‘Sonic 4,’ ‘Lanterns’ Eye 2025 Filming, Rian Johnson’s ‘Poker Face’ Season 2 Mystery Solved, Frank Sinatra Biopic Retuning Past Script, ‘Moana’ Remake Delays, More ‘Jurassic City’ Details
‘Sonic 4,’ ‘Lanterns’ Eye 2025 Filming, Rian Johnson’s ‘Poker Face’ Season 2 Mystery Solved, Frank Sinatra Biopic Retuning Past Script, ‘Moana’ Remake Delays, More ‘Jurassic City’ Details
Plus, details on ‘Twisted Metal,’ Ryan Murphy’s ‘Grotesquire,’ John Cena, Jason Momoa’s ‘Killer Vacation,’ the ‘28 Years Later’ trilogy, ‘The Gauntlet,’ and when ‘Beyond the Spider-Verse’ may release.
Welcome back to another issue of TheTrailBlazer newsletter! I have another round of production updates to discuss for a variety of films and television series each with their own distinct flare. This is the second part carrying over from the prior issue. Given there was a lot to unpack, and it was CinemaCon week, I didn’t want to cram everything together and felt it was best to space some of the content out. This issue is still a bit of a long one with many juicy details to unpack. I do have a few creative profiles on two spectacular subjects that are in the works for future issues of TheTrailBlazer, with one on an Oscar-nominated animator and another for an award-winning influential cinematographer, so be on the lookout for those in the coming weeks!
The productions discussed in this issue include Martin Scorsese’s long-dreamt of biopic about Ol’ Blue Eyes Frank Sinatra starring Leonardo DiCaprio, Ryan Murphy’s horror genre series Grotesquerie, the second seasons of the Anthony Mackie-led comedy Twisted Metal and Tim Burton’s supernatural teen drama Wednesday, and filming schedules for the Transformers and G.I. Joe crossover pic and the John Cena and Jason Momoa-led action comedy Killer Vacation.
I also breakdown details on DC’s Lanterns superhero series, Disney’s live-action Moana remake delays, the complete 28 Years Later trilogy filming schedule, what’s going on with Rian Johnson’s mysteriously silent second season of Poker Face, Universal’s next Jurassic World film, and Christopher McQuarrie’s new pic The Gauntlet starring Tom Cruise and Scarlett Johansson. I also share the first details on the fourth Sonic the Hedgehog film, and that Matthew Vaughn’s third Kingsman pic is finally moving forward.
Also discussed in this issue are some hot rumors about the trouble behind Disney’s Snow White remake and Invincible’s potential renewal at Amazon, and the report on the enormous budget of Marvel’s Ant-Man 3 dud from last year. I also share when I think Spider-Man: Beyond the Spider-Verse will release after analyzing Sony’s theatrical calendar (or lack thereof) for next year.
I do want to take some time to say Rest in Peace to Raymond Chan, who was a creative and visionary art director and production designer on various Marvel films, after his untimely passing earlier this week. Chan worked with a variety of directors on genre films such as Children of Men, National Treasure, Alien vs. Predator, Blood Diamond, Robin Hood, King Arthur, and Dungeons & Dragons: Honor Among Thieves. He was nominated five times for the Art Directors Guild’s Excellence in Production Design Award, winning twice in 2015 for Guardians of the Galaxy and in 2020 for Avengers: Endgame.
For Marvel Studios, Chan most recently worked on The Falcon and the Winter Solider and the upcoming Deadpool & Wolverine. He also worked on Doctor Strange, Avengers: Infinity War, Spider-Man: Far From Home, Avengers: Age of Ultron, and Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania. Chan was 56, and is survived by his wife Lindsay and their two children. This marks a tragic loss of a good friend, family member, and collaborator to the Marvel universe, with Marvel brass releasing statements remarking Chan as a great human being and colleague. Deadpool star Ryan Reynolds is said to be “downright gutted about the sudden loss — and that it hits close to home for him”, while the upcoming pic’s crew is “devastated by the loss of their beloved compatriot”.
All subscribers can enter ablaze to read all about these intriguing reports and rumors that have been making their rounds and for the development and production details on many of those projects and more, while paid subscribers can access The Trail House column of TheTrailBlazer to get their sleuth hats on and uncover the truth behind the Poker Face mystery and for a rundown of the Sonic 4 news.
As always, thank you for reading TheTrailBlazer! Got a hot tip or an intriguing pitch to highlight for the next issue? Email me at trailblazer101@thetrailblazer.net or 101blazertrail@gmail.com. Don’t forget to comment and subscribe to help support what I do and see us grow!
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Reports and Rumors (R&R) Roundup: Disney’s ‘Snow White’ Remake Woes, Amazon’s Non-‘Invincible’ Renewal, the Giant ‘Ant-Man 3’ Budget, When Could ‘Beyond the Spider-Verse’ Release?
Starting with today’s issue of TheTrailBlazer, I have decided to begin a new column, which I am dubbing the “Reports and Rumors Roundup”, or “R&R Roundup” for short. This part of the newsletter is where I delve into the recent news of the week to give my three cents on the hot scoops from the trades, business shenanigans around town, and various rumors I find from across the board so you don’t have to and can instead chill with the talk of the town and then leave with your own determinations about them with all of the facts presented. It’s like the news cycle, but truly objective.
According to EmpireCity Box Office, Disney’s upcoming live-action remake of the classic fairy tale Snow White was “in trouble” even before its release was pushed back to March 21, 2025, explaining that the Marc Webb-directed pic has been “testing poorly” and that the creatives involved “don’t have much hope for it”. They described the film as having been a “mess” and that it is simply not working despite the production undergoing reshoots already. This came after insider Daniel Richtman reported the film was “praised for being great”. EmpireCity Box Office was right about the Ballerina reshoots before the trades confirmed it, so I’m inclined to take his word on this one. I do think that part of the issue with the film could come down to the production having to reconstruct the dwarf characters into VFX creatures from the ground up, likely to avoid a similar reaction as Paramount had with Sonic the Hedgehog’s initial appearance.
While there were reports from a crowdfunding campaign website that the Amazon original series Invincible from Robert Kirkman, based on his comic series for Image Comics, had been renewed for a fourth and fifth season ahead of the third season, IGN has reported that this is “not accurate”, according to a source from Amazon. Typically, it has been common in the broadcasting era of television for popular shows to receive multi-season renewals if their ratings have been high enough.
The true budget of Marvel Studios’ 2023 bomb Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania was recently revealed by Caroline Reid of Forbes. The pic, released last February, only grossed $467.1 million, despite early performance signaling potential with the best the Ant-Man trilogy opening. Despite an initially estimated $200 million budget, the ultimate figure of the small-sized hero’s third solo outing was far from minuscule. The total gross production budget of the superhero tentpole was $326.6 million, attributed to $194.9 million spent on pre-production and filming from 2020 through 2021 and an additional $131.9 million on post-production. The pic, mainly shot at Pinewood Studios in the UK, received a tax reimbursement of $50.6 million from the UK government, through its Film Tax scheme. This brought the net spending down to $276 million, which was more than two fellow Disney duds: 2018’s Solo: A Star Wars Story at $271 million and 2012’s John Carter at $264 million.
On the other side of the multiverse is Sony Pictures and what the hell is up with their Spider-Man Universe. The studio and film chief Tom Rothman, who has long touted that the studio is the only one still committed exclusively to the theatrical exhibition as it does not have a streaming service of its own, was ironically absent from this year’s CinemaCon and they strangely do not have any original films scheduled for release next year. Sony is infamously known for waiting until the last minute to mark new dates on its calendar, as evident by their release changes due to the COVID-19 pandemic between 2020 and 2022 and the dual Hollywood strikes in 2023.
While Sony has a variety of films in various stages of development, ranging from Sydney Sweeney’s Barbarella, the (surprisingly not canceled) Marvel pic El Muerto that originally involved Bad Bunny as the star before he dropped out (which ironically was a surprise CinemaCon announcement two years ago, only to not live up to its January 2024 release), the four Beatles biopics from director Sam Mendes all set for 2027 releases, Jason Reitman’s late night comedy biopic SNL 1975, an Uncharted sequel, and adaptations of Ghosts of Tsushima from Chad Stahleski and The Legend of Zelda from Wes Ball, among many others, none of these have yet to receive solid dates. The studio just delayed the Aaron Taylor-Johnson starrer Kraven the Hunter from this summer to December 13, 2025, so it could secure use of IMAX screens and other premium formats, though it is likely they didn’t want their next Marvel feature to be another character that is not an already-established IP to general audiences after their Madame Web failure. It speaks volumes that they did not push it into next year, likely to fill their financial quarter alongside Tom Hardy’s supposed last Venom pic, The Last Dance, out October 25, which is guaranteed to be a success after the prior two films were.
In spite of these pics, the studio only has one completed film scheduled for 2025: the co-distribution of StudioCanal’s Paddington in Paradise on January 17. Sony has reserved a slot for an unspecified Marvel film on June 27, 2025, though I am willing to bet that will be swooped up by the highly-anticipated Spider-Man: Beyond the Spider-Verse, which was delayed from its March 29, 2024, release in July 2023, due to production not having progressed from the busy commitments to Across the Spider-Verse and the Hollywood strikes preventing further writing and voice recording from taking place. To add validity to this, singer D4vd recently hinted at his potential involvement in Beyond and teased a 2025 release, posting on TikTok “see you next year when spiderman comes out 🤷”.
I do want to address some skepticism with the report that Spider-Man 4 has a release date of July 10, 2026, which Production Weekly insists it is still scheduled for in their latest issue. I know some have called that into question saying it would be too far out from when that pic is set to begin filming this September, though I am not convinced it will release any sooner. Speculation that Marvel Studios would want the fourth Tom Holland-led Spidey pic to release next year are admittedly pushing it, even if it were to release around Christmas 2025 to draw on the similar timeframe as Spider-Man: No Way Home. The writers Chris McKenna and Erik Sommers are still working on the script, given the strike delays, and recent comments from Holland indicate that this pic is not as far along in the development process as some would like, despite the fall being a tentative filming start.
As for the director, while it doesn’t seem that the likes of Sam Raimi, Justin Lin, Jon Watts, Drew Goddard, or Jon Favreau are swinging for the gig anymore, it has been noted that duo Jonathan Goldstein and John Francis Daley (Dungeons & Dragons: Honor Among Thieves, Game Night) are currently being considered to direct. I previously brought them up in my well-timed Spidey 4 director scoreboard before I knew their names were in the mix. The duo previously co-wrote Spider-Man: Homecoming and early drafts for DC’s The Flash, receiving a story credit.
‘Green Lantern’ Series to Take Flight in Early 2025 As ‘Moana’ Remake Swims with Delays; John Cena, Jason Momoa to Go On a ‘Killer Vacation’ This Fall, ‘Twisted Metal’ Revs Up for a Summer Return As ‘Kingsman 3’ Takes Aim
Coming hot off the trail (pun intended) of the prior issue, it’s that time of the week again where I go through the rest of the miscellaneous production updates in this second part of those recent issues and then some. There is a lot to unpack with some intriguing tidbits in terms of filming schedules, locations, and plot and casting specifics tucked away in the production listings from Rich Browski’s magazine Production Weekly and the Film & Television Industry Alliance’s Production List.
The DC Universe from DC Studios co-chiefs James Gunn and Peter Safran is expanding, and while Gunn is currently filming Superman while Peacemaker season 2 undergoes production and Supergirl: Woman of Tomorrow prepares for a late 2024 shoot, there are still some other projects that deserve some of the attention. While I previously clarified in the last issue that the comedy series Booster Gold is eyeing to shoot this summer and not in 2025 as some believed, despite no names officially being attached yet, there is another DCU series that is aiming to shoot next year.
That comes in the form of the series Lanterns, which is ready for take off in Q1 2025 when production is set to start, according to Production Weekly. As previously disclosed, Chris Mundy is the showrunner while Gunn and Safran are executive producing the series alongside Tom King, who serves as one of its writers and is part of the DC Studios writer’s room. Damon Lindelof is a consulting producer, and Nathan Fillion stars as the Green Lantern Guy Gardner, reprising his role as the abrasive hero with a bowl cut from Gunn’s Superman pic. The terrestrial-based show will focus on two of the best-known members of the Green Lantern corps.: Hal Jordan and John Stewart, who investigate a mystery that plays a really big role in leading into the main story of the DCU’s Chapter One: Gods and Monsters.
Interestingly, the series is now primarily listed with the title “Green Lantern” while “Lanterns” is listed instead as an alias. This could be an indication that the series received a title change, reverting back to what it had been while Greg Berlanti was developing it for HBO Max.
I also want to highlight that Nexus Point News, a new website made by a group of Marvel “Updates” Twitter account scoopers, recently corroborated my scoops from Production Weekly that Marvel Studios is moving many of their productions to the UK, and the filming timeframes and locations for Avengers 5, Armor Wars, and Shang-Chi 2. The site reports that a new unspecified listing confirms that the Shang-Chi sequel will shoot in March 2025 in the UK, with the next Avengers pic and Armor Wars both assembling in January 2025 there to shoot simultaneously, likely for cost savings.
The hot package action comedy film Killer Vacation starring John Cena and Jason Momoa is set to begin filming in Q4 2024 in the UK, per Production Weekly. Variety, which first revealed the project in December 2023, believes the pic focuses on a holiday gone wrong, as evident by the title. The two muscle heavy stars were attached to the project then, with a script from screenwriters Mark and Brian Gunn (Journey 2: The Mysterious Island, Brightburn). Mark is Brian’s cousin and Brian is one of filmmaker James Gunn’s brothers. The pic, which is produced by John Rickard and Peter Safran through the Safran Company, was packaged at Warner Bros. before James Gunn and Safran became the co-chiefs of DC Studios in late 2022. No release date has been set for the pic.
After its first season set viewership records for comedies on Peacock and was renewed in December 2023, it was only a matter of time before the second season of the Anthony Mackie-led series Twisted Metal, based on the popular Sony PlayStation video game series, would rev up its engines. The production is thrusting into high gear this month as pre-production has begun ahead of a filming start this July in Toronto, a change from the New Orleans-based first season. This would presumably be working around Mackie’s commitments to reshoots for Marvel’s Captain America: Brave New World, which will last from May to August of this year.
The series was developed by Rhett Reese and Paul Wernick (the Deadpool films) alongside Michael Jonathan Smith, who returns as showrunner. They all executive produce the series with Mackie, fellow star Will Arnett, Carter Swan, Asad Qizilbash, Marc Forman, Peter Principato, Hermen Hulst, Jason Spire, and Kitao Sakurai (Bad Trip, The Eric Andre Show). James McMillan returns as cinematographer.
Following the unfortunate poor performances of his Kingsman prequel The King’s Man and the spy comedy Argylle, Matthew Vaughn needs a comeback. The King’s Man was released by 20th Century Studios in December 2021 to mixed critical reviews and grossed only $126 million against a reported budget of $95–100 million. That was not enough to make it profitable and it bombed at the box office. Vaughn’s most recent release, Argylle, suffered a similar fate by grossing only $96.2 million. This was against a widely reported budget of $200 million, though Vaughn himself, rightfully so, rejected those claims, which seemed to be an exaggeration.
While some felt that Vaughn was covering his own ass, I was never quite convinced that Vaughn’s spy comedy would have used the same budget as say a Marvel feature, especially given it did not use as extensive action set pieces or visual effects sequences. In the first bit of journalistic clarity on this, Mathew Belloni of Puck affirmed earlier this month on his podcast The Town that this was in fact not the actual budget of the film, and that the $200 million is the amount Apple paid to acquire the distribution and licensing rights to the spy flick for release on their streaming service Apple TV+, which came after a short theatrical run in the first quarter of this year.
With two consecutive flops to his name, it may be time for Vaughn to reconsider his strategy and decisions as of late. It may be beneficial for Vaughn to hire another director for these Kingsman offshoots so he can get back to focusing on the core films. The third main film, Kingsman: The Blue Blood, is listed by Production Weekly as having entered active development at Marv Films with Vaughn returning to co-write the script with his writing and producing partner Jane Goldman. Filming on The Blue Blood, which is “the final chapter in the Kingsman trilogy”, will once again take place in the UK.
Vaughn produces with frequent producers David Reid and Adam Bohling, while Kingsman co-creators Dave Gibbons and Mark Millar are executive producers with Pierre Lagrange, Stephen Marks, and Matthew’s wife Claudia Vaughn, who was an EP on many of the director’s prior films from Kick-Ass 2 to Argylle and was a producer on Tetris. While many have speculated that Stan & Ollie director Jon S. Baird could direct this third Kingsman film after he was hired by Vaughn way back in July 2019 to helm an unspecified film for Marv, that ultimately was for Tetris, which was also released by Apple. It is not immediately clear if Vaughn is directing this third pic.
On the other side of the ocean, Disney’s live-action Moana remake film produced by and starring Dwayne Johnson, who reprises his beloved role as Maui, has reportedly received some further delays after its release was pushed back to July 10, 2026, to avoid close proximity with the animated sequel Moana 2, set for release on November 27, 2024. While Production Weekly listed that filming had been set to begin in late July 2024, when the Atlanta unit would shoot through August, and primarily in O’ahu until November 19 of this year, it has since reported that filming is now set to commence in March 2025, likely due to the film’s release delay.
This live-action pic vacated its original June 27, 2025 slot, leaving that ripe for the taking for Beyond the Spider-Verse, as I mentioned above. However, I should note that the current release of the live-action pic would go up against Spider-Man 4 instead. I don’t think Disney would want to directly compete with a co-production for one of their highest earning individual IPs, so I think Disney and Sony are likely going to coordinate in shuffling their release calendars as we draw closer to 2026, in a similar vein to how they collaborated in their release adjustments with Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness and Thor: Love and Thunder to accommodate for No Way Home during the pandemic.
Johnson’s frequent business partners Beau Flynn of Flynn Picture Co. and Dany Garcia and Hiram Garcia of Seven Bucks Productions produce the film for Walt Disney Pictures, with original Moana actress Auli’i Cravalho and Scott Sheldon attached as executive producers. Thomas Kail is directing from a script by original Moana co-director Jared Bush and Dana Ledoux Miller (Thai Cave Rescue, Narcos, Designated Survivor). Frequent Marvel Studios producer Charles Newirth (Shang-Chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings, Doctor Strange, El Camino: A Breaking Bad Movie) and Jeffrey Chernov (Black Panther, 10 Things I Hate About You, Mission: Impossible – Ghost Protocol) are the line producers.
Details On Martin Scorsese’s Frank Sinatra Biopic; More ‘Jurassic City’ Filming Locations, Plot Details; Tom Cruise, Scarlett Johansson to Lead Christopher McQuarrie’s ‘The Gauntlet’; ‘Transformers’ & ‘G.I. Joe’ Crossover to Shoot This Year
After he completes work on his biblical epic A Life of Jesus, Martin Scorsese is set to move right into filming his Frank Sinatra biopic. Though it seems the Sinatra family may still not be totally onboard with this pic, that hasn’t stopped Scorsese from putting together a band of creatives behind-the-scenes. When the film’s renewed development was revealed last week by Variety, the first talent revealed to be attached were Leonardo DiCaprio playing Ol’ Blue Eyes and Jennifer Lawrence as his second wife, Ava Gardner. It could be expected that the pic may also include anyone from the likes of Dean Martin, Sammy Davis Jr., Mia Farrow, Marilyn Monroe, and JFK.
With Scorsese co-writing A Life of Jesus and eyeing to shoot later this year in Italy, Egypt, and potentially Israel (unless Israel’s ongoing genocide of Hamas continues to stand in the way), that got me thinking, who else may be tackling the creative side of this project? Surely Scorsese already had a script commissioned before such talented and smart actors such as DiCaprio and Lawrence joined. I’m sure they would have signed on just by Scorsese’s name being attached alone, although actors love to know what their getting themselves into. We may have some insight into that, as the latest issue of Production Weekly has listed some additional creatives attached to the Sinatra biopic.
According to the listing, Billy Ray (Captain Phillips, Richard Jewell) and Phil Alden Robinson (The Good Fight, Field of Dreams) are to remain credited as the Sinatra writers. Ray previously wrote 2012’s The Hunger Games, which notably starred Lawerence and helped skyrocket her career. Ray was previously hired back in August 2012 to pen the script for Scorsese during the film’s prior development, taking over from a prior draft by Robinson. Back then, the pic was being set up at Universal Pictures thanks to producers Peter Gruber and Cathy Schulman of Mandalay Pictures, when blacklisted producer and abuser Scott Rudin was also producing alongside the famed singer’s daughter Tina Sinatra. Scorsese produces through his Sikelia Productions banner.
From the listing, it appears that Mandalay and Gruber remain involved in the pic. Gruber and Schulman secured the life and music rights years ago for Universal from Frank Sinatra Enterprises, which is a joint-venture between the Sinatra family and the singer’s estate with Warner Music Group founded in 1965. Production Weekly lists Gruber and Gary LeMel as the producers, though I expect LeMel to be credited as an executive producer. The mention of LeMel is an interesting one, considering the former pop-jazz singer and film music executive passed away in 2019. Though I believe I have an explanation for this: LeMel was notably the president of worldwide music at Warner Bros. Pictures and the CEO of their Warner Sunset soundtrack label.
Warner Music Group was spun-off from Warner Bros. in 2004. From my understanding, Warners manages the license rights to using several of Sinatra’s songs and his likeness in coordination with the surviving members of the Sinatra family. I believe that while LeMel was heading up Warner Music back in the day, he likely had a hand to play in these deals for using Sinatra’s music in film, as such necessitating a producer credit. Most of Sinatra’s recordings are currently distributed by Universal Music Group.
Mandalay recently produced other biopics in Ben Affleck’s Air, about the deal to sign Michael Jordan to Nike, and Big George Foreman, about the life of world heavyweight boxing champion George Foreman. Both biopics released in April 2023 and grossed $90.1 million and only $6 million, respectively.
Production Weekly has also included in their listing that the film, which is listed under the tentative title “Sinatra”, is also known as “Put Your Dreams Away”, sharing the name of the 1943 song “Put Your Dreams Away (For Another Day)”, which was written by Ruth Lowe, Paul Mann, and Stephan Weiss and was recorded by Sinatra in 1945. It was particularly used by Sinatra as the closing theme of his radio series and was played at his funeral. Lowe had also written Sinatra’s first hit, “I’ll Never Smile Again”. Sinatra remarked in the 1965 album A Man and His Music that the theme song had followed him “all the way from nowhere to somewhere”, and it had cemented a long-lasting impact and connection with the singer throughout and after his life.
A logline was also included for the film, which you can read below:
“Biopic of singer/performer Frank Sinatra. The story of an American icon who held the imagination of millions for more than fifty years and whose influence in popular music was unsurpassed in the twentieth century. As a child, he said, he had heard "symphonies from the universe" in his head. No one could have imagined where those sounds would lead him. Tracing the arc of this incredible life, from the humble beginnings in Hoboken to the twilight years as a living legend in Malibu, Sinatra follows a career built on raw talent, sheer willpower—and criminal connections.”
Meanwhile, the upcoming fourth Jurassic World film from Universal Pictures, reportedly titled Jurassic City, is still on track for its shoot to start on June 17 with plans to conclude by October 18 of this year, and we now have additional filming location details. In addition to being based out of Sky Studios Elstree in the UK, as previously revealed, filming on the new dinosaur pic is also set to take place in Krabi, Thailand and once again in the Mediterranean island country of Malta, Europe, the latter of which is through a partnership with the local Latina Pictures and the Malta Film Studios. The franchise’s prior installment, Jurassic World Dominion, was also filmed in Malta and heavily incorporated it in the plot. Filming uses the working title “Saga”, and John Mathieson (Gladiator, Logan) is the cinematographer.
Directed by Gareth Edwards (Godzilla, The Creator) from a script by original Jurassic Park scribe David Koepp, this new film is set to launch a new Jurassic era for the studio, and according to the logline, it will be “following three adults and three teens getting stuck on the Island”. Production Weekly lists that Scarlett Johansson is attached to star in the pic in the female lead role alongside Jonathan Bailey, who recently joined as the male lead. It can be expected that the pair may be playing a couple, similar to prior franchise alums Chris Pratt’s Owen Grady and Bryce Dallas Howard’s Claire Dearing or Sam Neil’s Alan Grant and Laura Dern’s Ellie Satler, though none of those characters are expected to return as this has been described as a “completely fresh take”.
I would expect casting to heat up for this one in the following months and for many actors and agents to clamor onto it given Edwards’ and Johansson’s involvement before the roles go the way of the dinosaurs. I think Bailey is not the typical choice you would expect for a male lead in the Jurassic World franchise, though he definitely has what it takes to stand his own. While I don’t think he will match the charisma and grit of Sam Neil, he could surely give Chris Pratt a run for his money, and I believe his role in Uni’s two-parter Wicked will help convince more of Bailey’s potential.
It is great seeing that Johansson is likely going to end up as the main lead of this new film, after the prior films were notably focused more on the male leads. After all, while the love of dinosaurs has frequently been attributed to young boys and adult males who want a prehistoric monster mash, dinosaurs are for girls, too! I remember reading through so many dinosaur books when I was growing up, and I know the same was for many more. Having Johansson star as either a biology scientist, park ranger, or some other high-level job such as a business analyst or politician could serve as important imagery for a strong female taking down dinosaurs in what I think could be a family-led survival adventure. I know I’m down to see that!
Dev Patel (Monkey Man, The Green Knight) and Colman Domingo (Rustin, The Color Purple) are reportedly being eyed for roles in the dino pic, with Domingo likely playing the villain. Frank Marshall and Patrick Crowley are producing for the Kennedy/Marshall Company with Steven Spielberg executive producing through Amblin Entertainment.
Another pic with Johansson that was recently reported on by Giant Freakin Robot, EmpireCity Box Office, World of Reel, and Production Weekly is The Gauntlet, which hails from director Christopher McQuarrie and producer Clint Eastwood as a remake of Eastwood’s 1977 action thriller. This new iteration comes as part of Tom Cruise’s new partnership with Warner Bros., and re-teams the action star with McQuarrie after their long successful relationship on the Mission: Impossible franchise. Cruise fills the shoes of Eastwood’s Detective Ben Shockley in the pic, with Johansson starring as the female lead. The pic is being produced by Eastwood’s Malpaso Productions and Cruise’s TC Productions, with filming scheduled to begin in the first quarter of 2025. You can read the logline below:
“In Phoenix, Arizona, alcoholic and mediocre Detective Ben Shockley (Cruise) is assigned by Chief Commissioner Blakelock to bring witness Gus Mally from Las Vegas, Nevada for a minor trial. Shockley travels to Las Vegas and finds that Gus Mally is an aggressive and intelligent prostitute with a college degree and she tells him that the odds are against her showing up in court. Shockley learns that she will actually testify against a powerful mobster, and the mafia is chasing them, trying to kill them both. He calls Blakelock and requests a Police escort from Phoenix to protect them. But soon, he discovers that someone is betraying him in the Police Department. Now, Shockley and Malley hijack a bus and Shockley welds thick steel plates and transforms the cabin in an armored bus trying to reach the Forum. But they will need to drive through a gauntlet of Police Officers armed with heavy weapons.”
Another film with Spielberg attached is the untitled Transformers and G.I. Joe crossover pic at Paramount Pictures, which is set to begin filming in the fourth quarter of 2024. The crossover, which was teased at the end of last year’s Transformers: Rise of the Beasts with Anthony Ramos’ character being recruited by the G.I. Joes to help the Autobots, is set to be produced by Lorenzo di Bonaventura, Mark Vahradian, Tom DeSanto, Don Murphy, and Michael Bay, with Spielberg as an executive producer through Amblin Partners. Earlier this month at CinemaCon, Paramount confirmed the film with a release projected for 2025 or 2026, so filming towards the tail end of this year makes total sense, if they can get creatives attached in time. The pic is also being produced by Bay Films, di Bonaventura Pictures, Allspark Pictures, and Hasbro Entertainment.
The ‘28 Years Later’ Trilogy, Ryan Murphy’s ‘Grotesquerie,’ ‘Wednesday’ Season 2 Creeping Upon Filming Starts
As director Danny Boyle’s 28 Years Later trilogy at Sony Pictures is heating up for a return to the zombie virus world with the recent castings of Jodie Comer (Free Guy, The Last Duel), Aaron Taylor-Johnson (Kick-Ass, Bullet Train), and Ralph Fiennes (Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows, Skyfall, The King’s Man) for the first pic directed by Boyle, I have some details on the production timeframe and schedule to share. While Deadline reports that the first and second pics will shoot back-to-back, it seems that filming is set to kick off fairly soon.
Boyle is directing the first 28 Years Later pic with his frequent collaborator Alex Garland (Ex Machina, Civil War) as its writer after he wrote the first 28 Days Later. They also produce with Andrew Macdonald and Peter Rice for DNA Films and Decibel Films, with Cillian Murphy serving as an executive producer after starring in 28 Days Later. According to Production Weekly, the first part of 28 Years Later is scheduled to begin filming this May in the UK.
Following that, the sequel 28 Years Later: Part 2 is scheduled to begin its UK shoot in the fourth quarter (Q4) of this year, this time with Nia DaCosta (Candyman, The Marvels) already attached to direct. The listing states Garland also wrote this second part, which has the same producing team involved. The trilogy capper, obviously titled 28 Years Later: Part 3, is scheduled to begin filming in the first quarter (Q1) of 2025. That final installment does not yet have a director. Per Jeff Sneider (via World of Reel), while Murphy will not appear in the first part, he will have a “notable cameo” in Part 2 before having a major role in Part 3.
Also on the docket is the next horror series from acclaimed television writer and mega-producer Ryan Murphy, titled Grotesquerie. According to Production Weekly, the series will shoot in the UK from May to September 2024, using the working title “Snow Globe”, with additional filming in Los Angeles, per Production List. Grotesqueire is produced by Brightstar Fox Productions, Ryan Murphy Television, and 20th Television, and is expected to premiere on FX this fall. This is the second series from Murphy since he signed an overall deal with Disney. Murphy writes the series alongside Jon Robin Baitz and Joseph Baken, with Eric Kovtun and Alexis Martin Woodall producing.
Courtney B. Vance, Niecy Nash-Betts, and Lesley Manville star in the series, which Vance has described as “half-horror”, though the actor remained tight-lipped on further details and what that entails. Grotesquerie is a literary genre form popularized in the early 20th century that is often coupled with horror and science fiction aspects. The term has also been used for architecture and as a description of macabre artwork and films. Based on the title’s definition, this series will likely be a genre-bending fare mixed with horror.
The second season of Netflix’s critically acclaimed supernatural teen drama series Wednesday from filmmaker Tim Burton and creators/showrunners Alfred Gough and Miles Millar is heading back to Nevermore as filming is set to begin by April 30 in London, per Production List. According to Celtic Casting, filming should last until November. As previously revealed, the production is set to take place in Wicklow, Ireland, using the working title “Willow Hill”, which I shared in an earlier issue, as well as in Dublin.
As the production channels for a grim return, Burton and co. have summoned Steve Buscemi as the new president of Nevermore Academy alongside Thandiwe Newton (Reminiscence), who recently joined the cast for this season in an undisclosed role. Burton is joined as an executive producer by star Jenna Ortega, alongside Andrew Mittman, Kevin Miserocchi, Jonathan Glickman, Gail Berman, Kayla Alpert, Steve Stark, and Kevin Lafferty.
Another little nugget from Production List is the fact that Ryan Coogler and Michael B. Jordan’s vampire thriller genre pic, which is now filming, is set to shoot until June 26, 2024. Now, onto the Poker Face and Sonic the Hedgehog 4 stories!
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It has been revealed by both Production Weekly and Production List that filming is scheduled to take place in New York from July 1, 2024, until well into the New Year by January 24, 2025. It should be noted that while this filming schedule may seem absurdly long, it is the same six-month timeframe that the first season was shot under, an amount that has become typical among these high-budget streaming series. Johnson is not stepping back into the director’s seat for this season, as he is set to begin filming on Knives Out 3 this fall in London and at Warner Bros. Studios, Leavesden.