Iko Uwais in talks to join G.I. Joe spinoff Snake Eyes

The Raid and Wu Assassins star Iko Uwais joining any project should be enough to grab your attention at this point as he’s one of the best martial artists working in film. Seriously, he’s electric and you should check out his work. Snake Eyes will star Henry Golding (Crazy Rich Asians, A Simple Favor) in the title role and –fingers crossed– Uwais as his teacher, Hard Master.

I don’t really know how a movie about a ninja who never talks and never shows his face is going to work, but I guess we’ll find out why he never talks or shows his face at any rate.

(source: Hollywood Reporter)

Haley Atwell joins Mission: Impossible 7

Marvel’s Agent Carter is about to become an IMF agent: Haley Atwell is joining Mission: Impossible 7. Missions: Impossible — Rogue Nation and Fallout director Christopher McQuarrie announced the casting on his Instagram.

Missions: Impossible 7 & 8 are filming back to back and we don’t know yet if Atwell is joining for one or for both, but either way she’s an exciting addition to an already stellar lineup, and Christopher McQuarrie is already 2 for 2 with his additions to the franchise. THe films come out in July 2021 and August 2022 and our butts will be in seats, guaranteed.

Robert Pattinson has tried on the Batsuit

Yes, in case you hadn’t heard, Twilight star and acclaimed indie actor Robert Pattinson is your next Batman. I, for one, find this casting exciting. If you haven’t seen any of the work he’s done since Twilight you’re missing out and if you can’t get past that he was in Twilight, well, that’s on you.

Speaking with Variety about his upcoming movie The Lighthouse Pattinson recounted trying on the suit for the first time:

“You do feel very powerful immediately,” he says. “And it’s pretty astonishing, something that is incredibly difficult to get into, so the ritual of getting into it is pretty humiliating. You’ve got five people trying to shove you into something. Once you’ve got it on, it’s like, ‘Yeah I feel strong, I feel tough, even though I had to have someone squeezing my butt cheeks into the legs.’”

Reminder to everyone that being in a superhero suit is cool, but it literally takes a team of specialists to get you into and out of them. No super man or woman is an island, after all. The Batman is slated for June 2021.

(source: Variety)

Peter Capaldi join’s James Gun’s Suicide Squad movie

In case you hadn’t heard: James Gunn is making a Suicide Squad movie, a deal he signed during that period of time where Disney fired him because of some internet nazis weaponizing some shitty jokes from his past. Yeah, that was a whole thing.

Anyway Peter Capaldi, probably best known for being the 12th Doctor on Doctor Who at this point but should be best known for being the foul-mouthed Malcolm Tucker on The Thick of It has joined the cast of said Suicide Squad film, which is exciting news for anyone who has seen him in anything. Suicide Squad 2 is scheduled for a summer 2021 release. Fingers crossed that it’s R-rated and he gets to weave a beautiful tapestry of obscenity.

(source: Deadline)

High-Rise & Free Fire director Ben Wheatley is making the next Tomb Raider movie

Ben Wheatley is directing the next Tomb Raider movie. On the one hand that makes little sense to me given his previous films. On the other, I suppose he’s done some good work on TV. But still, feels like a weird fit for the guy who made High-Rise to make a tentpole action feature.

Weirder still, I don’t really remember the most recent Alicia Vikander Tomb Raider making a big splash. In fact I don’t really remember it at all aside from Walton Goggins being in it. That’s brand power, I suppose. Ben Wheatley’s Tomb Raider 2 is slated for a March 2021 release.

(source: Deadline)

Sony says "the door is closed" for the Marvel deal.

Well that’s a thing. Sony head honcho Tony Vinciquerra when asked about the Sony/Marvel deal breaking down told Variety:

“We had a great run with (Feige) on Spider-Man movies,” the Sony chief said. “We tried to see if there’s a way to work it out….the Marvel people are terrific people, we have great respect for them, but on the other hand we have some pretty terrific people of our own. Kevin didn’t do all the work.”

So it seems like, for the time being, Spider-Man is out of the Marvel Cinematic Universe. Oh yeah, in case you guys didn’t hear, Marvel was unable to re-negotiate a deal to allow Spider-Man to continue as an MCU character after the five film deal was up, meaning that Spidey can’t appear in MCU films and the MCU can’t appear in Spidey films. It’s a whole thing.

Look I’m of two minds on this one folks.

On the one hand, given the ending of Spider-Man: Far From Home setting up a whole bunch of things that can really only be resolved as part of the MCU, this totally sucks from a story point of view.

On the other, Disney is a behemoth, after their acquisition of Fox owns 40% of the film business, and apparently came to the table asking for much bigger slice of the pie than they were getting before. This was dumb, because what as Sony got to lose? Like, nothing. Literally every Spider-Man movie has been a hit. Yes, even the shitty ones. And honestly it’s probably for the best that the aforementioned behemoth doesn’t own, you know, everything.

(source: Variety)

The 2019 Vancouver International Film Festival is coming!

That’s right kids, VIFF is back! The festival runs from the 26th of September to the 11th of October and we’ll be there for coverage again this year. Look forward to new and reviews. Mostly reviews. Checkout this years lineup at the VIFF homepage.

The End

That’s it for this first edition of Awesome News. I’m going to make a real effort to keep this going moving forward so please read along with me. Until next week!