Attention movie-lovers!
While cinemas in certain countries still remain closed in response to the COVID-19 pandemic, and big movie titles keep shifting global cinematic release dates, there’s still some interesting news from the world of movies which you ought to know.
Here’s a round-up of the big announcements made in July 2020:
20th Century Studios has released a new teaser trailer for the long-delayed The New Mutants.
The New Mutants was produced by 20th Century Fox and writer/director Josh Boone shot the film back in 2017, when it was understood that it would be released as a new Fox Marvel movie akin to Logan or Dark Phoenix. However, the film was consistently delayed and pushed back to the point that when Disney bought Fox, The New Mutants was still unreleased. It’s a ‘holdover’ film that doesn’t have any specific connective tissue to the Marvel Cinematic Universe, so fans have been eager to see how Disney would handle it.
The film is currently slated to hit cinemas on August 28 – but Disney/20th Century Studios may continue to hold onto its theatrical release if things don’t improve on the COVID-19 front.
Check out the teaser trailer below:
Read more on this at Collider
Studios continue to move movie premiere dates due to US theatres remaining closed as a result of the COVID-19 pandemic. Here are some of the shifts announced in the month of July 2020:
Tenet (August 12, 2020 to TBD, 2020)
Mulan (August 21, 2020 to TBD)
The Broken Hearts Gallery (August 7, 2020 to TBD)
Bill & Ted Face the Music (August 28, 2020 to September 1, 2020)
A Quiet Place 2 (September 4, 2020 to April 23, 2021)
What About Love (September 25, 2020 to February 12, 2021)
The Conjuring: The Devil Made Me Do It (September 11, 2020 to June 4, 2021)
The French Dispatch (October 16, 2020 to TBD)
Top Gun: Maverick (December 23, 2020 to July 2, 2021)
Image Credits: Ng Han Guan-AP-Shutterstock
Movie theatres in China began reopening in July, and Chinese authorities also gave the go-ahead for cinemas in Beijing to reopen. With about 835 cinemas open across the country (about 12% of the total), the Chinese box office has been steadily climbing in July with films such as Sheep Without A Shepherd, Dolittle, and Bloodshot drawing audiences back to cinemas. More big Hollywood titles are to follow including the anniversary re-release of Harry Potter and the Sorcerer’s Stone, 1917, and Bad Boys for Life.
This is definitely good news for the cinema industry as China was the fastest growing film market in the world prior to the COVID-19 outbreak.
Read more on this at Deadline
Warner Bros. has taken Christopher Nolan’s latest espionage thriller Tenet off the release calendar due to the surge COVID-19. The film was set to become the first major studio film back in theatres, however, the studio assured fans that the film is still coming to theatres in 2020.
However, Warner Bros. has mentioned that they will be tossing the traditional global day-and-date release, and working on a non-traditional strategy to maintain its commitment to the theatrical experience around the world by first releasing overseas where cinemas have reopened – Europe, Asia, Middle East and 12% of the total in China, for two thirds of the global box office for a blockbuster such as Tenet typically comes from outside the US.
The studio is giving exact release dates, but sources elsewhere say the studio hopes to begin opening Tenet in international markets in late August before it arrives in the US in the first part of September (even if only in select cities).
Fingers crossed for Tenet – the push we’ve been waiting for to jump-start the cinema industry in times of post COVID-19 recovery.
Read more on this at The Hollywood Reporter
With most countries starting to reopen borders, especially Europe, Tom Cruise is hoping to return to Norway with his crew this fall to continue filming Mission: Impossible 7.
The upcoming sequel is back on track with filming and was recently granted permission to start shooting again after being delayed by the pandemic. Cruise is also continuing his plans to make history with the first narrative feature shot in space, and Universal Pictures is in negotiations to land the new film, which will be shot in cooperation with NASA on the International Space Station.
Read more on this at Deadline
Image Credits: The Playlist
Edgar Wright, the beloved filmmaker behind movies such as Shaun of the Dead and Baby Driver, has signed on to develop, executive produce, and direct a ghostly film named Stage 13 – an adaptation of one of novelist/screenwriter Simon Rich‘s recent short stories. Despite the presence of a ghost, Stage 13 won’t be a traditional horror film. The film centres on a young, aspiring director who’s plucked from obscurity and hired to direct a movie on major film studio’s backlot – only to discover that the only reason he was given the chance in the first place is because the sound stage is haunted and the studio head is trying to get rid of the ghost, an aspiring actress who still desperately wants to be a star.
Read more on this at /Film
Image Credits: Paramount Pictures
Paramount’s Grease prequel Summer Lovin’ is revving up its engine, with the studio tapping Brett Haley to direct the film. The new movie tells the story of greaser Danny and good girl Sandy’s summer fling, originally hinted at in the song Summer Nights in the original 1978 movie. Leah McKendrick penned the script with Temple Hill and Picturestart producing.
The film will mark Haley’s first film at a major studio after cutting his teeth on the indie and streaming service circuit.
Read more on this at Deadline
Image Credits: Warner Bros
In a live web panel at the first inaugural Justice Con, Zack Snyder revealed that Zach Snyder’s Justice League (The Snyder’s Cut) will be more than 214 minutes and confirmed none of Joss Whedon’s shots will be in this version.
The director didn’t come empty handed, for he shared a brief unfinished clip, along with a few details about the process of completing his film.
Snyder also said that he was in the process working on restoring the aspect ratio of the film back to the full frame, IMAX cut what he originally intended. He also revealed that he’s been collaborating with composer Junkie XL as they complete the score alongside the film’s additional footage.
Justice Con ran from 25 – 26 July 2020 and was organized by The Nerd Queens (Cole and Nana) and Wonder Meg, Justice Con. The event brought together fans, cast and crew members Snyder’s Justice League, and charitable organizations Ink to the People, and the American Foundation for Suicide Prevention, for a series of live panels dedicated to the release of the Snyder Cut and its charity affiliates.
Read more on this at The Hollywood Reporter
Director Zack Snyder and cinematographer Fabian Wagner shared a pair of cool new photos from behind the scenes of Justice League. The ensemble actioner from DC and Warner Bros. is less than two months away from its wide release, and with the new trailer that released over the weekend, anticipation has reached fever pitch.
Snyder went right back behind the cameras to continue DC’s curiously unnamed cinematic universe after 2016’s Batman V Superman: Dawn of Justice, while Wagner is making a major leap to work on his first big-budget feature film.
That doesn’t mean Wagner totally lacks experience as a cinematographer for big productions. He is coming off his acclaimed work on Game of Thrones, earning an Emmy nomination for his cinematography on the pivotal season 5 episode “Hardhome”. He proved his ability to create sprawling visuals with that episode, which locations like Iceland provided in abundance for he and Snyder to make Justice League. Wagner gave fans a taste of how epic some of the shots in the new film will be in his latest photo from the set.
Check out the behind-the-scenes glimpse at Justice League below, via Wagner’s official Instagram account.
It reveals a shot of what is presumably Ben Affleck as Bruce Wayne surrounded by mountains, staring off into a large body of water. The location in question is the Westfjords, a large peninsula in Iceland that was confirmed as a filming location over a year ago. In addition to Affleck, several Aquaman cast members were involved in the Iceland-shot scenes. As Wagner mentioned, filming wrapped in the location almost a year ago.
Snyder also shared a photo of himself on the set via the social network Vero (h/t Batman-News). You’ll notice that Snyder is using a camera that’s painted pink in honor of Breast Cancer Awareness Month, which he first used on the set of Batman V Superman. You can also see that a chilly Snyder was prepared to get wet if he had to, in order to get the best possible shots.
Wagner described Justice League as the “biggest and most fun job” of his career, and it would be hard to argue otherwise. Regardless of how fun the film was compared to Game of Thrones, Justice League was almost certainly the most expensive production yet for him. The official budget is unknown, but it likely falls between Aquaman’s $160 million and Batman V Superman’s $250 million. It’s known that Wagner employed a similar visual style to Batman V Superman, which original cinematographer Larry Fong (unsurprisingly) described as “incredible”. This newest photo from the Iceland set shows that those scenes will surely boast some amazing views.
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Sources: SCREENRANT and YouTube
