Showing posts with label The Eternals. Show all posts
Showing posts with label The Eternals. Show all posts

Saturday, June 1, 2019






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Tuesday, May 7, 2019



With “Avengers: Endgame” currently sitting as the second highest-grossing movie ever released worldwide (dethroning “Avatar” for the number one spot is a likely possibility), one of the questions now facing Disney is just how long the Marvel Cinematic Universe can sustain itself as a box office force. Sequels featuring already beloved heroes should have no problem being enormous hits (these titles include “Spider-Man: Far From Home,” the Black Widow movie, and “Black Panther 2”), but will phase four of the MCU be able match the heights of this last decade without Iron Man or Captain America to sell tickets?
Marvel Studios present Kevin Feige is already taking preemptive measures to ensure the answer to this question is yes. The producer has already gone on record saying more inclusivity is coming to the MCU in phase four, which will include the MCU’s first leading Asian superhero (“Shang-Chi,” directed by Daniel Destin Cretton) and its first openly gay superhero (rumored to be in “The Eternals”). MCU titles “Black Panther” and “Captain Marvel” have already proved inclusivity pays off big time as both films cracked $1 billion worldwide. Feige also appears to be going the more classic Hollywood route by cranking up the star power in the MCU. The latest casting news of Richard Madden in “The Eternals” is proof.

Per Variety, Madden is nearing a deal to star as the superhero Ikaris in “The Eternals.” Madden will join Angelina Jolie and Kumail Nanjiani in the film. Those three names alone make “Eternals” one of the hottest tentpoles in development, MCU or not. Jolie is a global superstar who has become extra-selective with her roles, which only makes her popping up in the MCU more of a major event. Madden gained popularity on “Game of Thrones” but exploded with the international success of “Bodyguard,” which has made him a favorite to land an Emmy nomination this year. Nanjiani, meanwhile, is one of the most beloved comedians in the business. These three actors speak to a wide-ranging demographic of moviegoers and make a lesser known comic book property like “The Eternals” become all the more of a must-see event for moviegoers. Marvel is ensuring niche superheroes have the buzz of Iron Man or Captain America by casting these kinds of red hot stars.
Marvel’s first films were hardly star-powered affairs, but the superheroes themselves were big enough to attract early interest. Robert Downey Jr. was way off Hollywood and the mainstream’s radar when he took on the role of Iron Man, and Chris Hemsworth was a newcomer when he was hired to play Thor. Brand recognition helped sell the initial appeal of Marvel’s early films, but as Marvel heads into phase four and takes on more outlier material like “The Eternals” it is wisely betting on fan favorite actors to ensure continued financial success. Richard Madden and Angelina Jolie as members of a superhero team will be enough to sell millions on “The Eternals” without pre-existing knowledge of the source material.

“The Eternals” is similar to “Guardians of the Galaxy” in the sense that most moviegoers probably haven’t heard of them prior to the MCU. While Zoe Saldana and Chris Pratt were known when they were cast in “Guardians,” the film hardly had the kind of star power that Jolie is set to bring to “The Eternals.” Regardless, “Guardians” was a massive hit and made household names out of its superheroes. With Jolie, Madden, and Nanjiani in front of the camera, “The Eternals” should have no issue following suit.
Marvel has yet to announce the release date for “The Eternals,” which is being directed by “The Rider” favorite Chloe Zhao. Expect an annoucenment regarding phase four of the MCU to come in around the July release of “Spider-Man: Far From Home.”




The One and Only Ivan will be a late summer release next year.  Come Away does not yet have a U.S. distributor or release date.



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Tuesday, April 23, 2019


The Eternals "to start filming" in London in two months.  The formal announcement should be made in early July.

...Feige said that he won’t announce Phase 4 until after he opens Jon Watts’ “Spider-Man: Far from Home” (July 5)...

Fox Searchlight’s Nancy Utley was among the Fox executives at the party meeting new Disney colleagues such as Marvel production executive Nate Moore, who is heading to London in two months to start filming “The Eternals,” with Chloe Zhao (“The Rider”) directing a script by Matthew and Ryan Firpo. Angelina Jolie and Kumail Nanjiani star. ...





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Friday, April 5, 2019





April 05, 2019 12:27pm PT by Borys Kit

Kumail Nanjiani is the latest to go Marvel.

The comedian and Oscar-nominee is in negotiations to star alongside Angelina Jolie in The Eternals, one of two features that Marvel is prepping to shoot this year.

Chloe Zhao is directing the superhero adventure project, based on the 1976 comic book series created by Jack Kirby. The heroes got a dusting off in the 2000s by author Neil Gaiman. The project features the super-powered and near-immortal beings known as Eternals and a more monstrous off-shoot known as the Deviants that were created by cosmic beings known as Celestials.

Jolie is understood to be playing the character named Sersi, a more outgoing Eternal who has not been afraid to movie amongst humankind.

Nanjiani’s character details were hidden in the sands of time.

Nanjiani, who earned an Oscar nomination for co-writing The Big Sick with wife Emily Gordon, is hitting a busy time period. On the TV side, he stars in the first Twilight Zone episode from CBS All-Access and exec producer Jordan Peele. On the movie side, he will be seen in Sony’s Men in Black: International, which is set to open June 14, and then stars with Dave Bautista in the action comedy Stuber, which Disney/Fox will open July 12.

Additionally, the actor, repped by by UTA, Mosaic and Schreck Rose, recently wrapped Lovebirds, a comedy that also stars Issa Rae that he exec produced. 

Marvel had no comment.




By Dave McNary

Kumail Nanjiani is in talks to join Angelina Jolie to star in Marvel Studios’ “The Eternals” in what would be Nanjiani’s first venture into the superhero realm.

Details about the movie and what characters Nanjiani and Jolie would play are being kept under wraps. Created by Jack Kirby in 1976, the story of “The Eternals” is set millions of years ago when the cosmic beings known as the Celestials genetically experimented on humans to create super-powered individuals known as the Eternals along with the villainous Deviants.

The two groups went on to battle each other throughout history. The Eternals also warred with Greek, Roman, and Norse deities before leaving Earth to explore the stars.

Chloe Zhao, whose helming credits include “The Rider” and “Songs My Brothers Taught Me,” became attached in September to direct “The Eternals” from a script by Matthew and Ryan Firpo. Marvel Studios chief Kevin Feige is producing.

Nanjiani came on board earlier this year to star in Valparaiso Pictures’ “No Glory,” a spy comedy that will be produced by Adam McKay and Will Ferrell. Nanjiani and his wife, Emily V. Gordon, received an Oscar nomination for writing “The Big Sick.”

He will next be seen in Columbia Pictures’ “Men in Black: International” and Universal Pictures’ “The Voyage of Doctor Dolittle.” Production on a sixth season of HBO’s “Silicon Valley,” in which he stars as Dinesh Chugtai, is expected to take place this summer. Nanjiani is represented by UTA, Mosaic, and Schreck Rose.

Marvel had no comment about Nanjiani’s possible casting in “The Eternals.” It also has not confirmed whether Jolie’s deal has gone through.





A year ago I fell out of my chair after Michelle told me she was going to be working on screen with one of my longtime favorite actresses Angelina Jolie in the Maleficent sequel. Over the last two decades she'd listen to me moan about my small wish list of actors I wanted to see her in a film with. Angelina was always at the top of that list. The fact that it's Maleficent took that joy higher. The two dark titans will be battling one another in a monumental war on screen this October. . Maleficent has been one of my favorite Disney villains of all time. Having said for decades if they ever make Maleficent into a live-action film they should get Michelle or Angelina for it. They're the only two that can adequately get into that darkness. You can imagine the excitement when Angelina was cast and then Michelle for the sequel. . Maleficent attempts to move into the Mother role for Aurora until the stability is shaken when a new set of royals enter the picture. Aurora and the Prince fall in love with talk of marriage, but then it's time to meet the rest of the family. Maleficent meets the other would be Mother-in-law in the Queen played by Michelle, then the war begins between the two powerhouse giants. . A little entertainment trivia, I worked with Angelina twenty years ago on an erotic thriller film that Michelle produced called “Original Sin”, which also co-starred Antonio Banderas. Michelle planned to star in that as well, but ended up choosing to just produce, so Angelina stepped in as the understudy. . "Maleficent 2: Mistress of the Dark" will be a big Halloween season release this year. Expect endless press coming up with the teaser trailer dropping any day now. The various trailers will be running in rotation in front of the big blockbusters this Summer. 🎥🎭🎞💫 . . . . . #maleficent #hero #movies #mystery #light #victory #entertainment #acting #actors #films #horror #thriller #villain #family #darkness #antoniobanderas #michellepfeiffer #blockbuster #fun #angelinajolie #filmmaking #popular #action #behindthescenes #moviescenes #friendships #moviemaking #popculture #disney
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Wednesday, March 27, 2019


March 28, 2019 10:56am PT by Richard Newby

The Oscar winner is taking on her first superhero movie, which suggests there must be more than meets the eye to the Marvel Studios project.

One of Marvel Studios' most mysterious projects is starting to take shape, and with it comes one of the biggest names in Hollywood. Wednesday it was revealed that Angelina Jolie is in talks to join Chloe Zhao's The Eternals.

While details on the film have been locked up tighter than Odin's vault, The Eternals, based on the epic saga by comic book legend Jack Kirby, focuses on immortal superpowered beings created by the Celestials, the cosmic giants seen in the Infinity Stones sequence in Guardians of the Galaxy (2014). Zhao's film is said to be led by Sersi and Ikaris, two Eternals whose love story rests at the center of an eons-spanning conflict.

Marvel had no comment on who Jolie might play, but given that she's the first actor to be cast, it seems likely that she's up for the transmutation-powered Sersi. Jolie also looks a great deal like many artists' depiction of the character. But who is Sersi? And what does Jolie's casting tell us about the film?

Unlike the previous films that have made up the Marvel Cinematic Universe, The Eternals is based around largely unknown entities, even for most comic book readers. This unknown quality plus the fact that Marvel Comics hasn't made much effort in reprinting Kirby's series or key appearances of the characters (yet), adds a level of excitement and novelty to Zhao's feature. As a property that's more situated in the realm of sci-fi and fantasy than superhero yarns, learning about the Eternals is akin to taking a deep-dive into J.R.R. Tolkien's Middle-earth history or George R.R. Martin's Westeros and Essos. While the Guardians of the Galaxy were mostly unknown to most audiences before 2014, the Eternals are even more of a deep-dive into the Marvel Universe. When it comes to the Celestials, the Eternals and their evil counterparts the Deviants (Thanos' race), this is heavy Marvel mythology, the building blocks of the universe, and far more complex than anything we've seen Marvel Studios adapt thus far.

Casting Jolie in a film such as this is a way for Marvel to ground the audience in a complicated mythology with a familiar face. But it's also a signal that if an actress on this level of influence, one who has largely focused on directing and producing of late, is interested, then it must be something special.

Marvel Studios, with a few exceptions, has long played the game of star-making when it comes to leading roles, taking talented actors and actresses known from television and award-season breakouts and making them household names or reviving the public's perception of them. There's been a certain tier of actors who first broke box office records and sold magazine covers in the '90s — Tom Cruise, Brad Pitt, Leonardo DiCaprio, Denzel Washington, Tom Hanks, Julia Roberts and Jolie — who have somehow managed to avoid being in a superhero film. But it now seems as though everyone must do at least one. Despite being a favorite for numerous superhero roles since the '90s and being an early rumored choice to direct Captain Marvel, Jolie has stayed away from superhero movies. Sure, she played Lara Croft twice and starred in the comic adaptation of Wanted (2008), which stripped away the superhero element of Mark Millar's comic, and she went all-in on the costumed villainess in Maleficent (2014) and its upcoming sequel. But she's never played a true superhero before.

Yet Sersi, if speculation is indeed correct, seems like a fitting choice for Jolie. Not only does the role provide her with the opportunity to work with Zhao, whose film The Rider (2017) makes the filmmakers seem like kindred spirits, but Sersi reflects many of Jolie's own acting choices and interests.

Created by Jack Kirby, Sersi first appeared in Strange Tales No. 109 (1963), with the name spelled "Circe," then later as Sersi in The Eternals No. 3 (1976). The distinction in spelling highlights a very important aspect of The Eternals' comic book history. While Greek gods and goddesses exist in the Marvel Universe, they would often let the Olympia-based Eternals represent their physical forms for the humans on Earth, hence many of the Eternals sharing names similar to their Greek counterparts. This distinction sounds like something the MCU will merge and just make the Eternals the inspiration for the Greek Pantheon, like the Asgardians were the basis for the Norse Gods. The comics have already done some of this synthesizing. Sersi inspired the poet Homer, who included her under the name Circe in The Odyssey in which she turned men into swine. Because of her powers to manipulate matter and rearrange molecular structures, she was often seen as a witch rather than a result of alien experimentation, allowing her to move across comic book genres.

While most of the Eternals eventually returned to the cosmos in search of their larger destiny, Sersi remained on Earth, fascinated with its people and customs. She involved herself in key moments in history, lived in ancient Rome and Camelot, fought alongside Thor and the Vikings in the god's youth and later joined the Avengers.

Having lived for millennia, Sersi has taken on many roles on Earth and has changed her personality as she's seen fit, taking the most out of her immortal existence. This worldliness and interest in alleviating human conflict and suffering falls in line with Jolie's own humanitarian and conservation efforts. As the line between actors and the superheroes they play grows increasingly thin (see Chris Evans' political interests, and Gal Gadot and Brie Larson's movement for women in film), Sersi may be a way for Jolie to get her message out to a wider audience, and exhibit godlike powers while doing it.

It's impossible to capture the massive potential and mythology of The Eternals through one character and casting choice. But Jolie's involvement at least gives us a better idea of what's coming down the road post-Avengers: Endgame. Marvel Studios boss Kevin Feige has promised a very different MCU after April 26, and if Jolie's casting and Sersi's eons-spanning history and mythology is any indication, Marvel's storytelling and casting is only growing in ambition.







March 27, 2019 4:26pm PT by Mia Galuppo

Jolie is doing superheroes.
Angelina Jolie is getting ready to make her first foray into the world of superhero movies.
The Oscar-winning actress is in talks to star in Marvel Studios' The Eternals, a superhero team adventure feature being directed by Chloe Zhao.
Jolie has chosen the Marvel project based on the Jack Kirby-created title about super-powered and near-immortal beings known as Eternals and a more monstrous off-shoot known as the Deviants that were created by the cosmic beings called Celestials.
While details about the movie are being kept under wraps, sources tell The Hollywood Reporter that one aspect to the story involves the love story between Ikaris, a man fueled by cosmic energy, and Sersi, who relishes moving amongst humans. It is unclear who Jolie will play. Marvel had no comment.
Zhao, an award-winning indie director behind critical hits The Rider and Songs My Brothers Taught Me, will direct from a script by Matthew and Ryan Firpo.
Jolie is currently working with Marvel's parent company Disney on the upcoming Maleficent: Mistress of Evil, which was recently moved up to fall 2019 release from spring 2020, and on the animation/live-action hybrid The One and Only Ivan, which she is also producing. Jolie's upcoming projects also include Come Away, a fantasy drama from from Brenda Chapman.
She is repped by UTA and Sloane Offer.



Marvel is expanding the cosmic side of the Marvel Cinematic Universe for their post-“Avengers: Endgame” Phase 4 and in doing so has scored a huge casting coup: Angelina Jolie is in talks to star in Marvel’s “Eternals.”
Critically-acclaimed indie filmmaker Chloe Zhao, known for “The Rider” and “Songs My Brothers Taught Me” is directing the picture based on a script by Matthew and Ryan Firpo.
The Eternals are a powerful race of near-immortals and space gods created by the cosmic beings known as the Celestials. Eternals have existed for millions of years and their advanced biology gives them incredible strength, long lives, and powers that set them far above mortal men. There’s also a wicked offshoot known as the Deviants also created by the Celestials. THR, who breaks the news says, while plot details are under wraps, “one aspect to the story involves the love story between Ikaris, a man fueled by cosmic energy, and Sersi, who relishes moving amongst humans.”
Right now, it’s unclear who Jolie will play and Marvel’s not commenting.
No other details have been released, but Marvel’s Kevin Feige likened “The Eternals” to the “Guardians Of The Galaxy” in terms of a new fully-formed team earlier this year. “We like the idea of introducing an ensemble, doing an ensemble movie from the start, as opposed to building up as we did with the first ‘Avengers,’” he told Collider in February. “More like Guardians, not tonally, but in terms of introducing a new group of people. Jack Kirby did an immense, amazing epic with Eternals that spans tens of thousands of years, and that’s also something we haven’t really done, which is why that among many other things post-Endgame, we find appealing.”
Clearly, the group will fit closer into the non-Earth-bound cosmic side of the MCU which includes ‘Guardians’ and “Captain Marvel” so far.
“The Eternals” is not dated but expected to shoot later this year for a 2020 release. All will likely be revealed at Comic-Con this summer. Zhao will have to find some time to promote “Nomadland,” a Focus Features film starring Frances McDormand she shot in secret in 2018, coming out later this year and expected to hit the fall film festival circuit. The news of Jolie joining the cast means more announcements can’t be far behind and perhaps the full team could be rolled out by San Diego.


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Director Chloe Zhao is a critics' darling.  Her The Rider was voted Best Film of the Year for 2018 by the National Society of Film Critics (beating Green Book, A Star is Born, etc.) Zhao's involvement may be a big factor in Angelina's decision to consider The Eternals.  If The Eternals starts production later this year, she will only have a short break after Those Who Wish Me Dead which is already in pre-production for an expected May start. 
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