The Valiant Comics cinematic universe is growing and so is the cast of Bloodshot, which stars Vin Diesel as the nanite-powered hero. According to Variety and Deadline, Diesel will be joined by Baby Driver star Eiza Gonzalez, Outlander‘s Sam Heughan, and Michael Sheen who really needs no introduction at this point. He’s been in everything, hasn’t he?
It’s unclear what roles they’ll be playing, however. We do know Diesel is set to play the titular soldier who, after a mortal injury, is revived using nanotechnology that gives him increased healing and other superhuman abilities. He’s tasked with finding and bringing in others just like him, known as harbingers.
The plan by Sony is to launch multiple franchises out of this. The first film will be Harbinger, followed by Bloodshot which is directed by Dave Wilson. They will then crossover in a Harbinger Wars movie that features both title characters.
Idris Elba’s first partnership with Netflix didn’t work out so hot. Beasts of No Nation was expected by many to be an Oscar contender but the streaming network was still going through some growing pains and had no idea how to mount an awards campaign. Actually…they still have that problem. That said, Elba is furthering his relationship with Netflix, first by producing and starring in the series Turn Up Charlie, and now by setting his next directorial effort.
Elba will direct and star in an adaptation of The Hunchback of Notre Dame, the 19th-century Victor Hugo story about the titular hunchback who falls in love with the beautiful Esmerelda. This version will be a modern retelling written by Michael Mitnick (The Current War), providing a “sonic and musical experience”. That’s unsurprising given Elba’s use of music in his recent directorial debut, Yardie.
No word on where this fits into Elba’s schedule. He can be seen right now in Avengers: Infinity War, reprising his role as Heimdall. [THR]
For good reason there has been trepidation regarding Damon Lindelof’s adaptation of Watchmen. Neil Gaiman and Dave Gibbons’ seminal graphic novel is seen as a classic that should probably be left alone. Zack Snyder gave it a go in a big screen effort that polarized fans and disappointed at the box office. Personally, I love his strict dedication to the source material but understand those who feel otherwise. Lindelof took to Instagram to try and convince fans to give his upcoming HBO TV series a shot, because his version will be very different…
“We have no desire to ‘adapt’ the twelve issues Mr. Moore and Mr. Gibbons created thirty years ago,” Lindelof wrote. “Those issues are sacred ground and will not be retread nor recreated nor reproduced nor rebooted.”
“They will, however, be remixed,” he continued. “Because the bass lines in those familiar tracks are just too good and we’d be fools not to sample them. Those original twelve issues are our Old Testament. When the New Testament came along it did not erase what came before it.”
“This story will be set in the world its creators painstakingly built…but in the tradition of the work that inspired it, this new story must be original. It has to vibrate with the seismic unpredictability of its own tectonic plates. It must ask new questions and explore the world through a fresh lens. Most importantly, it must be contemporary. The Old Testament was specific to the Eighties of Reagan and Thatcher and Gorbachev. Ours needs to resonate with the frequency of Trump and May and Putin and the horse that he rides around on, shirtless. And speaking of Horsemen, The End of the World is off the table…which means the heroes and villains–as if the two are distinguishable–are playing for different stakes entirely.”
“Some of the characters will be unknown,” Lindelof continues. “New faces. New masks to cover them. We also intend to revisit the past century of Costumed Adventuring through a surprising yet familiar set of eyes…and it is here we will be taking our greatest risks.”
I can honestly say this is the most interested I’ve been for the series, now that Lindelof has clarified exactly what he’s trying to accomplish. Modernizing Watchmen to reflect today’s world is exactly what he should be doing because that is a story built to evolve over time.
And now we see just how different this Watchmen is going to be by who will be starring as its costumed heroes. Regina King, Don Johnson, Tim Blake Nelson, Louis Gosset Jr., Adelaide Clemens, and Andrew Howard will star as brand new characters. King, who worked with Lindelof on The Leftovers, is playing Angela Abraham; Clemens is Pirate Jenny; Gossett Jr. is Old Man; and Howard is the Red Scare.
Is Watchmen HBO’s next killer tentpole series? They’re certainly building it up to be. The clock is ticking, expect more news to come.
Hotel Artemis may not be set in the same world as John Wick, but it has the benefit of looking like it should. Set in a wartorn near-future Los Angeles, the film takes place in a hospital strictly for criminals, who are bound to follow a certain set of rules. Of course, these being a bunch of villains those rules get broken and shit hits the fan. Sounds a lot like the criminal infrastructure within John Wick‘s The Continental hotel, and with a star-studded cast led by Jodie Foster it could be the sleeper film of the summer.
At the helm is Iron Man 3 writer Drew Pearce, who has surrounded Foster with a cast that includes Dave Bautista (Guardians of the Galaxy), Sterling K. Brown (Black Panther), Jeff Goldblum (Jurassic World: Fallen Kingdom), Zachary Quinto (Star Trek), Sofia Boutella (Atomic Blonde) Jenny Slate (Venom), Brian Tyree Henry (Atlanta), Kenneth Choi (Spider-Man: Homecoming) and Charlie Day (Pacific Rim). What, they couldn’t find someone from Star Wars, too? They play various lowlifes making their way through the hospital, which has rules banning weapons and violence against other patients. Of course, when an item of great value is discovered all bets are off.
Pearce, who also wrote Mission: Impossible-Rogue Nation, can handle large ensembles and chaotic, blockbuster-sized action. Looks like he’ll need those skills for this, and I can’t wait to see if he can pull it off. My expectations are through the roof. That scene with Bautista, who plays a friggin’ orderly, getting talked down to by Day had me rolling. Bautista also features in a new clip which finds him having to rein in the situation when someone can’t verify their membership.
Here’s a fun rumor that probably isn’t worth the cocktail napkin it was first written on, but let’s put it out there anyway. Just in case. Tabloid site Metro.uk says Black Panther director Ryan Coogler has his sights set on Donald Glover to play the sequel’s villain. It also suggests Michael B. Jordan is due to return as previous villain, Erik Killmonger. That seems more reasonable, especially if you know Killmonger’s story in the comics. He’s quite resilient.
Anyway, let’s take this with the amount of salt it demands. Glover is killin’ it right now and is the toast of Hollywood, not only for his “This is America” video but for his role as Lando Calrissian in Solo: A Star Wars Story. His performance was a highlight in the Star Wars spinoff and has started conversations about a potential spinoff. He’s also star of the acclaimed series Atlanta and has a role in Jon Favreau’s live-action The Lion King. In short, everybody wants a piece of Glover right now.
That said, Glover does have a connection to the original Black Panther movie. He and his brother Stephen were given a shout out in the credits thanks to their help in punching up some of the screenplay’s jokes. Maybe Coogler is looking to expand on that brief partnership?
It’s unlikely, though. Black Panther 2 is only in the earliest stages, and considering T’Challa’s fate in Avengers: Infinity War, and Marvel’s secrecy about it, this kind of news would NEVER get out right now. Plus, Glover has already appeared in the MCU, albeit in a minor role as Aaron Davis (aka Prowler) in Spider-Man: Homecoming. Marvel could always say “Hey, that was Sony not us”, but nope, that wouldn’t work. Then again, I’m sure Marvel would ignore this if it meant getting Glover on board in a more prominent role.
Or maybe Black Panther 2‘s villain IS the Prowler? Eh, doubtful.
Have you heard the joke about the one-legged man in an ass kicking contest? That man was Dwayne “The Rock” Johnson in Skyscraper, his upcoming summer blockbuster that aims to make Rampage look logical by comparison. And I wasn’t kidding about the leg thing. He’s not only kicking ass while scaling a towering skyscraper, but his character is working with only a half set of pins.
Written and directed by Rawson Marshall Thurber,who worked with Johnson on Central Intelligence, the film centers on disabled veteran and all-around badass Will Ford, a security expert accused of sabotaging the tallest and safest building in China. Not only must he clear his name, but do it while rescuing his family from the burning skyscraper.
So whether he’s rescuing his family from an earthquake (San Andreas) or giant mutant lizards (Rampage), Johnson is the go-to guy for (mostly) original blockbuster action flicks. At least the ones people actually are willing to pay for. Sure, this looks like Die Hard and The Towering Inferno all jammed together, but do you really care? Me neither. This looks silly and fun like summer movies should, and that’s all most people will consider.
Also starring Neve Campbell, Pablo Schreiber, and Noah Taylor, Skyscraper opens July 13th.
Koreeda’s film is titled The Truth About Catherine, and will mark his first movie set outside of Japan. Swimming Pool and The Young Pope star Ludivine Sagnier has joined Binoche and Deneuve in the cast, and as a huge fan of all three I have to say this is one of the most exciting casts of the year already. Nothing on Ethan Hawke who was previously said to be in the film, too.
While the film sticks with Koreeda’s core theme of complicated family dynamics, the synopsis shows that he’s taking a meta approach with this particular story…
Catherine is a star; a star of French cinema. She reigns amongst men who love and admire her: her new partner, her former husband, her agent… When she publishes her memoirs, her daughter Juliette (who has moved to the States to get away from her overbearing mother) returns to France with her husband and young child. The reunion between mother and daughter will quickly turn to confrontation: truths will be told, accounts settled, loves and resentments confessed. All under the astonished eyes of the men. At the same time, Catherine is acting in a sci-fi movie, playing a mother who never grows old… For his first feature set outside Japan, Kore-eda unites French screen legends Deneuve and Binoche in a powerful and emotional story of family conflicts.
No word on when this will premiere but we can likely expect it in 2019, probably just in time for Cannes.
Paul Dano has been a solid presence in front of the camera for years, delivering memorable performances for directors Ang Lee, Rian Johnson, Paul Thomas Anderson, Denis Villeneuve, Kelly Reichardt, Steve McQueen and more. With his acclaimed directorial debut, Wildlife, which premiered at Sundance to a chorus of good reviews, Dano proves himself to have been studying them the whole time.
Co-written by Dano and Zoe Kazan, Wildlife stars Carey Mulligan, Ed Oxenbould, Bill Camp, and Jake Gyllenhaal in an adaptation of Robert Ford’s 1990 novel. Mulligan and Dano play a married couple in 1960s Montana who, along with their young son, see their family disrupted by shifting personal values and a raging wildfire nearby. Of all of Dano’s influences the most I see reflected in this trailer is Reichardt, who is better than any other at finding that link between character and geography.
Here’s the official synopsis: IFC Films presents WILDLIFE, the directorial debut of Paul Dano (THERE WILL BE BLOOD, LITTLE MISS SUNSHINE), co-written along with Zoe Kazan (THE BIG SICK). Elegantly adapted from Richard Ford’s novel of the same name, Carey Mulligan (MUDBOUND, AN EDUCATION) delivers one of her finest performances to date as Jeanette, a complex woman whose self-determination and self-involvement disrupts the values and expectations of a 1960s nuclear family. Fourteen-year-old Joe played by newcomer Ed Oxenbould, is the only child of Jeanette (Mulligan) and Jerry (Jake Gyllenhaal)—a housewife and a golf pro—in a small town in 1960s Montana. Nearby, an uncontrolled forest fire rages close to the Canadian border, and when Jerry loses his job—and his sense of purpose—he decides to join the cause of fighting the fire, leaving his wife and son to fend for themselves. Suddenly forced into the role of an adult, Joe witnesses his mother’s struggle as she tries to keep her head above water. With precise details and textures of its specific time and place, WILDLIFE commits to the viewpoint of a teenage boy observing the gradual dissolution of his parents’ marriage.
Wildlife hits theaters on October 19th, right in the thick of awards season.
The central premise of Xavier Legrand’s directorial debut, Custody, is a familiar one. A couple in the middle of a messy divorce and deciding on custody of their child. By most accounts from the film’s rave reviews out of TIFF and Venice (where Legrand won Best Director), little else about it goes down the typical route for Hollywood dramas on this subject matter.
Starring Lea Drucker (In My Skin) and Denis Menochet (Assassins Creed), the film finds divorced parents locked in a custody battle over their son (Thomas Gioria), with the proceedings growing nastier by the second, which you can hear ticking away as tensions escalate.
This is Legrand’s followup to his Oscar-nominated short, Just Before Losing Everything, which features the same cast and is seen as an expansion of that story. Custody opens on June 29th in New York.
John Wick director Chad Stahelski has found his next project for Lionsgate. He’ll take the helm for the sci-fi film Analog, based on the Image Comic by Gerry Duggan and artist David O’Sullivan. Ryan J. Condal (creator of USA Networks series Colony) adapts the film which is “set in 2024 when the internet is used only for porn after the world is “mass-doxxed” — an event that has removed secrecy from the internet and given rise to armed couriers or “Paper Jockeys,” who will transport sensitive information around the globe or die trying as they fight off fascists, criminals, and spies.” Stahelski co-directed the first John Wick film and took the reins solo for its sequel. He’s currently working on John Wick: Chapter 3 due out later this year. [Variety]
While he’s currently prepping for the release of The Equalizer 2, director Antoine Fuqua has found has added another project to his crowded slate. He’ll direct The Street, a New York-to-Shanghai thriller from Goodfellas writer Nicholas Pileggi. Not much else is known about the film and it’s unclear where Fuqua will fit it in. He’s also recently come back aboard the Scarface remake he’s been considering for quite some time, so that could be next on the agenda. [Deadline]
