Casting News
Oscar-nominee Stanley Tucci has been forced to step down from the role of car dealer Tom Lopez in Roland Emmerich’s upcoming Moonfall because of government-imposed travel restrictions on flights from the UK into Canada. Taking over from Tucci is Michael Peña (Ant Man), playing the role of car dealer Tom Lopez. Joining Peña are Carolina Bartczak (X-Men: Apocalypse) as Lopez’s wife Brenda, Maxim Roy (Bad Blood) as a veteran Army officer, and Stephen Bogaert (The Umbrella Academy) as the director of NASA. The ensemble cast already includes Halle Berry, Patrick Wilson, John Bradley, Eme Ikwuakor, Charlie Plummer, and Donald Sutherland.
The movie starts with a mysterious force knocking the Moon out of orbit and sending it on a collision course with Earth. Naturally, a ragtag team is sent on an Armageddon-style mission to save Life As We Know It. The Centropolis-produced Moonfall is slated for theatrical release in 2022.
And speaking of astronomical disasters, Chris Evans has joined the cast of Adam McKay’s upcoming satirical asteroid movie. Don’t Look Up, which is being produced for Netflix, already includes A-listers such as Jennifer Lawrence and Leonardo DiCaprio, who play two astronomers trying to warn people about the potential disaster, along with Meryl Streep, Timothée Chalamet, Cate Blanchett, Jonah Hill, Ariana Grande, Himesh Patel, Kid Cudi, Tomer Sisley, and Matthew Perry.
Netflix acquired the movie from Paramount in February 2020, and filming is underway in Boston. No word yet on a release date.
Home Video News
Sony Pictures Home Entertainment is releasing Roland Emmerich’s classic 2012 on 4K Ultra HD on January 19. This version of the apocalyptic movie—which features John Cusack, Chiwetel Ejiofor, Amanda Peet, Danny Glover, and Woody Harrelson—should highlight every last detail of the collapsing cities and shifting continents affecting our protagonists.
Bonus features on the 4K disc include Dolby Atmos sound and the Discovery Channel’s 2012 Apocalypse featurette. Bonus features on Blu-ray include five featurettes on filming the movie; deleted scenes; an alternate ending; an interactive Mayan calendar; Picture-in-Picture: Roland’s Vision; feature commentary; and an Adam Lambert music video.
New Movie News
Dutch company Revolver Amsterdam has announced plans for a film based on an actual air disaster. Malaysian Airlines Flight 17 was on its way from Amsterdam to Kuala Lumpur when it was shot down by a missile over eastern Ukraine on July 17, 2014. All 283 passengers and 15 crew members were killed.
Revolver will be adapting A.F.Th. van der Heijden’s novel Mooi Doodliggen (Play Dead), which is set in 2018 during a tumultuous meeting of the UN Security Council dedicated to the plane crash. Dutch filmmaker Rolf van Eijk (My Foolish Heart) and screenwriter Roelof Jan Minneboo (Pomegranate Orchard) are attached to develop the project.
The MH17 disaster is etched in our national memory, a national trauma. Making a film about this is not an easy task, but A.F. Th. Van der Heijden’s novel turned out to be the perfect foundation. It paints a striking and highly topical picture of a political world where everyone is a victim. A story that gets under the skin, about fake news, deception and the eternal search for the truth.” — producers Germen Boelens and Raymond van der Kaaij
Release Date News
Unlike most movies that are being delayed because of the pandemic, Godzilla vs. Kong has had its release date moved up 2 months. Warner Bros. will now send the movie to theaters and HBO Max on March 26, 2021.
According to Variety, production company Legendary Entertainment had threatened to take legal action against Warner Bros. over their decision to send all of their 2021 movies to HBO Max the day they debut in theaters. The two companies appear to have resolved their differences, however. In any event, it will be difficult for the movie to turn a profit on domestic ticket sales alone, given its cost of $160 million. Legendary retained the international rights to the movie, which may be to its benefit—monster movies tend to do well in Asia, and HBO Max isn’t available outside the U.S.
Godzilla vs. Kong is the fourth entry in Legendary’s MonsterVerse, after 2004’s Godzilla, 2017’s Kong: Skull Island, and 2019’s Godzilla: King of the Monsters. The upcoming crossover event—directed by Adam Wingard and featuring Alexander Skarsgard, Millie Bobby Brown, Rebecca Hall, and Brian Tyree Henry—will set the titanic monsters against each other in, what else?, an epic battle.
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