Welcome back! It’s Tuesday, I’m back and all is right with the world thanks to a weekend filled with Comic Con Experience Brazil announcements. We covered a handful of the major developments already, along with the Golden Globe noms and the Stranger Things, I mean Ghostbuster trailer. Ahead, we’ll talk about Kevin Feige’s Eternals tease at CCXP and the The Witcher crew’s surprise appearance. Meanwhile, George Miller chatted about his next movie and Disney announced the first of its live action spin-offs. Yep, you read that right! Let’s get started with a pair of Star Wars headlines.
- Star Wars’ Kathleen Kennedy will be recognized with a BAFTA Fellowship this February – the academy’s highest award for contribution to film, games or television. Kennedy is no stranger to BAFTA praise. Over 40 years of working in film, she’s picked up 119 BAFTA noms with 27 wins and now finds herself President of Lucasfilm – a company that’s fairly well known in this part of the galaxy.
- And, as Rise of Skywalker draws near, Disney sends out an unexpected note: “Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker contains several sequences with imagery and sustained flashing lights that may affect those who are susceptible to photosensitive epilepsy or have other photosensitivities.” After flack from the Incredibles 2’s epileptic prone sequence, it seems Disney is making this precaution extremely public, reaching out specifically to the Epilepsy Foundation to warn theater owners and movie-goers in the weeks leading up to the movie’s release.
CCXP gets a first look at Marvel’s The Eternals
Kevin Feige headed over to CCXP this weekend, and he brought along a special teaser for Marvel’s upcoming The Eternals. Deadline reports that, following a rehash of the Disney+ lineup, Feige brought on the film’s director Chloe Zhao and a cut of raw footage.
CCXP’s Eternals teaser begins with most of the cast on a ranch. As a reminder, this tottaly stacked ensemble includes the following: Richard Madden, Kumail Nanjiani, Angelina Jolie, Salma Hayek, Lauren Ridloff, Brian Tyree Henry, Lia McHugh, Don Lee, Kit Harington, Barry Keoghan and Gemma Chan. Druig (Keoghan) welcomes the team, then several cuts highlight characters displaying their powers, falling in love and throwing a few punches, ending with Ajak (Hayek) saying “This world has changed us. We must protect it.”
Feige backs up that line himself, adding the very comic book promise that this movie will “redefine and change” the MCU. If you’re curious about how they might do that, we’ve got some leads here. Just don’t expect to see this Eternals CCXP footage yourself for awhile, as it doesn’t hit theaters until November 6, 2020.
The session wrapped up with a few images from the Disney+ exclusives WandaVision and Winter Soldier, as well as a continued victory lap with an “Infinity Saga” sizzle reel. With all that and the first ever look at The Eternals, CCXP attendees left more than happy.
The MCU isn’t the only Disney property that’s growing
- Disney is expanding the Aladdin-verse as it announces the spin-off movie featuring Prince Anders; one of Jasmine’s suitors who was created for the recent live-action iteration, played by Billy Magnussen. This time, the flighty royal will appear exclusively on Disney+, with a script from Jordan Dunn and Michael Kvamme.
The Witcher crew surprised fans with a wholesome CCXP appearance
Disney wasn’t the only streamer to make a CCXP appearance. Netflix sent its Witcher star and show creator to the event, where they were reportedly received with even more applause than the House of Ideas’ boss. In a panel, Henry Cavill and Lauren Schmidt Hissrich spoke about their own ties to the franchise, as well as what fans can expect when the show arrives.
Hissrich began by telling attendees that she wanted to create a plot influenced by action. Although she says The Witcher is first about foremost about fantasy and family, something she says she cares a lot about, the show’s snappy trailers back up her sentiment there.
Cavill, meanwhile added that he’s a fan of the novels himself and that he performs all his own stunts for the show. Before showing off the final trailer, Cavil said “I’m just happy for everyone to see it — we’ve worked so incredibly hard on it.”
Then, following a standing ovation, Hissrich had the last word: “I hope people learn to have the tiniest bit of empathy for those not in your shoes. It sounds cheesy but that’s what we want. The world is big enough for all of us.”
The world is big enough and, apparently, so is Gotham
- Peter Sarsgaard is the latest addition to Matt Reeves’ The Batman cast and speculators suspect he’ll be playing Gotham’s duplicitous attorney, Harvey Dent. The Boys Don’t Cry star joins an already crowded company that includes Zoë Kravitz, Paul Dano, Colin Farrell, John Torturro, Jeffrey Wright, Andy Serkis and Robert Pattinson.
George Miller says his next movie is “the anti-Mad Max”
George Miller is officially moving forward with his next picture: Three Thousand Years of Longing. Just don’t ask him what the genre is. The Mad Max creator tells Deadline that he’s still deciding where on the spectrum it falls and that even the title is, at this point, a riddle. In a recent interview, he hints at what we can expect from his next work as well as where his career-defining franchise is headed.
Miller says his upcoming Idris Elba and Tilda Swinton-lead picture is, in many ways, the opposite of Mad Max. It has a strong visual signature, with a sprinkle of action – but “it’s almost all interior and there’s a lot of conversation … you could say it’s the anti-Mad Max.”
On that topic, Miller assures fans that he’ll be returning to the Australian outback as soon as Three Thousand Years of Longing is wrapped. In fact, he adds, the juxtaposition of working on the two movies together improves both. Miller calls it a “creative holiday” to write two distinct projects concurrently – coming from the man who did Happy Feet and Mad Max: Fury Road at the same time.
Now, one last CCXP goodie
We’re not done with CCXP yet! Ryan Reynolds also appeared to debut the trailer for his upcoming action/comedy Free Guy. He plays the titular Guy; a normal bank teller in a video game world where he and his friends are constantly taken advantage of. It’s an extremely Reynolds movie, filled with innuendos, guns and gags. Free Guy is directed by Shawn Levy (Stranger Things) and hits theaters July 3, 2020.
Hugh Laurie is House. Sorry – force of habit. Actually, Hugh Laurie is going interstellar with Veep creator Armando Iannucci and HBO in Avenue 5. Laurie plays the captain of a space cruise ship as it faces tech malfunctions, bureaucracy and annoying guests. He’s joined by Josh Gad, Zach Woords, Lenora Crichlow, Suzy Nakamura and Nikki Amuka-Bird. Avenue 5 lands on HBO January 19, 2020.
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Not so much of a trailer here, but DC finally dropped a first teaser for its upcoming DC Universe exclusive, Stargirl. For now, all we get is a quick shot at Brec Bassinger in costume and the promise that the show will arrive in Spring of 2020.
Apple enlisted John Wick director David Leitch to shoot a holiday commercial, all on the new iPhone 11. It’s a minute packed with snowballs and school kid savagery that, although dope, really just makes me want to watch Keanu Reeves be angry.
So I’m gonna go do that! In the meantime, Ed will start back on his regular Friday beat with the juiciest and most delicious of entertainment scoops. See you then!
