BY WARNER. HE WANTS MORE LORD OF THE RINGS MOVIE THEATER
Going to 2023, watching all the different Lord of the Rings The films were already a mess, but we might have to start keeping a scorecard now. Not counting anything made before 2000, there were the six Peter Jackson films (three each for The Lord of the Rings and The Hobbit), Amazon’s recent prequel series The Lord of the Rings: The Rings of Power (Fresh at 83%) and Warner Bros.’ upcoming animated film for next year is called The Lord of the Rings: The War of the Rohirrim (21/4/2024). Warner Bros. and New Line Cinema have now inked a deal with Swedish video game group Embracer Group for the rights to create additional films based on JRR Tolkien’s work. The Lord of the Rings and The Hobbit. It’s unclear exactly what WB and New Line plan to do with this new deal, which doesn’t appear to include JRR Tolkien’s deal The Silmarillionarguably the greatest untapped source of Tolkien stories (Amazon’s The Rings of Power also has no rights to The Silmarillion stories). Early speculation from The Hollywood Reporter is that “Warners could now focus on new stories centered around Tolkien’s big guns like Gandalf, Bilbo and Aragorn.” For their part, Peter Jackson and his writing partners Fran Walsh and Philippa Boyens appear to congratulate New Line Cinema, saying, “We look forward to speaking with them further to hear their vision for the franchise moving forward.” The Lord of the Rings: The War of the Rohirrim (21/4/2024), which will be produced separately from this new deal, will tell the story of the fortress Helm’s Deep and the King of Rohan, Helm Hammerhand.
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1. JAMES CAMERON TO TAKE A BREAK FROM AVATAR BOARD THE LAST TRAIN FROM HIROSHIMA
(Photo by ©20th Century Fox)
With James Cameron recently talking about a possible production Avatar 6 and Avatar 7 someday, Avatar: The Way of Water (Certified fresh at 76%) may represent only one third of the eventuality Avatar epic. This also means that Cameron will only have a limited amount of time to direct other films (even if he ends up handing over some of the sequels to another director). This week, Cameron revealed that he plans to take some time off Avatar 4 (12/18/2026) to finally direct a film he has been developing since at least 2010. This film will be an adaptation of the non-fiction book by Charles R. Pellegrino The Last Train from Hiroshima: The Survivors Look Back, which will be a drama about the two hydrogen bombings of the Japanese cities of Hiroshima and Nagasaki from the perspective of civilians on the ground. Cameron’s development work The last train from Hiroshima included an interview with Tsutomo Yamaguchi, the sole Japanese survivor of both bombings, in 2010, shortly before his death later that year. He ponders why he wants to return The last train from Hiroshima, Cameron said, “We live in a world more precarious than we thought. I think so Hiroshima The film would be as relevant as ever, if not more so.” by Christopher Nolan Oppenheimerdepicting the story of the Hiroshima bomb from its creation, will be released this summer on July 21, 2023. There is currently no release date for The last train from Hiroshimabut it probably won’t be until 2024, 2025 or 2026.
2. ZACH GALIFIANAKIS STARRING IN LIVE-ACTION LILO & STITCH
(Photo by JC Olivera/Getty Images)
Walt Disney Pictures now has nearly 20 films in the studio’s ambitious plans to produce “live action remakes” of its various animated classics (the next three will be The little Mermaid on 26/5/2023, Peter Pan & Wendyand Snow White on 22/3/2024). Another project that seems closer to shooting is Lilo & Stitch, based on the 2002 animated film about a little Hawaiian girl who befriends an alien criminal on Earth. The first actor in the new Lilo & Stitch This week it was Zach Galifianakis, who is probably best known for his role The headache from drunkenness and its sequels. It’s unclear who Galifianakis will play (although some sources claim it won’t be Stitch), and Disney is currently conducting a national search for new actors to play Lilo and her older sister Nani. New Lilo & Stitch will be directed by Dean Fleischer Camp (Marcel the Shell with Shoes On) and premieres directly on the Disney+ app.
3. HELLBOY: THE CROWD TO BE MORE FAITHFUL IN FOLK HORROR COMICS
(Photo by ©Universal Studios)
Guillermo del Toro’s 2004 superhero film Hell Boy (Certified Fresh at 81%) and especially its continuation Hellboy II: The Golden Army (Certified Fresh at 86%) were colorful adventures that showcased Del Toro’s visionary style. There is, however, one argument they were not 100% faithful to Hell Boy creator Mike Mignola’s original comics, which were so dark they were actually printed on black paper. One person who would make that argument is director Brian Taylor (co-director of Crank, Crank: High tension, Ghost Rider: Spirit of Vengeance), who clarified this week what his reboot is, Hellboy: The Crooked Man, it will be like. Taylor said of Mike Mignola’s comics (as opposed to del Toro’s films), “But some of the comics Mike was doing at the time had a very different feel. Leaner and meaner, creepy folk horror. A younger Hellboy, wandering the dark corners of the world… Paranormal investigator, nocturnal hunter… [so the appeal is to] Really give us this version of Hellboy that I don’t think we’ve seen yet.” Hellboy: The Crooked Manbased on the graphic novel of the same title, will be set in the 1950s, will have a younger Hellboy than the Ron Perlman or David Harbor films, and will be the first Hell Boy film co-written by Mignola himself. No casting has been announced yet, including the title character, but filming is scheduled to begin in March in Bulgaria, so there should be news soon. Hellboy: The Crooked Man also not to be confused with The call spinoff that franchise creator James Wan recently confirmed will no longer happen.
4. STEVEN YOUNG JOINS MARVEL’S LIGHTNING ON MANY MOVIES OFFER
(Photo by Priscilla Grant/Everett Collection)
We still may not know which characters and actors will make up the ensembles of the upcoming Marvel Studios movies like The fantastic four (14/2/2025) and Avengers: The Kang Dynasty (5/2/2025), but Lightning bolts (7/26/2024) was announced with its main cast, which includes MCU veterans like David Harbour, Florence Pugh and Sebastian Stan, almost immediately. Even with such a large cluster of stars at its core, Lightning bolts will also introduce some new actors including Harrison Ford (who plays the late William Hurt), Ayo Edebiri (The bear), and now, Steven Yeun, the ex The Walking Dead fan favorite star turned Oscar nominated performance in 2020 Minary and comes out of Jordan Peele’s supernatural thriller No. The identity of Yeun’s role in the Lightning bolts is being kept under wraps for now (as usual for Marvel Studios), but is expected to be one that will appear again in other upcoming MCU movies and shows.
5. IMPORTANT FOR RYAN REYNOLDS’ BUY BUY BUY BUY BOY BAND
(Photo by Amy Sussman/Getty Images)
No one can accuse Ryan Reynolds of screwing up his career as a movie star, as he’s led at least two big movies each of the last several years (we’ll give him a pass for 2020 because of the pandemic) and with projects like Fantastic friends (24/5/2024), Deadpool 3 (11/8/2024), and Red alert 2 it’s coming soon, it’s definitely not slowing down anytime soon. This week, Reynolds added another project to his slate, as he will produce and star in Paramount Pictures’ musical comedy Boy band, which, as the title suggests, will be about an old boy band’s reunion project. Written by Reynolds Boy band with screenwriter Jesse Andrews (Me and the Count and the Dying Girl), and frequent director Shawn Levy (Free Press, The Adam Project) may also direct the film, which is currently eyeing a production start date of either late 2023 or early 2024, suggesting a release date of either late 2024 or sometime in 2025.
6. TOM HARDY REVEALED POISON 3 NOW IN PRE-PRODUCTION
(Photo by ©Sony Pictures Releasing)
Marvel Studios and the Marvel Cinematic Universe appeared to be getting easier to watch in 2019 when Disney bought the film and television assets of the former 21st Century Fox, promising to bring the The fantastic four (14/2/2025) and X Men characters. That’s not the full story, however, as movie audiences still have to somehow make sense of Sony’s Marvel Comics movies, which all started in comics as Spiderman auxiliary characters, such as Poison (Rot at 30%), Morbius (Sapio at 16%), and the upcoming Kraven the Hunter (10/6/2023), among others. Another film that looks likely to be added to Sony’s calendar soon is Poison 3as franchise star Tom Hardy took to Instagram this week to post a video with the caption, “Whilst working on V3 prep prep,” which was essentially his way of announcing that he’s now working with Sony Pictures on its pre-production Poison 3. No plot or casting has been announced Poison 3 yet, but the end of it Venom: Let There Be Carnage seemed to suggest the introduction of the Marvel Comics character Toxin.
