Exclusive: Why ‘Madame Web’s Merchandise Was Mysteriously Absent From Most Movie Theaters; Plus Those ‘Star Wars’ Productions, ‘The Electric State’ Reshoots, Universal’s Behemoth ‘Jurassic City’ Task
Plus, how Marvel's "retooling" sets the stage for a new era with various teams, clarity on the 'Silk' writers' room report, and an exclusive brief update on David Leitch's 'Action' stunt docuseries.
As Hollywood is gearing back on course with a slew of promising productions on the horizon, it is hard not to look at the current state of films and question how long it will take for quality and audience security to be a sure bet. With the likes of Sony’s disastrous Madame Web release being one of the more recent causes for concern around town with just how much a major studio is willing to risk on different superhero fare, there is always the hope and faith among commentators for the likes of James Gunn’s DC Studios pic Superman and some cautionary skepticism, albeit rightfully so, with Disney and Marvel Studios’ future slate as they place their bets on well-known yet tried and tested IP such as The Fantastic Four and Blade, though for every long-anticipated production and popular franchise, there is always the underdog in the situation, and Marvel’s Thunderbolts fits the bill on that front, or perhaps yet another new team, namely the Young Avengers. Disney and Warner Bros. Discovery are both preparing for challenging years ahead as they chart new courses and reroute their audiences to focus on fresh takes and introduce them to some new IPs along the way.
While there is reasonable concern for where Disney, WBD, and Sony are taking their major franchises going forward, other studios are realizing they have to fix their content to better compete with the super-heroics of the industry, as Lionsgate and Netflix are re-evaluating their work on the John Wick spin-off Ballerina and the Russo brothers’ star-heavy dystopian pic The Electric State.
In this issue, you’ll hear about how Sony’s standalone Spider-Man universe could pay off (with some clarification on those Silk writers reports), what Marvel’s internal “retooling” this year could mean for their future, a potential Thunderbolts filming shift, and a pitch for how Universal can rejuvenate the Jurassic World franchise with their upcoming fourth film through science that almost seems like a no-brainer. And don’t forget to stick around to the end for a paid exclusive on why Madame Web was noticeably absent from having merchandise in major movie theaters. Enter ablaze!
Unsticking Sony’s ‘Spider-Man’ Shop of Horrors: In Defense of Standalone Superhero Stories, How to Crawl Back From ‘Madame Web’
Sony Pictures’ superhero thriller film Madame Web released this past week to a very dismal Valentines’ Day and Presidents’ Day box office that hasn’t been seen among superhero films in close to a decade since 20th Century Fox’s disastrous Fantastic Four in 2015. Not to focus rehash what much of the online community, reviewers, critics, and all have already espoused about this film, it is hard to ignore a feature studio superhero film failing especially at a time when many in the industry are clamoring for a sign of hope and assurance that the business and genre is not dead. It isn’t, though it is a far cry from where it used to be at its height.
A mid-2000s New York-bound suspense thriller that subverts the traditional superhero genre and origin story should be a warm addition to the overabundance of oversaturated superhero content that has been released without much innovative thought or care put into it, although that was not the case with Madame Web. I’m not here to bore you with financial details or “who’s to blame” games (faux comments attributed to star Isabela Merced blaming the film’s reception and box office on toxic masculinity are without their merit, though the quality of the piece cannot be ignored, as Bleeding Cool calls out in the studio mandating cinematic universes over their individual content). A genre-busting superhero approach to the genre, though this one was likely trying to harken back to the Tobey Maguire Spider-Man films and defied the conventional form of a modern superhero movie as a supervision of the genre made for an early 2000s audience, not today’s hungry tentpole audience, unless you’re that limited few. Talent is not everything with superhero fare anymore, nor are the characters themselves which have long been thought of as selling the films over the actors who portray them. A lot of it comes down to the overall quality of the writing and an overexposure to the higher-stakes stories dealing with cosmic and multiversal concepts that many of the grounded stories get overlooked and thrown under the bus for not achieving a gross on par with a $200 million+ budgeted film with those elements.
Comments that Disney and Marvel should broker, or force, a deal to reclaim the Spider-Man film and TV rights given the sheer volume of tepid and negative responses their adaptations have received are not without their merits. Although, while one could argue that the Disney-owned Marvel Studios has seen better success when given work on Sony’s Spidey films, Sony is guaranteed to have success with Venom 3 after the prior two films were commercially successful (the first grossed slightly over $856 million while the second made $506.8 mil and had a slightly higher domestic gross than the first with a lesser worldwide gross because it wasn’t released in China and was during the COVID-19 pandemic). With a reported budget of over $110 mil, that brings it close to the prior films’ budgets. Presuming the third one goes out with a bang, Sony should not be too worried about a profit and more concerned with losing their only slightly attractable star who gets butts in seats as this is set to conclude that trilogy. (Though a Spider-Man vs Venom film could always be on the docket and have Hardy pop up in other films ala Robert Downey Jr.’s Tony Stark.) Reports have run rampant that Sony will reconfigure their entire franchise if the Aaron Taylor-Johnson led action pic Kraven the Hunter is not a success. That film will be driven, if marketed correctly, by the die hard action fans from the likes of Guy Ritchie’s films and the actor’s appeal could help generate a lucrative draw for this pic, especially as R-rated adult action fare is more desirable to retain that audience for superhero films.
In another side of Sony’s universe is the Amazon MGM Studios series Silk: Spider Society, which fellow Substack-based publication The Ankler reported earlier this month had scrapped its writers’ room-minus showrunner Angela Kang and one of its co-executive producers-as it was undergoing a redevelopment, potentially to focus on having a more “male-skewed audience”. Some commentators were quick to take this as a potential indication that Sony may have learned the wrong lesson from the Madame Web disaster, although this is primarily an Amazon show with Sony overseeing it and came as Amazon was already reviewing the scripts.
Headlines ran with the “scrapped” narrative, although have yet to point to The Ankler updating their report with further clarification that the writers’ room hasn’t been let go, rather it has merely been “paused” and that the writers had been back to work for a few weeks (after the Writers Guild of America threatened litigation against Amazon for not resuming the writers’ room post-strike) before they were notified of the pause this past week. The staffers and several writers, who were originally still contractually obligated to the series without pay when it was on ice the first time and were unable to pursue other opportunities at that time, have now been released and are able to pursue other opportunities. All’s well that ends well, assuming Sony can get their act together and put out a guaranteed hit on their own.
‘Star Wars’ Going Into Hyperspace: ‘Lando’, ‘The Mandalorian & Grogru’, ‘Episode X’ Filming Reports
Disney and Lucasfilm are not done with the Star Wars galaxy anytime soon, as they are readying three feature films with many more on the way! (I love the clones!) As per The Cosmic Circus, The Mandalorin & Grogru will be filmed under the working title “Thunder Alley”, and is still on track for a June 17 filming start, which The Bespin Bulletin also verified, stating it would last four months from June to October 2024. The pic, which still has no writer disclosed and it is unclear if Pedro Pascal will sign on yet, also recently received a major LA tax credit, the first Star Wars film to shoot in the Hollywood area. The next mainline Star Wars film from director Sharmeen Obaid-Chinoy and writer Steven Knight which stars Daisy Ridley as Rey, Episode X, was also reported to be titled Star Wars: Episode X - A New Beginning (which was debunked by StarWars.com contributor Jordan Maison) is still set to film in May 2024 at Pinewood Studios in Buckinghamshire, UK, using the working title “New Jedi Order”, which Maison did confirm.
In addition to these report, Rich Browski’s production listing magazine Production Weekly also included updates on the Lando spin-off film starring Donald Glover as the younger Lando he played in Solo: A Star Wars Story. Donald and Stephen Glover are writing and producing, with filming listed as beginning in Q1 2025 in the UK. The logline for this project from when it was being developed as a Disney+ series reads:
“A Star Wars series based on the Empire Strikes Back and Return of the Jedi scoundrel Lando Calrissian (Donald Glover). In his youth, Lando was a sportsman seeking a fortune at the sabacc tables. After he lost his beloved ship to Han Solo, Lando spent years living the high life and pursuing getrich-quick schemes, with uneven results. He went semi-respectable as the baron administrator of Cloud City, only to be drawn into the fight against the Empire. After a personal tragedy, Lando sought solace in isolation on Pasaana, unaware that the galaxy would need him again.”
The Trail House Exclusive: David Leitch Stunt Docuseries ‘Action’ Filming Additional Scenes; ‘The Electric State’ Undergoing Reshoots, Plus Production Updates on ‘Moana’ Live-Action Remake, ‘SNL 1975’
After experiencing such losses as the Ana de Armas and Chris Evans spy rom-com Ghosted, the Russo brothers are reportedly reconfiguring their AGBO thriller film The Electric State as Production Weekly lists reshoots as being planned to take place from March 20 through April 5, 2024, using the working title “Stormwind”. The original principal photography lasted from October 4, 2022 until February 9, 2023. Meanwhile, the Ballerina reshoots previously reported by EmpireCity Box Office on Twitter have also been confirmed by actor Ian McShane, with John Wick franchise helmer Chad Stahleski now confirmed to be overseeing the new footage as I discussed in the prior issue.
Stahleski’s John Wick creative partner David Leitch is also getting in on the action (pun intended) as he is currently filming additional footage for his stunt performer-focused documentary series Action in California, according to a source close to the production. The series, from Universal Pictures Content Group and Leitch and producer Kelly McCormick’s production and action design company 87North, follows the various stunt workers on action films and includes exclusive footage from Leitch’s upcoming feature The Fall Guy, which is about an action choreographer. It is understood that they are shooting new behind-the-scenes footage of what an action movie set would be, and have partnered with freelance advertising and design workers from several states, particularly from those based in Minnesota where the Wisconsin-born Leitch attended the University of Minnesota.
While the streaming series-turned-feature film animated title Moana 2 has been making waves lately (by taking a similar approach as Lando), the live-action remake of the original 2016 film has received some production updates. Filming of the Dwayne Johnson-backed film, per Production Weekly, is set to undergo this June in O’ahu, Hawaii and Atlanta, Georgia, and will last until this September, with the working title “Motorheads”. It was originally supposed to film from October 10, 2023 until April 3, 2024, before the strikes delayed production.
The listing also lists that filmmaker (and recent co-owner of the Fox Village Theater in Westwood Village) Jason Reitman’s next directorial venture at Sony, SNL 1975, is set to begin shooting on March 18 in Fayetteville, Georgia and in New York, under the working title “Wolverines”. Reitman is co-writing and co-producing with his Ghostbusters creative partner Gil Kenan and producer Peter Rice (formerly a top film executive at 20th Century Fox and Disney before he was fired by ex-Disney CEO Bob Chapek and then transitioned loyalties).
How Universal Can Make ‘Jurassic World’ Big, Relevant Again With Gareth Edwards’ Pic; Potential Title Revealed
While Universal Pictures is gearing up for the fourth Jurassic World film with a script from original Jurassic Park scribe David Koepp that aims to “be a completely fresh take launching a new Jurassic era” through a new trilogy after the dismal Jurassic World Dominion, it seems that recently enlisted director Gareth Edwards (who took over the directors’ chair from Leitch after negotiations broke down) is not going to have the same world-trotting flare of his Rogue One and that this film may be drawing more similar to his take on Godzilla if the reported title is anything to go off of. Production Weekly lists the Edwards-directed Jurassic World film with the title Jurassic City. This could indicate that Universal is taking a smaller-scaled approach with this new iteration of the franchise to put back the heart and emotional connection to the human characters for audiences, which have been a common criticism of the recent World films.
However, I don’t think that is the direction they should be going. Rather, the franchise should go big and beyond what it has already been, and the answer is in a little bit of science fiction that has had its seeds planted in the earlier films: Splicing. Now hear me out, while from a studio-side perspective, going for the grounder take makes sense given the current industry climate of cost cuts and how expensive and tedious VFX can be, especially with the changes in working conditions for VFX workers only starting to improve and thus, it is smart for the studio to be more understanding and lenient with their use of VFX as to not overdo it.
Government-funded experimentations on dinosaurs, such as hybrids and cloning, has already been explored in the Jurassic films, so it should come as no surprise to hear the next evolution of the prehistoric kingdom would be evolutionary. (The Jurassic World films already sprawled further commitments to DNA research. Life imitates art, fiction becomes a reality, and that requires such media to explore it in order to expose it.) Every species has to evolve to remain relevant and to survive, much like a franchise and intellectual property has to rejuvenate and reinvent itself through innovation to remain afloat with its audience. If Universal doesn’t want these films to go the way of the dinosaurs, then they have to take risks and explore rich topics. Turning these films into commentary for the inhumane scientific experiments that governments fund could serve as a nice platform for these films to build upon, with several ongoing wars and evolving ways to fight being engineered every day, I could see the ACU Troopers being used more as soldiers to counter, not tame, a loose mega dinosaur of various gene manipulations and combinations which the government then brings in a lone soldier, could be a veteran, an archeologist, or a hunter (who doesn’t poach!) to be a hired gun to stop this threat on the loose in other parts of the world before it infects other species with its invasive attributes. Hell, if you want to be really relevant, Mr. DNA could go the route of the villainous Gabriel from Mission: Impossible - Dead Reckoning and be an evil AI superpower toppling the government and rest of the world with those that came before it, exposing the horrors or war and science all at once. Such a concept has the potential to rival The War of the Worlds, though I’d want it to be on part with that and Godzilla. Edwards seems to be the right guy to bring this type of film to light, so it would be a shame to see his creative talent stuck as a hired gun (if you will) behind the camera.
Marvel “Retooling” For a Brighter Future With Reshoots, New Writers, and a ‘Young Avengers’ Film Forming
The Hollywood Reporter recently reported in a long detail-filled piece that Marvel Studios has been “retooling” their content and internal business already, and is set to continue throughout the remainder of the year. The report notes the studio completed a series of pick-ups (or reshoots) for their WandaVision spin-off Agatha: Darkhold Diaries earlier in February in one day, despite normally accounting for at least five days of work. That series is still set to debut this fall, likely around Halloween. At the beginning of this month, Ironheart was reported by Production Weekly to be undergoing the additional photography, which I brought up in the first issue of TheTrailBlazer, sometime from February through April 2024, though it’s unclear if those already started or not. The Hollywood Reporter noted that series has “no release in sight”, while Blade is deemed unlikely to be releasing in November 2025 as Disney continues its mandate to prefer quality over quantity, especially in their Marvel output.
Thunderbolts began filming this past week and will shoot through June 8, per Production Weekly, which is occurring at the same time and production studio lot as James Gunn’s Superman (originally titled Superman: Legacy) at Trilith Studios in Georgia (and also started filming early yesterday on a shoot lasting through August; Georgia filming is listed by Production Weekly to last from March 18 until August 2, though the filming from next week until then could be for other locations, such as the reports of Hell, Norway as a shooting location for the Fortress of Solitude, a beautiful pick if you ask me). Thunderbolts was originally supposed to film from June 12 through September last year, per Production Weekly, and then was set to last from this March until July, though the film’s lead Florence Pugh has said it was meant to be a six-month shoot. The current timeframe is merely a four month shoot, so it is possible Marvel struck down the scale, and shooting time, as a result of Disney’s cost-cutting mandate and the script rewrites from Joanna Calo (The Bear, Beef), who was first reported by r/DCUleaks and confirmed by The Hollywood Reporter’s big piece. We know from executive producer Brian Chapek that it is a globe-trotting feature, also shooting in Utah and New York, and at Atlanta Metro Studios.
Speaking of new teams to the MCU, Production Weekly has listed that a Young Avengers feature film is in active development at Marvel Studios with Kevin Feige and Louis D’Esposito listed as producers and a planned production start in 2025. This has long been rumored given the introduction of various younger sidekick characters in MCU content since 2021, although the exact media it would be has been subject of speculation, until now! WandaVision and Agatha head writer (and director on the latter) has long been linked to such a project, and I think she would make a great fit in bringing this bubbly chaotic team to life on the big screen, especially giving her the likes of Hailee Steinfeld, Iman Vellani (that credits stinger in The Marvels wasn’t for nothing!), Kathryn Newton, Xochitl Gomez, and Joe Locke (who reportedly stars as the Scarlet Witch’s son Billy / Wiccan in Agatha). Though, I would caution these are only speculation as we have yet to see what roster Marvel will use, however, I would bet on them enlisting more senior star actors a la Samuel L. Jackson’s Nick Fury to lure in audiences who may be unfamiliar with the younger starlets. Marvel can’t rely solely on Steinfeld’s fan following and this being a Marvel team-up to make this a guaranteed success, especially as this will be a theatrical title as opposed to a 6-hour streaming series (which Disney realized doesn’t work for every story, i.e. Armor Wars and Lando).
Exclusive: Inside the Marvel Marketing Issues with ‘Madame Web’
Especially since movie theaters rebounded from the COVID-19 pandemic, movie-themed merchandise has been a mainstay top seller among movie pundits, cinephiles, and general audiences all around, with the most dedicated fans willing to pay upwards anywhere of $20, $30, or even closer to $40 or even $50 on the merchandise plus popcorn, drinks, and candy, not to mention the inflated ticket prices. The Thursday night of Madame Web’s release, while reviews and box office projections were already tanking, The Hollywood Reporter put out a piece detailing the rise in movie theater merchandise and how they were used as a “secret weapon” to help save movie theaters coming out of the pandemic. This ever so convenient timing with the release of a major studio superhero film may have lead anyone to think such merchandise would surely be available at their local movie theaters. Well, that was not the case unless you went to a Regal Cinema to get a black popcorn bucket with only the film’s logo on it. Leading up to the film’s release, sites such as Epicstream and We Got This Covered noted the lack of any such merchandise being made for the film, although, I hear that is not entirely the case. (Disclosure: For privacy concerns and in the name of “Freedom of the Press”, the following material is for paid subscribers of the newsletter! It is not an admission of association with the companies or products mentioned in this piece and is from investigative research conducted through backchannel conversations. My sources preferred to speak on the matter anonymously for their own job security.)
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