Movie News Roundup - 07.04.18

As another week goes by, another week of news follows and I know, this roundup is going up a little later than scheduled but I did say that this would happen. As promised, I will be covering any news that grabbed my attention over the course of the week following the previous Movie News Roundup right up to the time of writing. So let's get on with the news.  

Krasinski Would Be Up For Fantastic Four With Emily Blunt

                          

Ever since the release of Blade in 1998, the world has been graced by the presence of the Marvel logo in front of many films and fans of the comic book company have been able to see their favourite characters such as Spider-Man, Captain America and Wolverine adapted to both the big and small screen to great success. However, one group of characters that have not had the same experience of success on the big screen is the Fantastic Four but now, we may be getting closer to see that become a reality. There have been three attempts at bringing Marvel's first family to the big screen and none of them have had much success with critics or audiences. In fact, the most recent attempt to bring the Four to the big screen in the 2015 is largely believed to be the reason why Marvel cancelled the actual comic series. 

Right now, we really don't know what may happen with the Fantastic Four movie rights as 20th Century Fox are the current owners of the property, however with the Disney/Fox deal currently in the process of being approved it is uncertain whether or not Disney will gain the rights. The news of the merger has given fans of Marvel's first family a new ray of hope that they will soon see a great movie with the Fantastic Four, with the icing on top of the cake being that they will become a part of the Marvel Cinematic Universe.

                           

It has been recently been announced that the Fantastic Four will be returning to Marvel comics after their hiatus. This has led to a lot of people speculating that the Fantastic Four are already back at Marvel and that they will headline a film during Phase 4 which is why we haven't heard any confirmation of any Phase 4 films aside from the Spider-Man: Homecoming sequel. While that sounds very appealing and I would love that to be true, I really doubt that is what is going on at the moment. I don't think we will hear anything about the Fantastic Four entering the Marvel Universe until after the Disney/Fox merger has been approved. I think their return to the comics was all a matter of time and I think Marvel wanted to wait until the reboot film was long forgotten.

Despite all of what I just wrote, it does not mean that there cannot be any discussions about who could be our new Fantastic Four because we're going to get a new team at some point down the line whether it with Fox or Marvel. Two people who have been thrown into the ring are married couple, John Krasinski and Emily Blunt. In an interview with Screenrant, Krasinski was asked if he would be open to playing Reed Richards/Mr. Fantastic alongside his wife as Sue Storm/Invisible Woman and this is what he said "I would love that! I mean listen, I'm still getting into the whole superhero thing. I didn't read comics as a kid, not as many, I read some but not as much, but I'm a huge superhero fan so yeah, I'd love to do something like that. If they're are any left, a lot of these have been taken but the ones that are left, yeah, I would love to do something like that. And listen, I'd love to work with her again so any chance I got would be great." Now, I've read a lot of reports saying that he explicitly states that he wants to do Fantastic Four, when all he really says is that he would be open to doing it. I think the combination of John Krasinski and Emily Blunt as Reed Richards and Sue Storm would be wonderful and a great addition to the Marvel Cinematic Universe especially now that we've seen them work so well together in A Quiet Place. We don't know if the Marvel/Fox deal will go through but I think Marvel would have a winning team on their hands if they were to go with the couple. All they would need then would be a Human Torch and a Thing.

                 

Guillermo del Toro to Create Sci-Fi, Fantasy & Horror Movie Label

                           

Earlier this week it was announced that Oscar winning director, Guillermo del Toro, would be heading up a new label for Fox Searchlight after their recent collaboration on The Shape of Water. Of course, the focus of this collaboration is to act as a home to new presumably low-budget Sci-Fi, Fantasy and Horror films. Guillermo will help shepherd this content in a deal that covers films written, directed and produced by the filmmaker. The first film to be a part of this untitled label will be 'Antlers', a story about an elementary school teacher who takes in a troubled student keeping a mysterious and deadly family secret. Directed by Scott Cooper, with a script from Nick Antosca and Henry Chaisson, the film will be produced by del Toro as a part of the deal.

In the press release announcing the deal, Guillermo said "In Fox Searchlight, I've found a real home for live action production - a partnership based on hard work, understanding of each other and, above all, faith...I am honoured to have the opportunity to continue the relationship". As you may have read in my recap of this year's Oscars, I am so happy for the success Guillermo del Toro is receiving for The Shape of Water. I think he is such a talented filmmaker and one that is very deserving of their success, so to now see that he is going to head up a new label for Fox Searchlight, I am thrilled for him. Especially considering he was originally approached by Universal to be in charge of their Monsters universe, so in my mind this is kind of Guillermo essentially doing the same thing but without being beholden to a shared universe. 

I also think this collaboration between Guillermo and Fox Searchlight speaks volumes to how well Guillermo enjoyed his experience working with the studio on The Shape of Water as I do not believe that this collaboration would have came to fruition otherwise. In my opinion, The Shape of Water is Guillermo del Toro's best film and the one that I have emotionally connected to the most. To see that this collaboration with Fox Searchlight was not a one time situation and that it is going to continue in the way that the press release suggests, I couldn't be happier as I think it brought the very best out of Guillermo and I can't wait to see what is next for the two.

                         

Star Wars: Simon Pegg Says Abrams Had Different Idea for Rey's Parents

                                

Now I find this story fascinating as I think it gives us as fans an insight to the creative direction over at Lucasfilm. So, Simon Pegg was on an episode of the Happy Sad Confused podcast promoting Ready Player One and during the conversation the topic of Star Wars came up as he is really good friends with J.J. Abrams. Pegg revealed that he had some idea about J.J.'s ideas for Rey's parentage in the Star Wars sequels, saying that: "Well I know what J.J. kind of intended, or at least what was sort of being chucked around. I think that's kind of been undone slightly by [The Last Jedi]. I don't know (laughs)". Of course, Pegg states that he had only heard snippets of ideas that J.J. was considering about Rey's parentage and as J.J. did not intend to continue as a director in the sequel trilogy he was unable to translate his vision to the screen. However, I do find it a little hard to believe that Pegg only heard snippets of J.J.'s idea given how close the pair are, but for now that's all we have to go on. 

As we know, we got Star Wars: The Last Jedi last year and it was revealed that Rey was in fact a nobody, she's comes from no important lineage and her parents were drunk traders that abandoned Rey on Jakku when she was a little girl. From what says it sounds as though J.J. had very different plans for Rey moving forward in the trilogy which is to be expected as J.J. and Rian Johnson are two very different filmmakers. However, I do think this suggests that there is not an awful lot of communication between the filmmakers on each of the different films and that there is no plan in place over at Lucasfilm as The Force Awakens and The Last Jedi are two very disparate films. Rian Johnson kind of leaped over certain plot threads that J.J. had set up in the preceding film. I didn't have much of a problem with this myself but a lot of fans did, especially with how Johnson handled Snoke and the revelation of Rey's true parentage. I think this suggests that, as we all expected when J.J. was announced to replace Colin Trevorrow on Episode 9, the concluding chapter of this trilogy would be very different from The Last Jedi.

                             

Pegg also states in the interview that "There was some talk about, you know, a kind of relevant lineage for her. But I honestly don't know, and I don't know if anybody knows. We shall see". So while Pegg suggests that he doesn't know what J.J. had planned for Rey's parentage, if there was talk about Rey having relevant lineage, then who was she intended to be related to? It's a good question and I'm sure the people who did not like how Rey's parentage was handled in The Last Jedi are now increasingly frustrated with Rian Johnson's decisions in the film. As I mentioned above, I was happy with the way that Rian handled the Rey reveal, I thought it made sense given what we knew about her character and it went against the tradition of everyone having to be related in Star Wars making Rey stand on her own two feet as an individual character. But you know, you can't please everyone and I can see the appeal of Rey being the daughter of Luke Skywalker or somehow being related to Obi-Wan Kenobi. I think the real question right now is whether or not J.J. will decide to retcon the Rey reveal in Episode 9 and continue with his original plans for the character. Only time will tell. 

Solo: A Star Wars Story to Premiere at the Cannes Film Festival

                            

Solo: A Star Wars Story is a film that has been at the forefront of a lot of discussion over  past year or so. With Phil Lord and Christopher Miller leaving the project over creative differences and the lack of any official marketing for the movie until February, the movie has been rife with critical debate and we haven't even seen the movie yet. The movie was already facing an uphill battle as a lot of people don't even want to see a Han Solo origin story, and the idea of trying to fill in the shoes of Harrison Ford is just an enormous task. On top of that, Star Wars: The Last Jedi was a dividing film meaning that going into Solo, Lucasfilm and Disney are coming off of a film that turned away many fans. However, with Ron Howard taking over as the director of the film and reshooting perhaps the entire film, there is some hope that the movie will still be a fun and entertaining ride.

Admittedly, I would loved to have seen Phil Lord and Christopher Miller's Han Solo movie, even if it was a failure as I am a fan of their work and it would have been something very unique in the Star Wars universe as I read that their take may have been very self-aware. However, as we are not getting their movie I am still excited to see what Ron Howard and Lucasfilm have in store for us, and we now know when we will hear whether Solo sticks the landing as it has been announced that the film will be premiere at the Cannes Film Festival, over a week before the film is released. Cannes is a world renowned film festival that is known to exhibition high quality content, and it marks the third time a Star Wars film has premiered at the festival following Attack of the Clones and Revenge of the Sith.

                           

While this doesn't necessarily mean that the film will be a hit, I do think it shows that Disney has some confidence in the project as the festival is known for audiences walking out of films and booing projects, including projects that has gone on to critical acclaim. In the age of social media audiences are becoming increasingly more aware of the critical consensus of films, so by premiering Solo: A Star War Story at Cannes, Disney is putting the film in the spotlight of the critical eye. Depending on how the audience at Cannes reacts to the film, Solo could either highly benefit from the premiere or be severely hurt by it as audiences may decide not to see the film in cinemas. After the divided reaction of Star Wars: The Last Jedi, Lucasfilm and Disney are in need of a film that can sweep away the negative reaction to Star Wars and Solo: A Star Wars Story may be it. Perhaps this premiere is a sign of Disney's confidence in the film? We'll soon find out. 

Small Talk

                           

Now it's time for the quick rundown for a few news stories that I thought you guys should know about from over the week. 

Doctor Strange Writer Confirms Plans For Nightmare as Sequel's Villain
John Boyega Says He's Talked With Marvel About MCU Role

Star Wars 9: John Boyega Hints Rey & Finn Won't Be Separated
'Star Trek 4': Multiple Screenplays Possibly in Development
James Gunn Wrote Infinity War For The Guardians
Black Panther Cracks Top 10 Highest-Grossing Films Worldwide
Steven Spielberg Open to Making Next Indiana Jones a Woman
James Bond Movie Rights Could Be Part of MGM Studio Sale
Matt Reeves' The Batman Isn't About the Death of Jason Todd
Mark Hamill on Recasting Leia For Star Wars 9: Carrie Fisher is 'Irreplaceable'
First Look At BBC's War of the Worlds As Filming Begins

                         

Hope you all enjoyed this edition of the Movie News Roundup. There were not necessarily any huge stories that came out this week but these were just the few that stood out to me. You can follow me on Twitter @DBanksy and I shall be back next week for another round of the Movie News Roundup.

Movie News Roundup - 30.03.18

Welcome everyone to the Movie News Roundup for the week of Friday 30 March, as this is the first blog of it's kind I want to talk about a few pieces of movie news just to get a feel of what this will be like as I continue to develop this side of the blog, so I am sure that the structure of this Roundup will be very different from what it may be like a few weeks down the line. As I said in my announcement post, I will be covering pieces of news that I found interesting this week, starting from Monday 26 March, 2018 up until the time of posting.

Captain Marvel Cast Announced

                          

On Monday, Marvel Studios announced the beginning of principal photography of their new film, Captain Marvel, by announcing the film's cast. We've known for some time we have known that Academy Award Winner, Brie Larson, will be playing the title role of Captain Marvel and that she would be joined by Samuel L. Jackson as a two-eyed Nick Fury in a 90s set adventure where the Captain will face off against shape shifting aliens, the Skrulls. Joining Larson and Jackson in the film are Ben Mendelsohn, Djimon Hounsou, Lee Pace, Lashana Lynch, Gemma Chan, Algenis Perez Soto, Rune Temte, McKenna Grace, Clarke Gregg and Jude Law.

Now, it may not be as star studded of a cast as Black Panther but this is still an all star cast, full of new and returning faces from earlier films in the MCU. I think it is really exciting that the film is using its 90s setting to its advantage by bringing back old faces like Lee Pace and Djimon Hounsou as Ronan and Korath from the original Guardians of the Galaxy, and Clark Gregg as the always lovable, Phil Coulson. It just makes sense to do this with the period setting and the world that Marvel has already established. Hopefully the film will bring a little more depth to characters like Ronan and Korath than they were given in the original film as Marvel seem to be making more of an effort with their villains. This is just speculation but if we're lucky, we may even get an appearance by Michael Rooker as everybody's favourite space Mary Poppins.

                          

Now a wrinkle has been added to the picture as alongside the full cast announcement, Marvel released a new synopsis for the film along with a picture of Brie Larson pilot training with Brigadier General Jeannie Leavitt:

"The story follows Carol Danvers as she becomes one of the universe's most powerful heroes when Earth is caught in the middle of a galactic war between two alien races. Set in the 1990s, "Captain Marvel" is an all-new adventure from a previously unseen period in the history of the Marvel Cinematic Universe."

                          

So now we know that Carol become the titular hero during a galactic war adapted from the Kree/Skrull storyline from the original Marvel comics. so it looks as though Marvel will continue to take it's deep dives into the cosmic side of its universe. Now all we have to do is wait and see how it all pans out in a year's time and who knows? Maybe, just maybe, we'll see the Captain make her debut in Avengers: Infinity War later this year.

Fox Sets New Release Dates For a Bunch of Films While Dark Phoenix and New Mutants Undergo Reshoots

                        

While Marvel Studios are getting off to a start with their Captain Marvel project, Fox's Marvel projects appear to be floating around in limbo and Fox announced earlier this week that they are moving around their release schedule for a few of their upcoming films, including X-Men: Dark Phoenix and The New Mutants. Fox has moved the Freddie Mercury biopic, Bohemian Rhapsody, up from Christmas Day to November 2, 2018, supplanting the spot that was originally taken by X-Men: Dark Phoenix, which has now been pushed back to February 14, 2019. The New Mutants on the other hand, has been pushed from February 22 to August 19, 2019.

While I am very happy to hear that we are getting Bohemian Rhapsody earlier than we all expected, as it shows that the studio may have confidence in the project. If you did not know, Bryan Singer was fired from the project mid-production, after he failed to turn up on set on a number of occasions, with Dexter Fletcher taking over as director. As a massive fan of Queen, I have had my eye on this project since it was announced and to hear that despite the complications with Singer behind-the-scenes that the movie is moving forward is good news. I also really like Fletcher's last film, Eddie the Eagle, so I had confidence in him as a director to help the project home so this only furthers my confidence in the film.

                        

Now, with X-Men: Dark Phoenix and The New Mutants it is being reported that the reason why both films have changed release dates is because they are both undergoing reshoots and in order to accommodate for the schedules of their actors Fox decided to move the dates. This is understandable, as their actors are in demand right now with Sophie Turner and Maisie Williams playing significant roles in Game of Thrones, and I believe it may be the case with X-Men: Dark Phoenix, which stars Turner. However, I am still worried as The New Mutants has already been pushed back once before as it was originally scheduled to be released on April 13, 2019. That's a massive jump, and while it is being reported that it is because the studio wants to do reshoots I kind of think it is really because they have no confidence in the film. My excitement for this project has diminished greatly over the past couple of months so Fox are already facing an uphill battle because I think that is the consensus all across the board with the fans.

                        

Donald Glover Deadpool Animated Series Script

Earlier this week, FX announced that they had decided to not pursue their planned Deadpool animated series with Donald Glover due to creative differences. When this series was first announced I was so excited as a fan of both the Deadpool character and Donald Glover as a creator, and I thought Glover's comedic sensibilities would have been great for the Deadpool character. I was also glad to hear that it would be different from the Deadpool movies, because as much of a fan as I am of the first film I recognise that it would have been a different format for Glover to work in. So when it was announced that FX had decided to pass on the series, I was disappointed because I wanted to see what Glover would have done with the project as I love what he's done with his comedy in the past.
                           

However, it was then speculated that the reason the show was cancelled was because Donald Glover was simply too busy to work on the show with his star now currently on the rise with his show, Atlanta, and his upcoming roles as Lando Calrissian in Solo: A Star Wars Story and Simba in Jon Favreau's The Lion King. Donald Glover then went on to tweet out a "script" for the show stating in a deleted tweet that he wasn't too busy for Deadpool, disproving those theories. Of course, I then went on to read the script that Glover tweeted out and I am now even more disappointed. The script has great comedic sensibilities that are perfectly in line with the character, but what is crazy to me is how the script is a commentary on the cancellation of the show! I think that it's amazing that Glover even had the time to write this mock script for the show with all the work he has going on right now but apparently he wrote the script in the early hours of the morning one day.

As the script is what I assume is a rough draft, I think this script is a great indication of the style that Donald would have gone for on the show and if FX didn't envision the same show as Donald Glover, I question why they even commissioned it in the first place. I really think it is a missed opportunity of a show as I think the fans would have gone crazy for a show like this. Unfortunately we'll never see the series come to pass but I just wanted to give a shout out to Donald Glover as I think if this is any indication of what the series would have been like, I think it would have been a hit.

Marvel & DC Actors Support a Terminally Ill Child

And finally, as of late there has been a lot of conflict between fans of different properties such as Marvel and DC, and even Star Wars, and sometimes it can be difficult to see past the aggression than can be found on the internet but this week I found something that gave me a little hope, I just wish it was under different circumstances. In sad news, a little boy named Emilio died earlier this week from Neurofibromatosis type 1, but a few days before his death he made a wish that he could receive a greeting from an Avenger and his wish caught the attention of Fox News @ Night host, Shannon Beam, who sought out on Twitter to make this boy's dream a reality and it worked. Getting on to Twitter, Beam asked for people to spread the word of this young boy's wish and the community came together with the wish reaching its intended audience.

                          

Stars such as Chris Evans, Ryan Reynolds and Shazam's Zachary Levi, and many, many more reached out to say hello to Emilio and thankfully their wishes reached the young boy before he passed a few days ago. This story is incredible and I am so happy for Emilio that he got his wish, with Beam saying that it brought some light into his hospital room before he passed away. Now, the support of the stars and fans who helped young Emilio can be directed towards his family, I think I speak for us all when I say that our thoughts are with them. Like I said, this is an incredible story and a demonstration of how people can come together for a common cause and how the internet can be a place for good. I'm glad that Emilio could bring the best out of everyone.

Small Talk

Now onto Small Talk, which is the segment in which I'm just going to rundown a list of bullet points of a few other pieces of movie news that got my attention this week and that I think you may find interesting.

• First Look at Tom Hardy as Al Capone in Josh Trank's 'Fonzo'
• John Cena Wants a Fast & Furious Team-up With Dwayne Johnson
• Wonder Woman 2 Casts Pedro Pascal in a Key Role
• Jack Whitehall Joins the Rock and Emily Blunt in Disney's Jungle Cruise
• Scarlett Johansson to Co-Star in the Taika Waitit led 'Jojo Rabbit'
• Stranger Things 3 Set in 1985; Has More 'Dad Steve'
• Jurassic World 3: Spielberg Confirms Colin Trevorrow As Director
• Arnold Schwarzenegger in Recovery After Emergency Heart Surgery
• Spider-Man: Matt Damon Reportedly Passed On Homecoming 2 Villain Role
• Robert Downey Jr. Announces a Huge Cast for Voyage of Doctor Dolittle

                                    

So that's the Movie News Roundup for this week, there were quite a lot of announcements and a lot of exciting news. Of course, this time next week there will be more news to cover as I will be including the movie news from over the weekend too. Hope you all enjoyed the read, you can follow me on Twitter @DBanksy and I'll be back next week.

Update on the Blog - Movie News

Hi Guys, just thought I'd give you all a little update about some plans that I have for the blog. as I have not published any written pieces since the Oscars a few weeks ago. As you may know from my previous thought pieces, I love keeping up to date with movies and developments in the movie news. For the past couple of weeks I haven't been able to write any blog posts because I have been working on my assignments for university, but that has not stopped me from keeping up with all the latest movie news. It has always been my intention to write about movie news on this blog but it was always my plan to establish a foundation for my writing before starting to write about my thoughts on movie news. However, given my current situation at university I have decided that once a week I am going to start writing a movie news roundup of all of movie news that I found the most interesting in the week. For example, this week I plan to write about the recent Captain Marvel casting announcements that were made alongside the announcement that the film had just started production.

                           

The goal with this movie news roundup is to continue to produce content with minimal breaks in my writing. As much as I would like to write about various issues in film and television it is just not feasibly possible for me to do with all of my various responsibilities, however writing about movie news is something that I can do very easily and I can write about as soon as I hear the news ready for the blog post to be published. I aim to publish the movie news roundups every Friday, and if not on Friday, I will accommodate for the disruption by including the movie news announced after the normal scheduled release. This does not mean I will abandon my plans to write about current topics or personal pieces about my favourite films but it will be more infrequent than I wanted it to be. So the first blog post will be published this Friday and will cover all the movie news from Monday onwards and the following roundup will cover the following week. Here's to the beginning to the Movie News Roundup.