, Fantastic Four 1-2, X-Men 3 and X-Men Origins: Wolverine. The dumb Fantastic Four films did essentially kill the hope for a spin-off at the time.
Yet, when Marvel had been in talks with Fox to extent the rights for Daredevil so they could reboot the character they wanted Silver Surfer and Galactus back which Fox refused to agree upon. The talk being that Marvel Studios wanted to include those characters in James Gunn's Guardians of The Galaxy.
Fox is currently upping their Marvel slate of films and it's not impossible for the new heads of the studio to consider putting Surfer back into development.
You might be shocked to learn that Fox pretty much has a bulk of Marvel's cosmic universe thanks to the X-Men and Fantastic Four/Silver Surfer rights.
Marvel Studios actually has a limited amount of access to their cosmic characters. Here's a rundown of the crazy amount of Marvel cosmic characters Fox likely has access to for their films, most of which have never made it onto the screen.
FANTASTIC FOUR/SILVER SURFER
-Silver Surfer -Galactus -Nova/Frankie Raye -Uatu The Watcher -Bastaar -Kang The Conqueror (possibly shared with Marvel) -Annihilus -Terrax -Super-Skrull
Deadline is reporting that Nicolas Winding Refn (Drive, The Pusher Trilogy) has found his second leading lady for his female-led horror flick The Neon Demon. Actress Abbey Lee will take role opposite Elle Fanning in the film which is said to take place within the world of young models and is set in Los Angeles.
The Australian model turned actress has already lined-up roles in large epics like George Miller's Mad Max: Fury Road and Alex Poryas' Gods of Egypt.
Refn recently confirmed in November that Cliff Martinez (Solaris, Traffic, Contagion) and Philippe Le Sourd (The Grand Master) would be teaming-up to score the film. Cliff previously worked with the director on both Drive and Only God Forgives.
I assume it'll be a mix of Tony Scott's The Hunger meets Only God Forgives.
Schmoes Know, who I've recently mended relations with found a decent Star Wars rumor concerning Gareth Edwards' Star Wars spin-off.
They heard via Total Geeks that Orphan Black actress Tatiana Maslany is now the frontrunner for the unnamed female lead role in the film. Being a rumor it's pending better confirmation but it's something to strongly consider.
In the article they also point-out an EW report that Tatiana recently dropped out of a play and was replaced by actress Amanda Seyfried, this could mean that she's indeed getting ready to prep for the role.
Other actresses reportedly in the running include Rooney Mara, Kate Mara and Felicity Jones. It's expected that a role like this could crossover to other spin-off installments so there's an big commitment needed from the lead.
I have to believe that she wants this role badly after letting the Sarah Connor role in the new Terminator film go to Emilia Clarke.
Another bit of Star Wars news comes from Disney which announced dates for Rian Johnson's (Looper, Brothers Bloom, Brick) Episode VIII and Episode IX. Johnson is expected to write both films but is only confirmed to direct Episode VIII.
I have to imagine that they'll eventually announce him for the second sequel but are waiting on a completed script.
Bob Iger confirmed (via The Wrap) the dates are set for 2017 and 2019. Something we knew was coming but hadn't been made official by the studio.
“As one of the few people allowed to visit the set during filming… and one of the fewer who’s seen most of the footage… I can assure the millions of ‘Star Wars’ fans who have spent the last decade hoping for a new movie this one will be worth the wait. And it’s only the beginning of a new era of exceptional ‘Star Wars’ storytelling; next year we’ll release our first standalone movie based on these characters, followed by ‘Star Wars: Episode VIII’ in 2017, and we’ll finish this trilogy with ‘Episode IX’ in 2019,”
Rian is expected to continue the ground-work created by J.J. Abrams and Lawrence Kasdan for The Force Awakens in the next two films. It's assumed the two sequels will indeed follow the new characters rather than Luke, Leia and Han being the focus of it.
I'm totally in love with the fact Rian is going to be working within the Star Wars universe, if you get the chance check-out Looper which is currently on Netflix instant.
The spin-offs had previously been made official with Gareth Edwards' film coming December 16th, 2016 and Josh Trank's film coming December 2018, basically this does confirm previous reports that starting this year we'll be getting a new Star Wars film every year.
Variety reports that John Wick co-directors David Leitch and Chad Stahelski in talks with Universal to helm their adaptation of the comic book Cowboy Ninja Viking.
The comic book film already has Chris Pratt (Guardians of The Galaxy, Jurassic World) attached to star with a script from Zombieland and Deadpool screenwriters Paul Wernick and Rhett Reese. Apparently, they've met with Pratt and he gave the studio the go-ahead to start talks with them.
A man who suffers from multiple personality disorder and is put into a government program to be turned into a super-soldier with the attributes of a cowboy, a ninja and a viking.
It's been said that Pratt would play the character outside the persona, with other action leads taking the roles of the three personalities.
I'm a bit upset we're not getting a Wick sequel quickly put together but the directing duo founding the stunt company 87Eleven means the action will be top notch.
Feminist filmmaker Joss Whedon has been a pioneer for female genre material ever since creating the breakout character Buffy The Vampire Slayer. Spending most of his career opening doors for actresses/female characters to be taken serious as leads of genre television series and feature films.
Even playing in the sandbox of my female-led franchise with his script for Alien Resurrection writing for the iconic genre character Ellen Ripley.
In an interview with Digital Spy he calls out Hollywood's "stupid people" blocking female-led comic book films. Also, pointing to fact Fox has access to the best female Marvel characters which isn't leaving Marvel Studios with much to work with. He would know since he wrote for the X-Men comics.
"It's a phenomenon in the industry that we call 'stupid people'," Whedon said. "There is genuine, recalcitrant, intractable sexism, and old-fashioned quiet misogyny that goes on.
"You hear 'Oh, [female superheroes] don't work because of these two bad ones that were made eight years ago', there's always an excuse."
"Hunger Games is a different structure and aesthetic to a certain extent, but these narratives where people are bigger than life and they're in these terrible, heightened circumstances, it's all part of the same genre," he said.
"Marvel is in a position of making a statement simply by making [a female-led] movie, which I think would be a good thing to do. "But it has to be a good movie, it has to be a good character, and most of the best characters in Marvel are owned by Fox, let's face it!"
Fox has yet to announce development a female driven superhero film since Elektra bombed.
Although, there has been talk from X-Men producers Lauren Shuler Donner and Simon Kinberg being interested in making Kitty Pryde and Mystique films but it's all been talk so far.
Whedon knows only too well what studio suits think of female superhero projects, Warner Bros. took an axe to his Wonder Woman film which had Cobie Smulders attached to star.
The studio is finally moving forward with a new adaptation with Breaking Bad's Michelle MacLaren and Gal Gadot in the titular role.
Joss would later gravitate towards Marvel and give us The Avengers, the big daddy of the comic book film genre.
Developing Scarlett Johansson's Black Widow into a total badass which was expanded upon in Captain America: Civil War. Not to mention giving Cobie a second-shot at the genre playing S.H.I.E.L.D. Agent Maria Hill which has led to both becoming big supporting players in the cinematic universe.
When he was set on making it's sequel Age of Ultron he did all he could to add more female characters into the already cast heavy film. Giving us Godzilla's Elizabeth Olsen as Scarlett Witch and Marco Polo's Claudia Kim as a scientist friend of Tony Stark.
He's all about talking about Hollywood making these female comic book films but will he end-up making one of his own?
These new statements sound like there is a bit of a fire in Whedon to possibly tackle the genre, we'd all love to see him prove his point.
Joss was in attendance at the big Marvel event in October which he seemed really only there to help support Ultron. However, since he's already talking about leaving the Avengers franchise he could have been there for other motives.
This was the first official reveal that Marvel was making Captain Marvel and even was bold enough to set the release date for July 2017. If you've seen footage from the event people went apeshit when the film's title card was revealed.
Kevin Feige would go on stating the film had been in-development almost as long as Guardians and Doctor Strange, adding that news of a writer and director was coming soon.
Some speculate we'll hear the announcement around the time of the release of Age of Ultron, as production would likely have to begin sometime in 2016.
The Whedon link to Carol Danvers goes back a while when he first stated he hated the character, and then in an interview with HeyUGuys over the summer did a 180 on that previous statement.
Rumors of Danvers casting started back in 2012 around the time Whedon was developing the untitled sequel's early outline. The talk at the time was that the role would appear in the second film.
Since then we've been hearing that she might be in the film after all with a possible cameo at the end of the film, we'll know for sure if Carol is in the film come May.
Talk of the development on the solo film hit the trades about a year ago it was suggested the script was being written in-house at Marvel Studios.
Meaning that an outsider hadn't been hired to write it, giving us the impression it was either someone like Guardian's Nicole Perlman (who was apart of their screenwriting program) or an existing writer at the studio, which points towards a female centric writer like Joss Whedon.
Whedon is more than capable to handle this kind of material and it would allow him to move into a different aspect of the Marvel universe as Kevin has stated her adventures are indeed set in the comic universe.
I'm sure the big question during Age of Ultron's press tour will be, is Joss Whedon going to write or direct Captain Marvel?
