State Of Play: March 2021

Hope everyone is doing as well as you can be, given current circumstances, and keeping yourselves occupied. 

There are a few reasons to be cautiously optimistic, that there's light at the end of the tunnel (and it's not just an Intercity 125 coming to knock seven bells out of us again!) 

This week saw some big film news, so I figured time to do an update!

I'll be honest, I wasn't massively surprised by this week's news that Black Widow was a) being moved again (from May 7 to July 9), and b) being made available via Disney+ Premier on the same day. 

The situation is still, to put it mildly, changeable. Cinemas in New York and Los Angeles are starting to reopen; UK-based cinema chain Cineworld (who also own Regal Cinemas in the US) have announced they will start to reopen Regal locations in early April. 

In the UK, cinemas in England and Scotland (at least) are working to the assumption that they will be able to reopen for business from May 17th, if COVID-19 is still being controlled at a reasonable level. That said, cinemas will still need to operate at reduced capacity (at least initially) and with social distancing protocols in place. In the numbers game, it's not going to be worth Marvel's time to put it out until the situation is a bit more stable. 

Unsurprisingly, this has had a knock-on effect to some of the other Marvel movies that are due to be released this year.

Shang-Chi And The Legend Of The Ten Rings will now be released (it is assumed theatrically only) on September 3; there's no news at present whether Eternals or Spider-Man: No Way Home (due in November and December respectively) will be affected. 

A couple of random bits of MCU news: in December, when Christian Bale's casting in Thor: Love And Thunder was announced (Bale will be playing Gorr The God Butcher), a new release date was also given: May 6, 2022. This will now put the Thor fourquel (Thorquel?) after Doctor Strange In The Multiverse Of Madness, which had its own date changed to March 25 2022.

But whilst Black Widow gets bumped, there's no such plans to change the date of Cruella (the live-action "prequel" to 101 Dalmatians, starring Emma Stone and Emma Thompson). Like Mulan and Raya And The Last Dragon, Cruella will be getting a cinema release (where possible) and will also be available on Disney+ Premier on the same day. This is Memorial Day weekend in the US, and a usually lucrative time for cinemas. 

As they did with Soul, Disney have also announced that Pixar's next movie Luca (a coming-of-age drama involving sea monsters in disguise, with the voices of Jacob Tremblay, Jack Dylan Glazer, and Maya Rudolph) will be available on Disney+ (at no additional charge) from June 18th. Where Disney+ is not available, they are looking at potential cinema releases in those territories. 

Other Disney properties shifted around include Ryan Reynolds' Free Guy (now August 13), The King's Man (December 22), Ben Affleck starrer Deep Water (January 14 2022), and star-studded Agatha Christie adaptation Death On The Nile (February 11 2022)

For fans of horror and thrillers, you'll get to see at least two anticipated flicks a little sooner than expected. Paramount have moved A Quiet Place Part II to the aforementioned Memorial Day weekend, whilst Lionsgate have shifted Spiral: From The Book Of Saw (the ninth- NINTH!- Saw film) forward a week to May 14. Chris Rock, Max Minghella, and Samuel L. Jackson will be playing a game very soon...

On the subject of ninth films in franchises, Universal have decided to move F9 back a month, so it will now premiere on June 25. This set up a clash between Vin Diesel and Tom Hardy, with Sony's Venom sequel due to drop on the same day. Realising they were sunk, Sony have moved Venom: Let There Be Carnage to September.

Universal weren't quite so kind to Minions: The Rise Of Gru, on the other hand; originally due to release on July 3 2020, it first got shunted to July 2 2021 and has now been shunted back another year, to July 1 2022.

Here are some of the current release dates at the moment, correct as of 26th March 2021. This only includes movies whose dates have changed since the last State of Play update (in January). 

2021

May 14     Spiral: From The Book Of Saw

May 28     Cruella (cinema and Disney+ Premier Access)

May 28     A Quiet Place Part II

June 18     Luca (Disney+ exclusive)

June 25     F9

July 9     Black Widow (cinema and Disney+ Premier Access)

July 9     The Forever Purge

August 13     Free Guy

September 3     Shang-Chi And The Legend Of The Ten Rings

September 17     Venom: Let There Be Carnage

December 22     The King's Man

2022

January 14     Deep Water

February 11     Death On The Nile

March 25     Doctor Strange In The Multiverse Of Madness

May 6     Thor: Love And Thunder

July 1     Minions: The Rise Of Gru

If/when (let's be honest, I think it'll be when) things change, we'll let you know. 

As Jerry Springer used to say: "Take care of yourselves and each other." 

Comicbook Movie Round-Up: April 2019 (Part 3)

In the third and final part of this round-up (aren't you glad I didn't do this in one post?), we take a look at what Sony has brewing in relation to its Marvel-adjacent movies and find out what's going on with the X-Men...

SONY

MORBIUS

As part of Sony's Universe of Marvel Characters (SUMC)- which started with Venom- there's going to be a film featuring Morbius The Living Vampire 

For those who need to know, Morbius The Living Vampire was introduced in the Spider-Man comics in 1971. Created by Roy Thomas and Gil Kane, Dr. Michael Morbius attempted to cure himself of a rare blood disease- with disastrous consequences. Well, if you will inject yourself with vampire-bat DNA...  Instead of a cure, he found a thirst for blood- as well as super strength, and fangs. Originally an antagonist, Morbius soon became a hero of sorts. 

Jared Leto is taking on the main role (probably another reason why he won't be reprising the Joker anytime soon), whilst erstwhile Time Lord Matt Smith and Sherlock Holmes: A Game Of Shadows' Jared Harris have also joined the cast, rumoured to be the villain Loxias Crown (who suffers the same disease as Morbius) and Morbius' mentor respectively. Adria Arjona (Pacific Rim: Uprising, Good Omens) and Tyrese Gibson (Transformers, Fast & Furious 5) are also due to star, with Arjona as Martine Bancroft- Morbius' love interest- and Gibson as an FBI agent who is after the living vampire. 

Daniel Espinosa (Safe House, Life) will direct, from a script by Burk Sharpless & Matt Samaza. The film is expected in July 2020.  

VENOM 2

Venom made a lot of money for Sony (with over $850m at the box office)- despite having about as much charm and wit as a sewage outlet- so it's pretty much a no-brainer that a sequel is in the works. Writer Kelly Marcel will return to write the screenplay. Given the brief scene with Woody Harrelson toward the end of the film, it's a pretty sure bet that any sequel will feature Cletus Kassady (a.k.a. Carnage). 

OTHER SUMC FILMS

There are rumours that a number of other films are being developed in this universe. 

Silk - a Korean-American heroine, Cindy Moon was also bitten by the radioactive spider that nipped Peter Parker, thus she also develops super-powers (organic webbing, Spidey-Sense etc). Asian-American actress Tiffany Espensen plays a character called Cindy in Spider-Man: Homecoming, which led fans to speculate that Silk may show up at some point. 

Kraven The Hunter - Sergei Kravinoff is a big-game hunter who has one major quarry whose head he wants to hang on his wall. No prizes for guessing that it's Spider-Man's. 

Mysterio - an illusionist who uses magic to pull of his criminal heists. There have been a number of people to use the 'Mysterio' name, but one of the best-known ones is Quentin Beck (who will be played by Jake Gyllenhaal in Spider-Man: Far From Home). 

Black Cat & Silver Sable - a previously announced film called Silver & Black which would focus on these two characters (Felicia Hardy and Silver Sablinova) has been dropped. But don't despair: apparently these two villainesses- anti-heroines?- will be getting their own standalone movies, with Black Cat (arguably the better known of the two characters) most likely to come first. Oscar-nominated actress Felicity Jones (The Theory Of Everything) played a character called Felicia in The Amazing Spider-Man 2 but the chances of her reprising the roe don't seem great. 

Jackpot - another nickname used by different people. Firstly, Sara Ehret who developed superhuman strength when exposed to the Lot 777 virus. When Sara wanted to return to a normal life, she sells her identity to Alana Jobson who uses the Mutant Growth Hormone to give herself invulnerability, super-strength and super-stamina

Nightwatch - originally featured in the comics in 1993, Nightwatch is the alter ego of African-American scientist Dr. Kevin Trench. Trench sees a costumed hero die whilst battling terrorists armed with cloaking devices. However, when he unmasks the dead man, Trench learns it was an older version of himself. Spike Lee has previously been attached to a Nightwatch movie for Sony, so whether he'll still take that on is unknown. 

So it looks as if Sony will be keeping itself busy if all of these films come to fruition!

Lastly, let's take a look at what Fox have going on, with the X-Men franchise...

X-MEN: DARK PHOENIX

As the merger between Disney and 21st Century Fox has now gone ahead, the X-Men are cleared to join the MCU. That won't be happening for a while, so X-Men: Dark Phoenix might be your last chance to see the X-Men on the big screen for a bit. Especially with what's going on with The New Mutants... (more on that below)

After not one, but two delays, pushing it back from November 2018 to February 2019 and then further, X-Men: Dark Phoenix will be hitting cinemas in June 2019. 

Set in the 1990s, X-Men: Dark Phoenix focuses on Jean Grey (Game Of Thrones' Sophie Turner) who starts to tap into the power of the Phoenix- but to what end? Well, if you've read the comic-books or you've seen the utter car-crash that is X-Men: The Last Stand, you know to what end: it involves people dying and wholesale destruction. 

James McAvoy, Michael Fassbender, Jennifer Lawrence, Nicholas Hoult, Alexandra Shipp, Tye Sheridan, Evan Peters, and Kodi Smit-McPhee are all back from previous X-Men movies- and are being joined by Jessica Chastain as the shapeshifter 'Smith' (having repeatedly shot down rumours that she's actually playing Shi'ar empress Lilandra Neramani)

Guess we've not got too much longer til we find out!

THE NEW MUTANTS

When one of the main cast of your well-publicised particularly troubled production bluntly comes out with 'Who knows when the f*** that's gonna come out?', the signs aren't good. Bit of an understatement, I know...

Starring Maisie Williams (she of the 'f*** knows' statement), Charlie Heaton, Anya Taylor-Joy, and Henry Zaga, the trailer for this horror-tinged hero-fest- featuring, as the title suggests, a new class of mutants- hit in October 2017 with a planned release date of April 2018. Due to a less-than-positive reaction to that initial trailer, the film's release was pushed back by nearly a year to February 2019.

More time to 'get it right'. More time for reshoots. More time to add a new character in. More time to ramp up the horror. More time to... well, we're not really sure. But then X:Men: Dark Phoenix got moved, and so did The New Mutants- to August 2019. That is still the case, apparently. However, there's been no sign of any reshoots but things are in the hands of the director, Josh Boone. But he's been quiet about it...

Co-producer Lauren Shuler Donner has even stated that, whilst she'd like to see The New Mutants make it to the big screen, she wasn't able to confirm that it would happen. It could end up on a streaming service (either Hulu or potentially Disney+, as The New Mutants was still included in Disney's release schedule that was announced at CinemaCon) but a decision would be made once the Fox/Disney merger went through. 

So, frankly, who knows?

ONE LAST THING...

This might be of cheer to fans of Deadpool. Fears that- following the Fox/Disney merger- the Merc With The Mouth wouldn't be a good fit for the House of Mouse should be allayed, when it was announced that there are plans to continue with the more adult style movies like Deadpool. 

Disney CEO Bob Iger confirming that they will 'continue in that business... there's certainly popularity with those type of films'. Iger also went on to say that any R-Rated fare would be 'carefully' branded so as not to confuse the consumer. 

Reynolds took to Twitter once the merger was completed with a true-to-form tweet:

Never change, Ryan.