The first redband trailer for Kraven the Hunter, featuring the 32-year-old Afro-Puerto Rican Oscar-winning actress, has been released.
The film stars Aaron Taylor-Johnson in the story of an epic journey that leads Sergei Kravinoff to become one of Marvel’s most iconic villains.
DeBose stars are Calypso, a voodoo priestess and Kraven’s love interest.
In the comics, Kraven has encountered Venom, Black Panther and many others as well as served as one of Spider-Man’s best-known and most-formidable enemies.
Weakness is not tolerated, as the future Kraven is told repeatedly. Suffice it to say that eventually is not a problem.
In addition to Taylor-Johnson and DeBose, the film also stars Russell Crowe, Fred Hechinger, Alessandro Nivola and Christopher Abbott.
Sony Pictures’ first R-rated pic from its litany of Marvel characters is directed by J.C. Chandor from a screenplay by Art Marcum & Matt Holloway and Richard Wenk.
The studio opens the film wide in theaters on October 6, after originally being slated for January 13 this year.
Aubrey Plaza is makin’ time for her (animal) friends…
The 38-year-old half-Puerto Rican actress has joined the all-star cast of Legendary’s forthcoming film Animal Friends.
Combining live-action and animated characters, the project hails from writing duo Kevin Burrows and Matt Mider.
In addition to Plaza, the film will also star Ryan Reynolds, Jason Momoa and Vince Vaughn.
Plot details for the project, described as an R-rated road trip adventure, are being kept under wraps. Emmy-winning director Peter Atencio is at the helm.
The idea for the film came from a general meeting between Burrows & Mider and Patrick Gooing, an executive at Reynolds’ production company, Maximum Effort. Producing alongside Legendary are Maximum Effort and Namit Malhotra’s Prime Focus Studios. Visual effects and animation will be provided by leading visual entertainment services company, DNEG.
Plaza is coming off one of the strongest years of her career, having generated major heat with her starring turn alongside Will Sharpe, Meghann Fahy and Theo James in the second season of Mike White’s HBO smash The White Lotus, for which she was recognized with a Golden Globe nomination. The SAG Award winner also recently notched Independent Spirit and Gotham Award nominations for her lead turn in John Patton Ford’s acclaimed indie crime thriller, Emily the Criminal, which she produced under her Evil Hag Productions banner.
She recently wrapped production on Francis Ford Coppola’s sci-fi epic Megalopolisand is currently shooting a role in Disney+’s Marvel series Agatha: Coven of Chaos.
The 43-year-old Brazilian actress will reprise her role as Vanessa for Marvel’s new Deadpool sequel, starring Ryan Reynolds.
Stefan Kapicic will also reprise his role as Colossus.
Reynolds recently announced Karan Soni and Leslie Uggams will also return as Dopinder and Blind Al, who like Vanessa and Colossus appeared in the first two films.
They join Reynolds, Hugh Jackman and the newest cast additions Emma Corrin and Matthew Macfadyen.
Shawn Levy will direct the filn, with Paul Wernick and Rhett Reese returning to pen the script along with Zeb Wells. Wendy Molyneux and Lizzie Molyneux-Logelin wrote a previous draft. Marvel Studios president Kevin Feige will join Reynolds and Levy as producers.
This will mark the first Deadpool film in which Marvel Studios will work hand in hand with Reynolds and Team Deadpool. Feige’s involvement comes after he helped revamp the Spider-Man franchise when he came on to help in the creative effort for that Sony series.
The 31-year-old Puerto Rican Grammy-winning singer, songwriter and actor and Dominique Fishback have been set to receive the Rising Stars of the Year Award at CinemaCon 2023.
The Transformers: Rise of the Beastsstars will receive the recognition from NATO’s official convention at its Big Screen Achievement Awards ceremony, which takes place at The Colosseum at Caesars Palace in Las Vegas the night of April 27.
They join a list of honorees that also includes Oppenheimer‘s Christopher Nolan & Emma Thomas (NATO Spirit of the Industry Award), the cast of Lionsgate’s Joy Ride(Comedy Ensemble of the Year Award) and the Dune franchise’s Zendaya (Star of the Year Award).
The new Steven Caple Jr.-helmed Transformers film set for release in theaters June 9 hails from Paramount Pictures and Skydance, in association with Hasbro and New Republic Pictures.
It’s billed as a globetrotting adventure transporting audiences back to the ’90s alongside the iconic Autobots, which also introduces a brand-new faction of Transformers, the Maximals, to join them as allies in the ongoing battle for Earth.
Ramos’ and Fishback’s human characters participating in that fight are tech wiz Noah Diaz and museum artifact researcher Elena Wallace, respectively.
“With a breadth of experience across theater, television and film, Anthony Ramos and Dominique Fishback will undoubtedly captivate audiences as they take on their first action-packed franchise film in this summer’s Transformers: Rise of the Beasts,” CinemaCon managing director Mitch Neuhauser said. “We are thrilled to be honoring these two talented individuals with this year’s CinemaCon Rising Stars of the Year Award.”
A Grammy winner, as well as a Golden Globe and Emmy nominee, Ramos is best known for originating the roles of John Laurens and Philip Hamilton in the Tony-winning Broadway smash Hamilton, and for leading Warner Bros’ feature adaptation of Lin-Manuel Miranda’s other famed musicalIn the Heights. He’s also previously been seen in films like Godzilla: King of the MonstersandA Star Is Born, along with series including She’s Gotta Have It andIn Treatment. Other upcoming projects include the films DistantandDumb Money, as well as the Disney+ Marvel series Iron Heart.
Guillermo del Toro is inching closer to his next live-action film…
The 58-year-old Mexican history-making Academy Award winner is thisclose to finalizing a deal to write and direct the film Frankenstein, with Andrew Garfield, Oscar Isaac and Mia Goth in early talks to star in del Toro’s next Netflix project.
Insiders close to the film caution that del Toro is still working on the script and no formal offers have given to any actors. But sources add that he has has met with all three, and each is on board to star.
No comment from Netflix.
del Toro has been developing the Frankenstein project for some time and long has wanted to make a movie centered on the iconic Mary Shelley story. It is unknown whether his version would be a period pic or set in modern times. Also unknown is who would be playing Doctor Frankenstein or his creation; it is believed Goth would be playing the doctor’s love interest.
Even in its early days, del Toro seems to be pulling together an ensemble as on fire as any in town.
Isaac continues to be busy as he is coming off his Emmy-nominated work in HBO’s Scenes from a Marriage and the Marvel limited series Moon Knight. He was also recently tapped to play Kurt Vonnegut in the limited series Helltown.
The 69-year-old half-Spanish English actor will star in the indie dramedy When We Get There, the feature debut of writer-director Ryan Patrick Welsh.
Mindy Sterling and William Katt are also set, with newcomers Chris Heeder, Jamie Lien and Alek Kristopher rounding out the cast.
Co-directed by Justin Giddings, When We Get There tells the story of brothers Cal (Heeder) and Ty (Kristopher), who embark on a cross-country trek to meet the father they’ve never known, and the only family they have left. Along with Cal’s long-term girlfriend Ellie (Lien) and a new guitar named Stevie, the trio are forced to navigate uncertain futures on a 2000-mile journey in a car on its last leg. Along the way they discover what, and who, it’s worth showing up for.
Molina portrays Ellie’s abrasive but lovable father Marcus, with Sterling and Katt as Florence and Bob, two vagabond campers the kids meet along the way.
Molina recently reprised his Marvel role as evil genius Doc Ock in Sony’s Tom Holland-led blockbuster Spider-Man: No Way Home, which grossed over $1.9B worldwide, having first played the role opposite Tobey Maguire in 2004’s Spider-Man 2.
He also recently led the Prime Video mystery series Three Pines and has additionally been seen on such series as Angie Tribeca, Feud and Show Me a Hero, to name a few.
The Golden Globe and two-time Emmy-nominated actor has worked consistently since the late 1970s and has appeared on the film side in such acclaimed titles as The Front Runner,Love Is Strange, An Education, Identity, Frida,Chocolat,Magnolia, Boogie Nights and many more.
The 44-year-old Cuban-Guatemalan actor is in talks to star in and executive produce Helltown, a project based on the book of the same name by Casey Sherman.
Filmmaker Ed Berger is set to direct and executive produce the eight-episode crime thriller in development at Amazon Studios from Mohamad El Masri, Robert Downey Jr. and Susan Downey’s Team Downey.
Written by El Masri, who serves as executive producer and showrunner, Helltown centers on Kurt Vonnegut (Isaac) before he was a renowned author and cultural lightning rod. In 1969 Kurt was a struggling novelist and car salesman living life with his wife and five children on Cape Cod. When two women disappear and are later discovered murdered underneath the sand dunes on the outskirts of Provincetown, Kurt becomes obsessed and embroiled in the chilling hunt for a serial killer and forms a dangerous bond with the prime suspect.
Isaac would executive produce with Gena Konstantinakos through his Mad Gene banner.
Isaac, who recently headlined Marvel’s Disney+ series Moon Knight, can be seen alongside Rachel Brosnahan in the revival of Lorraine Hanberry’s The Sign in Sidney Brustein’s Window, directed by Anne Kauffman at the BAM Harvey Theater.
Last year, he was nominated for a SAG and Emmy award for HBO’s Scenes from a Marriage.
Isaac launched Mad Gene in 2019 with his wife, writer and director Elvira Lind. The company’s first project, short film The Letter Room, was nominated for a 2021 Academy Award.
The first trailer has been released for Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3, starring the 44-year-old Puerto Rican and Dominican American actress, which marks the end of an era for Marvel.
The film is the final adventure of this iteration of the cosmic team, and it is also a final Marvel bow for James Gunn, who has departed the MCU to take a job as a top executive at DC Studios, where he co-runs its film, television and animation efforts.\
In addition to Saldaña, Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3 also stars Chris Pratt, Dave Bautista, Karen Gillan, Pom Klementieff, Sean Gunn, Bradley Cooper and Vin Diesel, and introduces the character Adam Warlock, played by Will Poulter.
The first Guardians of the Galaxy was a game-changer for Marvel, which had already made $1 billion brands out of so-called “B-level” characters such as Iron Man.
But 2014’s Guardians took that formula to new heights, turning obscure characters into a global brand. The film, which earned $773.3 million internationally, ushered in an era in which quirky filmmakers such as Gunn put their own stamps on Marvel properties. A sequel followed in 2017, with the third eyed for 2020 before Gunn was fired from the property over old, offensive tweets before eventually being reinstated.
The Guardians, and the voice Gunn established, have been important to Marvel in between Vols. 2 and 3.
The characters appeared in Avengers: Infinity War (2018), Avengers: Endgame (2019), Thor: Love and Thunder (2022) and The Guardians of the Galaxy Holiday Special, released last month on Disney+.
Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3 opens on May 5, 2023.
The new trailer is soundtracked by the 1996 top 40 Billboard Hot 100 hit “In the Meantime,” by (appropriate to the intergalactic films) Spacehog.
The soundtracks to the first two installments in the Guardians of the Galaxy franchise, both of which were studded with carefully curated 1970s pop gems, were both big hits.
Guardians of the Galaxy: Awesome Mix Vol. 1, which featured such hits as Blue Swede’s “Hooked on a Feeling” and Redbone’s “Come and Get Your Love,” topped the Billboard 200 for two consecutive weeks in August 2014.
Guardians of the Galaxy: Awesome Mix Vol. 2, which contained such hits as ELO’s “Mr. Blue Sky” and Looking Glass’ “Brandy (You’re a Fine Girl),” reached No. 4 in 2017.
The 38-year-old half-Puerto Rican actress and comedian, who is currently starring on Season 2 of HBO’s The White Lotus, has been cast opposite Kathryn Hahn and Joe Locke in Agatha: Coven of Chaos, Marvel’s upcoming WandaVisionspinoff series for Disney+.
Details about Plaza’s role are being kept under wraps, but she’s believed to be playing a villain opposite Hahn and Locke, according to Deadline.
Hahn is reprising her role as WandaVision bad gal Agatha in the series. Emma Caulfield Ford is also set to reprise the role of Dottie from WandaVision.
Hahn’s Agatha Harkness appeared in Disney+’s WandaVision, from series creator Jac Schaeffer.
WandaVision centered on Wanda (Elizabeth Olsen) and Vision (Paul Bettany), two superpowered beings living their ideal suburban lives in the town of Westview, NJ, who begin to suspect that everything is not as it seems. Agatha, who won viewers over with her “Agatha All Along” number, is a witch from Salem and fan-favorite breakout character.
Schaeffer, who is under a joint overall deal with Marvel and 20th Television, serves as writer and executive producer on the spinoff.
Agatha: Coven of Chaos is expected to drop on Disney+ next year.
The Nicaraguan-American actress/dancer has joined the cast of Marvel Studios’ Ironheartas a series regular, according to Deadline.com.
The six-episode series created by Chinaka Hodge will star Dominique Thorne as Marvel character Riri Williams, a genius inventor and creator of the most advanced suit of armor since Iron Man.
The previously announced members of the cast include Anthony Ramos, Manny Montana, Alden Ehrenreich, Regan Aliyah, Shea Couleé and Zoe Terakes.
Sam Bailey and Angela Barnes are directing, with Ryan Coogler’s Proximity among the production entities.
Coogler, Ironheart head writer Chinaka Hodge, Zinzi Coogler, and Sev Ohanian serve as executive producers alongside Marvel Studios’ Kevin Feige, Louis D’Esposito, Victoria Alonso, Brad Winderbaum and Zoie Nagelhout.
Barrera can currently be seen as a series regular in the Freevee series Sprungopposite Garrett Dillahunt and Martha Plimpton. She also recently wrapped a recurring arc in OWN’s legal drama All Rise as part of the show’s third season.
She’s notably known for her portrayal of lady wrestler Yolanda in GLOW and Lulu in It’s Bruno, both for Netflix.
Her other TV credits include TNT’s Animal Kingdom, Showtime’s Shameless, and USA Network’sQueen of the South.
On the film side, she appeared in Daniela Garcia’s short film Huella, The Collectionopposite Alex Pettyfer, and The Knocking opposite Shiloh Fernandez.
Outside of acting, Barrera serves as a goodwill ambassador for organizations that specialize in humanitarian aid in Nicaragua.
The film stars Aaron Taylor-Johnson in the story of an epic journey that leads Sergei Kravinoff to become one of Marvel’s most iconic villains.
