Timothée Chalamet-led Bob Dylan biopic paused indefinitely

With its director wrapped up in a blockbuster project and pandemic protocols creating a number of challenges for some of its elements, the Timothée Chalamet-led Bob Dylan biopic has officially been put on hold indefinitely, according to Collider.

RELATED: Timothée Chalamet in Talks to Star in James Mangold’s Bob Dylan Biopic

In an interview for Netflix’s The Trial of the Chicago 7, director of photography Phedon Papamichael revealed that while he is reteaming with James Mangold (Ford v. Ferrari) for the upcoming Indiana Jones 5, he doesn’t believe the drama centered on the 12-time Grammy winner is “dead,” but rather is “a tough one to pull off in a COVID era because it’s all in small clubs with lots of extras in period costumes, so you’ve got lots of hair and makeup.” Despite this, however, Papamichael hasn’t confirmed whether talks are ongoing to outright cancel the project.

Going Electric will chronicle Bob Dylan’s rise in folk music and sudden transition to rock ‘n’ roll. The film will also see Dylan’s interaction with 1960s’ music legends which include Joan Baez, and Seeger. The Fox Searchlight-produced film includes the rights to the Pop Culture icon’s music rights and to author Elijah Wald’s book titled Dylan Goes Electric.

The film will be executive produced by Dylan along with Brian Kavanaugh-Jones and Andrew Rona. Jeff Rosen, who is Dylan’s longtime manager has also signed on as a producer with Mangold, Veritas Entertainment Group’s Bob Bookman, Alan Gasmer and Peter Jaysen, Automatik’s Fred Berger, and The Picture Company’s Alex Heineman also set to produce.

Chalamet recently starred as Laurie in Greta Gerwig’s film adaptation of Little Women and will next be seen in Denis Villeneuve’s star-studded epic sci-fi film Dune starring alongside Oscar Isaac, Rebecca Ferguson, and Zendaya. Chalamet is also part of the amazing ensemble cast for Wes Anderson’s forthcoming comedy-drama The French Dispatch.

RELATED: Bob Dylan Movie on the Way From Suspiria’s Luca Guadagnino

Coming off from the critical success of Ford v Ferrari, this project will mark Mangold’s second musical biopic as he first directed the award-wining 2005 Johnny Cash-June Carter biopic film Walk the Line starring Joaquin Phoenix and Reese Witherspoon. His other notable film credits include Girl, Interrupted, Kate & Leopold, and Logan with the latter earning him an Oscar nomination for Best Adapted Screenplay.

(Photo Credits: Getty Images)

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Evil Dead Rise: Bruce Campbell Offers New Update on Fifth Installment

In a recent interview with AL.com, franchise star and producer Bruce Campbell has shared new details on the upcoming fifth installment of Sam Raimi’s Evil Dead films, confirming that director Lee Cronin has completed his screenplay for Evil Dead Rise, describing it as a “modern-day urban Evil Dead.” He also revealed that they’ve already talked to a couple of potential partners and is hoping to start production next year.

“We’re honing-in, circling the building now trying to lock in a partner,” Campbell said. “We have a couple of bidders and we’re trying to just find the correct suitor and we have a script written and a director picked. Sam Raimi hand-picked a guy named Lee Cronin, who’s a very good Irish filmmaker. And it’s got a very good modern tale. It’s a modern-day urban “Evil Dead,” it’s called “Evil Dead Rise.” And we’re hoping to do that next year.”

He also went on to provide a brief description of the film’s female heroine. “What we’re doing now is we’re saying, Look, this is another ‘Evil Dead’ movie and that book gets around, a lot of people run into it and it’s another story,” Campbell continued. “The main key with “Evil Dead” is they’re just regular people who are battling what seems to be a very unstoppable evil, and so that’s where the horror comes from. It’s not someone who’s skilled. They’re not fighting a soldier. They’re not fighting a scientist. They’re not fighting anybody more than your average neighbor. This one is going to be a similar thing. We’re going to have a heroine, a woman in charge, and she’s going to try and save her family.”

RELATED: The Official Starz Halloween 2020 Lineup Revealed!

The next installment to the Evil Dead films will be written and directed by The Hole In The Ground filmmaker Lee Cronin, who was handpicked by franchise creator Sam Raimi. Campbell previously confirmed that the upcoming film won’t have any ties to the previous films and might again feature a female lead.

The Evil Dead franchise began with 1981’s The Evil Dead and was followed by 1987’s Evil Dead II and 1993’s Army of Darkness which were all written and directed by Sam Raimi and centered on Bruce Campbell’s Ash Williams. The original trilogy had amassed a massive cult following that spawn into video games, stage musicals, and a comedy horror series titled Ash vs. Evil Dead which ran on-air from 2015-2018. In 2013, the fourth installment to film franchise was introduced with Fede Alvarez’s 2013 soft reboot of Raimi’s 1981 film which now revolves around a female protagonist.

RELATED: Evil Dead’s Bruce Campbell Would to Like to Join Doctor Strange 2

Lee Cronin is an Irish filmmaker who made his feature-length directorial debut last year with the supernatural horror film The Hole in the Ground. He also recently collaborated with Raimi as he directed an episode of Quibi’s horror anthology series 50 States of Fright.

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Roland Emmerich’s Moonfall adds Donald Sutherland & Eme Ikwuakor

As shooting gets underway on the estimated $120 million sci-fi project, Roland Emmerich is expanding his already star-studded cast of Moonfall with the additions of Donald Sutherland (Ad Astra) and Eme Ikwuakor (Marvel’s Inhumans), according to Deadline.

RELATED: Stanley Tucci and John Bradley Join Roland Emmerich’s Moonfall

In Moonfall, a mysterious force knocks the Moon from its orbit around Earth and sends it hurtling on a collision course with life as we know it. With mere weeks before impact, and against all odds, a ragtag team launches an impossible last-ditch mission into space, leaving behind everyone they love and risking everything to land on the lunar surface and save our planet from annihilation.

The Emmy and Golden Globe winner will star as the gatekeeper of NASA’s secret archives, including the truth behind the Apollo moon landings in the early ’70s, and grapples with his conscience about whether to share this information with the world while Ikwuakor is set to play a high-ranking military officer who is also the estranged father to the son of and ex to Halle Berry’s NASA astronaut-turned-administrator.

The two join a cast that already includes Patrick Wilson (The Conjuring, Aquaman), John Bradley (Game of Thrones), Charlie Plummer (Spontaneous, Words on Bathroom Walls), Berry (John Wick: Chapter 3 — Parabellum) and Stanley Tucci (The Witches).

Directed by Emmerich, Moonfall begins production this fall in Montreal with a script written by Emmerich, his 2012 co-writer Harald Kloser, and Spenser Cohen. Emmerich is producing the independent feature film under his Centropolis Entertainment banner with Kloser producing through his company, Street Entertainment. Executive producers are Dennis Wang, James Wang, J.P. Pettinato, Marco Shepherd, Ute Emmerich, Carsten Lorenz, and Stuart Ford.

RELATED: Lionsgate Lands Rights to Roland Emmerich’s Sci-Fi Action Film Moonfall

Like last year’s #1 box office hit Midway, Emmerich and Centropolis are independently producing and financing Moonfall, overseeing all aspects of production, financing, delivery, and distribution and marketing in collaboration with Lionsgate, AGC International, and the film’s distribution partners around the world.

Moonfall is slated to be released theatrically by Lionsgate in North America in 2021.

(Photo Credits: Getty Images)

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Watched at Home: Top 20 Streaming Films for the Week of October 15

You did it, guys! After seven long months of tracking The Digital Entertainment Group’s Top 20, The Lord of the Rings trilogy finally cracked the list. Actually, Peter Jackson’s epic series swooped in like Shadowfax and fought its way into the Top 10, landing at No. 9. True, it wasn’t just Lord of the Rings … it took the entire Middle Earth 6-Film Collection, including the three Hobbit films, to upend the establishment. But, this is still a huge win for Team Frodo, especially after all of that Harry Potter love. (The boy wizard jumped all the way to No. 2 in case anyone was asking.)

RELATED: October 20 Blu-ray, Digital and DVD Releases

While the LOTR love was great, your love of all things Jason Voorhees is absolutely astounding. The hockey-mask donning killer presides over all as the Friday the 13th Collection — read: all 12 films! — slayed the competition and now stands as the No. 1 on the list. Truly remarkable. Also, no judgment.

Speaking of movie/TV collections, you couch potatoes also saw fit to binge Game of Thrones: The Complete Series (No. 15), Friends: The Complete Series (No. 11) and perhaps the greatest comedy show of all time — for the first four or five season anyway — The Office: The Complete Series (No. 5). You did good, people. You did real good.

1. The Friday the 13th Collection (Paramount, 12-film)
2. Harry Potter: Complete 8-Film Collection (Warner)
3. Ava (Vertical Entertainment, 2020)
4. Hocus Pocus (Disney)
5. The Office: The Complete Series 1-9 (Universal)
6. Yellowstone: S3 (Paramount)
7. Yellowstone: S1 (Paramount)
8. Yellowstone: S2 (Paramount)
9. Middle Earth 6-Film Collection: Theatrical (Warner)
10. Trolls World Tour (Universal)
11. Friends: The Complete Series 1-10 (Universal)
12. The Secret: Dare to Dream (Lionsgate)
13. Beetlejuice (Warner)
14. Batman: Death in the Family (Warner)
15. Game of Thrones: The Complete Series 1-8 (Warner)
16. The Phenomenon (1091)
17. Star Trek: Picard: S1 (Paramount)
18. Alone (Magnolia Pictures, 2020)
19. The Tax Collector (RLJ Entertainment)
20. The Nightmare Before Christmas (Disney)

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CS Recommends: Killdozer, Plus Other Classic Horror!

Stuck inside? Don’t know what to watch/read/play/listen to? ComingSoon.net has got you covered. In this week’s CS Recommends our staff kicks off gives you solid tips on the best media to consume during your downtime, including Killdozer and more! Check out our picks below!

RELATED: October 20 Blu-ray, Digital and DVD Releases

MAX EVRY’S RECOMMEND: Killdozer!

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The folks at Kino Lorber have put yet another classic 70’s made-for-TV gem on Blu-ray, this time it’s the horror flick Killdozer! Starring big hulking slab of a man Clint Walker, it’s one of those laughable concepts played dead-straight. Basically a malevolent alien entity crash lands on a remote island where a group of construction workers are isolated doing some kind of a something. The entity possesses one of their big yellow bulldozers and… well, you can probably guess. The kills are spectacular, Walker gives it 110% and never once lets the audience feel like he’s aware he’s in a silly piece of junk. Thus, the film somehow becomes elevated from “junk” to “awesome!” The supporting cast of this 1974 creature feature also includes Robert Urich and a most-definitely-not-sober Neville Brand. The new Blu-ray includes an audio commentary by Lee Gambin and Jarret Gahan, as well as an audio interview with director Jerry London!

KYLIE HEMMERT’S RECOMMEND: A Quiet Place

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John Krasinski’s horror directorial debut A Quiet Place will forever stand out among the best of the best in post-apocalyptic original genre storytelling. In the film’s terrifying new world, the story revolves around Krasinski’s Lee Abbott and wife Evelyn, played by Emily Blunt, who struggle to survive and keep their children safe while under constant threat from sightless extraterrestrial creatures who hunt by sound. The Oscar-nominated and massive box office hit delivers genuinely frightening sequences and a tense atmosphere that will have you holding your breath as you become invested in the fates of the Abbott family, each character played impeccably by the movie’s superbly talented cast. Flinching at even the slightest sound that you know spells almost certain doom, especially after witnessing a devastating tragedy that haunts the family, A Quiet Place will frazzle your nerves and break your heart as you eagerly wait along with the rest of us for next year’s follow-up.

GRANT HERMANNS RECOMMENDS: Doom

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Hollywood has tried time and again to get its finger on the pulse of the video game world with film adaptations of beloved properties and the results are infamously mixed, but one of the best attempts — even if it is somewhat a bad film — is the Karl Urban and The Rock-starring Doom. Based on id Software’s first-person shooter series, the film follows a group of Marines who are sent on a mission to a research facility on Mars to rescue people as genetically-mutated creatures have sieged the area.

As far as story goes, it does stray a lot from the games, which centered on an anonymous space marine facing waves of demons invading a facility on Mars but instead sees the group face off against mutated creatures birthed from experimentation more akin to the Resident Evil franchise, but aside from that and some cringeworthy dialogue, the rest of the film is a blast and solid translation. The action is well-executed and nicely blends CGI and practical effects, the musical score rocks hard just like those of the games and the cast are all pretty great in their roles, especially a rare antagonistic Rock and always-excellent Urban. Plus the more we talk about the first-person shooting sequence of the film, the better, because it’s an expertly designed and shot section that should get any game fan giddy the second it starts.

MAGGIE DELA PAZ’S RECOMMEND: Master’s Sun (South Korean Series)

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Directed by Jin Hyuk from a script written by acclaimed South Korean writing duo The Hong Sisters, Master’s Sun follows the story of Tae Gong-shil, who’s trying her best to live a normal life after waking up from a 3-year long coma that changed the course of her life forever. However, starting a brand new life proves to be difficult for Gong-shil as waking up resulted in her mysteriously gaining the ability to see ghosts. Because of this, she finds herself getting terrorized by ghosts every day which made it hard for her to keep a normal job, especially when a ghost sometimes tries to possess her body. Weirdly, the only way she can get rid of the ghosts is when she touches Joong-won, the cold and narcissistic CEO of a popular mall chain who Gong-shil meets during one fateful stormy night. As Joong-won discovers Gong-shil’s ability, he finds value in it by enlisting her help in hopes of communicating with his dead girlfriend, who betrayed him and stole his beloved mother’s diamond necklace when they were young.

Master’s Sun is a 17-episode horror romantic comedy that earned acclaim from South Korea’s award-giving bodies following its broadcast run in 2013. I highly recommend this show because it featured a delightful and entertaining storyline for a genre that I’ve always been a fan of. What I also love the most about the series is its perfect mix of horror and comedy that was also well-combined with heartfelt scenes that reflect real-life societal problems. On top of its great story, the series was led by two powerhouse talents, So Ji-Sub and Gong Hyo-jin whose dynamic chemistry and individual performances further proved their status as two of South Korea’s top actors.

Even though Joong-won is a self-centered and ambitious guy, I guarantee that viewers will still be able to root for him through the character’s unusual but charming quirks and straight-forward jabs that were perfectly portrayed by So Ji Sub. Meanwhile, Gong Hyo-jin’s convincing portrayal of a troubled and awkward woman, who at the same time is thoughtful and courageous in the face of injustice and horror was also equally impressive to watch. I’m a fan of both of their other works and will definitely recommend them here in the future.

JEFF AMES’ RECOMMEND: The Blair Witch Project

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This weekend I watched The Blair Witch Project for just the second time since its release in 1999. Let me tell ya, it actually holds up remarkably well. Particularly when compared to the legion of found-footage movies released in the intervening years. That’s because The Blair Witch Project actually feels real, mostly due to its low budget, shotty (and cheap) camera work, terrific sound design, and the improvisational quality of its three lead actors. Sure, the premise remains gimmicky, the results, perhaps, more bizarre than scary; and that ending still feels a little too perfect for a film striving for out-and-out realism.

Nonetheless, The Blair Witch Project works as a stranger-than-fiction tale that relies on the viewer’s imagination to construct the various creatures, demons, and witches lurking in the forest just beyond the light. Some balk at this approach. I say, as we saw with the underrated sequel, The Blair Witch, in 2016, no amount of blood, jump scares or amazing creature FX can top the darkness rolling inside our own heads. The Blair Witch Project makes for one hell of an intense therapy session.

ComingSoon.net recommends all readers comply with CDC guidelines and remain as isolated as possible and to wear your mask during this urgent time.

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Warner Bros. taps Ben Wheatley to helm The Meg sequel

After swimming its way to over $530 million worldwide in 2018, Warner Bros. announced early development on a follow-up to its monster shark movie The Meg and now the studio is getting the wheels turning as they’ve landed Ben Wheatley (Rebecca) to helm the sequel, according to The Hollywood Reporter.

RELATED: Alicia Vikander Hopes to Begin Production on Tomb Raider Sequel in 2021

Most of the talent from the box office smash original are expected to return for the sequel, including star Jason Statham (Hobbs & Shaw), who sources report is involved in the creative development of the film, as well as scribes Jon and Erich Hoeber and Dean Georgaris, the duo having written the most recent draft while all three received credit on the first film.

The sequel, reportedly being based off the second novel in Steven Alten’s best-selling series of the same name The Meg: The Trench, will once again be produced by Lorenzo di Bonaventura and Belle Avery, with Catherine Ying, Li Ruigang, E. Bennett Walsh, Gerald Molen and Randy Greenberg attached to executive produce.

Click here to purchase the 2018 blockbuster action pic!

In the first film, a deep-sea submersible—part of an international undersea observation program—has been attacked by a massive creature, previously thought to be extinct, and now lies disabled at the bottom of the deepest trench in the Pacific…with its crew trapped inside. With time running out, expert deep-sea rescue diver Jonas Taylor (Jason Statham) is recruited by a visionary Chinese oceanographer (Winston Chao), against the wishes of his daughter Suyin (Li Bingbing), to save the crew—and the ocean itself—from this unstoppable threat: a pre-historic 75-foot-long shark known as the Megalodon.

What no one could have imagined is that years before, Taylor had encountered this same terrifying creature. Now, teamed with Suyin, he must confront his fears and risk his own life to save everyone trapped below…bringing him face to face once more with the greatest and largest predator of all time.

RELATED: Jon M. Chu Tapped to Helm Willow Series With Davis & Howard Returning!

John Turteltaub (National Treasure) directed the film from a screenplay by Dean Georgaris and Jon Hoeber & Erich Hoeber, based on the New York Times best-selling book by Steve Alten.

(Photo Credit: Barry King/Getty Images)

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CS Video: Synchronic Interview With Justin Benson & Aaron Moorhead

After getting the chance to catch the mind-bending sci-fi pic at Beyond Fest, ComingSoon.net got the opportunity to chat with co-directors/writer Justin Benson and Aaron Moorhead to discuss their latest project Synchronic, which is now available in select theaters! Our interview can be viewed in the player below!

RELATED: [Beyond Fest] Synchronic Review: A Mesmerizing Albeit Heavy-Handed Trip

In Synchronic, when New Orleans paramedics and longtime best friends Steve and Dennis are called to a series of bizarre, gruesome accidents, they chalk it up to the mysterious new party drug found at the scene. But after Dennis’s oldest daughter suddenly disappears, Steve stumbles upon a terrifying truth about the supposed psychedelic that will challenge everything he knows about reality—and the flow of time itself.

The film stars Anthony Mackie (Altered Carbon, The Falcon and the Winter Soldier) as Steve, Jamie Dornan (The Fall, Fifty Shades of Grey trilogy) as Dennis, Ally Ioannides (Parenthood) as Brianna, and Katie Aselton (Legion) as Tara.

RELATED: CS Interview: Writer/Director/Star Jim Cummings on The Wolf of Snow Hollow

Synchronic is co-directed by Justin Benson and Aaron Moorhead (The Endless, Spring) from a screenplay written by Benson. The mind-bending, time-traveling sci-fi thriller is now available in select theaters from Well Go USA Entertainment.

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CS Interview: Ryan Spindell & Clancy Brown on The Mortuary Collection

ComingSoon.net recently got the opportunity to chat with writer/director Ryan Spindell (50 States of Fright) and Clancy Brown (Promising Young Woman) to discuss their work on the horror-comedy anthology The Mortuary Collection, which is now available to stream on Shudder! Our interview can be viewed in the player below!

RELATED: CS Video: Books of Blood Interview With Brannon Braga & Clive Barker

The Mortuary Collection is the feature debut from writer/director Spindell, who also contributed to Quibi and Sam Raimi’s celebrated 50 States of Fright, and stars beloved character actor Clancy Brown, widely recognized as one of the most prolific and versatile performers in Hollywood, and best known for his roles in Highlander, The Shawshank Redemption, Starship Troopers as well as Brother Justin Crowe on HBO’s Carnivàle, Kelvin Inman on ABC’s Lost and as the voice of Mr. Krabs in SpongeBob SquarePants.

Click here to watch the horror-comedy anthology!

In the town of Raven’s End, nothing is as it seems… Desperate for work, a young drifter (Caitlin Fisher) applies for a job at the local mortuary on the outskirts of town. There she meets Montgomery Dark, (Brown) an eccentric mortician with more than a few skeletons in his closet. Montgomery chronicles the strange history of the town through a series of twisted tales, each more terrifying than the last. But the drifter’s world becomes unhinged when she discovers that the final story is her own!

The film also stars Fisher (Teen Wolf), Jacob Elordi (Euphoria), Barak Hardley (Spell), Sarah Hey (Braid) and Christine Kilmer. The Mortuary Collection is produced by Spindell, Allison Friedman and T. Justin Ross with special effects from the Academy Award Winning company Amalgamated Dynamics, Inc., who worked on Tremors, Death Becomes Her, Starship Troopers and many more!

RELATED: CS Video: Scare Me Interview With Writer/Director/Star Josh Ruben

The Mortuary Collection is now available to stream on Shudder!

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BEGIN SLIDESHOW

CS Interview: Director Ben Wheatley on adapting Rebecca

ComingSoon.net got the opportunity to chat with acclaimed director Ben Wheatley (Free Fire) to discuss his work adapting Daphne du Maurier’s Rebecca starring Armie Hammer (Death on the Nile) and Lily James (Baby Driver), which is now available to stream on Netflix!

RELATED: Rebecca Trailer: Lily James & Armie Hammer in Netflix’s Gothic Drama

ComingSoon.net: Rebecca is such an iconic novel and obviously Hitchcock made it into a film as well. But what about it drove you to want to try your own hand at it?

Ben Wheatley: I think it was — I read the Jane Goldman script and really enjoyed it, and I fell for all the twists in the script. I was surprised by that because I thought I knew it inside and out and I kind of didn’t. I’d seen the film and read the book, so that confused me, you know? I figured that — what’s happened with Rebecca is that it’s become like a kind of, this cultural touchstone and it casts such a long shadow that it’s kind of become part of the furniture, almost. There’s elements of it that are just completely misremembered, and I figured that if I’d misremembered it, then that’s something maybe that a modern audience would have a similar reaction. I talked to a few people about it, and everyone was going, “Oh yeah, I remember Rebecca, it’s just slightly, such a beautiful romance, you know?” And you’re like, “Yeah, kind of. Not really, though. For a little bit.” I think that’s the thing, and when I re-read it, what I really loved about it was that thing of like, du Maurier had this scheme of it felt to me like she had this idea that she was basically trolling, and she was just going to, oh, I’m going to do this romance novel and then ruin all other romance novels for all time for everybody, you know? Like taking the perfect guy who’s like this widower in this amazing house with loads of money, and then turning him into absolute swine, you know? And now on top of that, I’m going to then implicate the audience in on this as well, so that by the time you get to the end of the book, you’re kind of cheering and going, oh yeah, that’s brilliant. You’ve never loved Rebecca anyway and she’s dead and they can be together.

Then, you know, depending, the other shoe drops you go, “Oh Christ. But their whole happiness is like, basically built on a dead woman’s corpse, you know?” We’ve only got Maxim de Winter’s word for how it happened or for any of the reasons of the circumstances of it, which are all kind of very dubious, you know? So that kind of drew me into it, and the fact that it’s like the blueprint for kind of all thrillers. Yet, it’s still bolder than a lot of thrillers that come out, that are done today, in the fact that at the heart of it, there is this kind of moral kind of conundrum of how far are you prepared to go for your partner. How much is love worth? It’s a thriller that will take characters who are morally repugnant and not punish them. You know, most things don’t have the balls to do that, and Rebecca does.

CS: So then in building your cast, I mean, you have such a nice blend of both American and English actors, albeit the Americans are playing English characters. What was it like for you seeking out everybody for their specific roles?

BW: I mean, obviously there’s a long history of British actors playing American, and I’m always surprised about it. You know, I remember when I didn’t realize that Idris Elba was English until I looked him up on IMDb when I was watching The Wire and went, “Whoa? What’s that?” [laughs]. You know, and that’s always really fascinating to me, that. To step back the other way for Armie Hammer to come and play an Englishman was great, and also, he’s got massive stones to do that, because I don’t think there’s anything more snooty than a British crew for listening to accents, you know? But he pulled it off. I mean, for me, what I loved about Armie, or what I do love about Armie is that he’s this kind of man out of time, you know? He’s like a 1940s matinee idol, almost the last of the matinee idols. So we needed that for the beginning of the film, to make it make sense in terms of like, the romance of the story. Basically, the structure of the film is what I’m characterizing as the other one falls, you know? So, as Lily James has to play becoming stronger, Armie Hammer has to kind of crumble into dust, effectively, you know? So with Lily, it was, yeah, that was the main thing of like, I mean, one of the great things about Lily is that she’s so likable. So the audience will follow her to the end of the world, which is fantastic. But she also then has a kind of complicated craft, challenge of playing this role, which is very kind of paranoid and nervous and kind of — but then not playing it too nervous because it becomes irritating or not playing it too strong because then it breaks the story. So there’s a lot of work that went into that. With Kristin Scott Thomas it was more that we were looking at a kind of more rounded Danvers, and so, it needed someone who could play the authority and kind of sternness of Danvers, but also like the vulnerability and the kind of emotion of this new version of her. So you know, with someone as skilled as Kristin, it was that you had to be someone of that kind of caliber to pull it off, I think.

CS: So you’ve done plenty of period pieces before, but what was it like building the immaculate period setting for this one? 

BW: Yeah, I mean, the toy box of filmmaking, when you get to do period stuff and you get to be on large sets with large amounts of extras in costume is magic. It’s a great privilege and you get to look around and you feel like you’ve almost time traveled, and it feels like filmmaking, in a way, and that’s a big buzz. It’s not everything, but it is a big buzz and you kind of go — for me it’s when they get the period cars out. I’m like, “Yeah, come on. That’s great to see them.” Also that level of filmmaking is the control over the image that you have, right down to every tiny prop and everything means something, everything is structured in a certain way. So it’s kind of — yeah, it’s a great pleasure.

CS: What would you say were some of your biggest creative challenges, bringing this story to life for a new audience?

BW: I mean, finding Manderley itself was tricky because we felt that it was something that de Maurier had imagined. When you read the biographies about de Maurier, the house itself is a memory of a house that she visited as a child. So when it’s described in the book, it feels like it’s much bigger than a normal house would be. And I think that’s because it’s from a child’s perspective. So that meant that the house itself was very — we were never going to find that house because it didn’t exist. You know, it couldn’t exist. So it was made from the best bits of many, many British houses. And then that became — so that was at the center of it, at the beginning of the whole hunt for the making of the film was to find Manderley, and then we quickly realized we were going to have to make it out of lots of parts. And then the knock on that was a lot of complicated production challenges to get that right. But I guess the rest of it is kind of, is how you bring to screen a novel which is in the first person effectively. Do you slavishly translate the novel directly to screen? Or I mean, and what we found was there seems to be a gap between what the main character is saying and what she’s doing that suggests that what she’s saying to us isn’t necessarily true. So that gives you a license to change the books to a degree, but to try to chase the essence of the book, rather than if you absolutely translate what she said on the page, then you might miss the action point of the book.  Do you see what I mean? So finding that level was complicated.

CS: Well, it comes across very well on the screen. So, I mean, since you mentioned the mansion, it’s such a beautifully shot location. Where was that exactly?

BW: Well, it was like, six different places. Hatfield House is one of them, and Loseley House, there was about four or five places across the UK. So the front of the house was somewhere else and some of the bedroom was one place. Rebecca’s bedroom was a set, that was a build and the boathouse itself was a build as well. So it was a mixture of lots of different places.

CS: Which would you say was your favorite to film amongst all the locations?

BW: Well, the curse of filmmaking is that you go to places that are really beautiful and then you have to be under a massive amount of stress and misery as you make stuff there, so you don’t really get to enjoy any of it. So because we shot the first 20 minutes of the film in the south of France, which you think would be amazing and all the catering was incredible and blah, blah, blah, which is true. But then you’re there and they say “it’s location not vacation.” So you’re there in the beautiful weather just terrified that you’re not going to shoot all the stuff that you need to shoot. So I think I probably would enjoy it, if I wasn’t filming now. I’d have to go back and kind of sit in a sun lounger, you know?

CS: What was it also like working with Netflix for this one? I mean, you’ve worked with a lot of indie studios, but this is really your first time with streaming services, off the top of my head.

BW: Well, kind of. I mean, A Field in England was done with Film4, that was the one that had the kind of multi-release, so it was in the cinema and free on TV at the same time, like an all-platform release. The last film, Colin Burstead, was done through BBC. So again, it was like a limited release and then straight onto the screen. So it’s not that unusual to me to have done it like this. What’s different is the scale of it, you know, like Netflix being massive and it’s the first experience of kind of a Hollywood studio style kind of production and the layers of executives and that whole kind of way of working, and I really enjoyed it. One of the main things that attracted me to the whole project was to get to that bigger audience, and as much as it’s brilliant fun making indie films and talking to the indie audience, to get to the big mainstream audience is a big treat.

CS: So how do you feel about it coming to audiences in both select theaters and on Netflix with everything that’s kind of going on right now with people still at home and such?

BW: Yeah, I mean, it’s a miserable time, and it would be awful of me to say anything that’s meant I had an advantage from this terrible time, you know what I mean? But the fact that it’s not a compromise for us that it’s going straight onto Netflix. That’s how it was always designed. If there’d been no COVID, that’s what would’ve happened, and the limited release, there would’ve been more expectation for it, but it wouldn’t have been any bigger than it is going to be for the way we’re doing at the moment. So you know, I think that side of it is — I mean, personally, I’m starved for content. I want to see stuff. I’m looking at it and going, “What’s dropping?” There’s nothing dropping. The VOD stuff ran out six months ago, didn’t it? And it’s really just kind of very vague stuff that’s just once in a blue moon, you know?

CS: So now that you’ve got another film in the can and coming to audiences, do you have anything in the works for when everything starts getting back to normal?

BW: Yeah, I wrote a film during lockdown and then shot it. So we shot a feature a couple of months ago, which was more like a back to basics in the woods kind of horror movie. So that was brilliant. You know, it’s great to get out of the house. Great to do some work. Very excited about that film. But I think that’ll be the patent of how I work from going forward, hopefully from larger projects back to smaller projects, backwards and forwards, because I enjoy low budget as much as I enjoy doing the big budget stuff. And you know, just to be making films is an incredible treat. So that’s kind of where it’s at. And I think there’s something weird about — it’s going to be a very odd time coming up for cinema, and it’s not just about the cinema chains and the exhibition and all that stuff. It’s more about what the actual content of the stories is going to be and how films, stories that made sense seven months ago maybe won’t make any sense anymore, and what our appetites are for what kind of narratives we want to see. I certainly had stuff in development that was about zombies and stuff, and that’s all just gone. No one wants to know about that. I think you should pack the zombie film away for a good decade after what we’ve just been through.

RELATED: CS Video: All Together Now Director & Cast Talk Netflix Movie Adaptation

The film co-stars Kristin Scott Thomas, Keeley Hawes, Ann Dowd, Sam Riley, Tom Goodman-Hill, Mark Lewis Jones, John Hollingworth and Bill Paterson.

After a whirlwind romance in Monte Carlo with handsome widower Maxim de Winter (Armie Hammer), a newly married young woman (Lily James) arrives at Manderley, her new husband’s imposing family estate on a windswept English coast. Naive and inexperienced, she begins to settle into the trappings of her new life, but finds herself battling the shadow of Maxim’s first wife, the elegant and urbane Rebecca, whose haunting legacy is kept alive by Manderley’s sinister housekeeper Mrs. Danvers (Kristin Scott Thomas).

Directed by Wheatley (High Rise, Free Fire) and produced by Eric Fellner, Tim Bevan and Nira Park of Working Title Films (Emma, Darkest Hour), Rebecca features a screenplay by Jane Goldman and Joe Shrapnel & Anna Waterhouse.

Rebecca is now available to stream on Netflix!

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Zack Snyder’s Justice League: Joe Manganiello Reprising Deathstroke for Reshoots

Following Jared Leto’s surprising return as Joker in Zack Snyder’s Justice League, Collider brings word that another casting addition has been made for the long-awaited Snyder Cut with Joe Manganiello set to reprise his role as Slade Wilson a.k.a. Deathstroke. His return for the reshoots might potentially indicate that Deathstroke will now have a much longer screen time, compared to his brief appearance during the post-credits scene in 2017’s Justice League. Manganiello and Leto will reportedly be joining Ben Affleck, Ray Fisher, and Amber Heard for the four-episode HBO Max miniseries’ reshoots that are currently underway.

RELATED: Kevin Costner Will Neither Confirm Nor Deny Appearance in the Snyder Cut

Zack Snyder’s Justice League will reportedly cost around $70 million in order to properly finish the editing and visual effects of the director’s original vision, as well as the additional photography. The original post-production crew is also expected to return along with the cast members to record additional dialogue for the cut. 

It was revealed at DC FanDome that the movie will release on HBO Max in 2021 by being broken up into four one-hour parts that will also be released as one four-hour film.

Fueled by the hero’s restored faith in humanity and inspired by Superman’s selfless act, Justice League sees Bruce Wayne enlist the help of his newfound ally, Diana Prince, to face an even greater enemy. Together, Batman and Wonder Woman work quickly to find and recruit a team of metahumans to stand against this newly awakened threat. But despite the formation of this unprecedented league of heroes—Batman, Wonder Woman, Aquaman, Cyborg, and The Flash—it may already be too late to save the planet from an assault of catastrophic proportions.

Justice League, which features a screenplay from Chris Terrio from a story by Snyder and Terrio, stars Ben Affleck as Batman, Henry Cavill as Superman, Gal Gadot as Wonder Woman, Jason Momoa as Aquaman, Ezra Miller as The Flash, Ray Fisher as Cyborg, Willem Dafoe as Nuidis Vulko, Jesse Eisenberg as Lex Luthor, Jeremy Irons as Alfred Pennyworth, Diane Lane as Martha Kent, Connie Nielsen as Queen Hippolyta, with J.K. Simmons as Commissioner Gordon, and Amy Adams as Lois Lane.

RELATED: Joe Manganiello Talks Original Deathstroke Post Credit Scene

Released in November 2017, the film earned mixed reviews from critics and audiences alike, praising the action and performances from Gadot and Miller while criticizing every other aspect of the film, namely the inconsistent tone that many fault Joss Whedon (The Avengers) for after taking over directorial duties from Snyder. With a large budget of $300 million and a break-even point of $750 million, the film is considered a box office bomb having grossed only $658 million.

The post Zack Snyder’s Justice League: Joe Manganiello Reprising Deathstroke for Reshoots appeared first on ComingSoon.net.