Covid-19 is obviously affecting every industry in some way shape or form, but the entertainment industry seems to be taking one of the biggest hits. Disney has had to push back the release of Black Widow due to the pandemic. They’ve also had to temporarily stop production on all films that were being worked on. With all of this in mind, it would be safe to assume that all future projects would then be delayed. Whether they will be or not, only time will tell.
Black Widow was meant to be the beginning of the next phase of MCU films, but as a prequel, it is a standalone film. Directed by Cate Shortland, the cast includes Scarlett Johansson, Florence Pugh, Rachel Weisz, and David Harbour. It takes place between Captain America: Civil War and Avengers: Infinity War and it’s release won’t affect of the MCU timeline. With that in mind, it won’t really matter when the film releases, and the rest of Phase 4 can release on schedule.
There is no guarantee that Black Widow will release by the end of the summer with everything that is going on. We cannot see the future, but we can hope that things work out soon enough. Disney still has plans to release the MCU Disney+ shows when the time comes, and they are meant to intertwine with some of the newer Phase 4 films that are coming out. So, Disney still has plans to keep their timeline moving along just fine as long as the global situation doesn’t get too much worse.
Marvel remains confident, as of now, that their current timeline of releases for movies and shows will be unfazed by the virus. As of now, The Falcon and the Winter Soldier is still set to be released in August of this year on Disney+. The next film in the MCU franchise The Eternals is still set to release to theaters on November 6th. Not too much later after that, WandaVision is set to premiere on Disney+ in December to round out the year. Hopefully their optimism pays off and everything can continue the way that they planned it to which will allow the rest Phase 4 to release properly.
Superhero films are usually just action oriented films, but sometimes we get superhero films in a different genre. This time around we are getting one in the horror genre but set in a universe we know. One of the most recent superhero films that is also in the horror genre is Brightburn, a film about a boy with superpowers who uses them for evil. As seen from the title of the film, the movie is meant to be an installment for the X-Men series. It focuses primarily on characters from the comic book series of the same name.
‘The New Mutants’ focuses on a group of five young mutants just discovering their abilities. While in the middle of discovering their powers, they are kept against their will in a secret facility. In the facility, they are forced to fight in order to escape their past sins. This fight is also their only means of survival, since if they don’t try and fight they’ll die. One of the biggest dangers they have to contend with is the powers that they can’t control properly.
‘The New Mutants’ is a movie that has been in production for a number of years now. The film was shot in 2017 with a 2018 release in mind for the movie, but that didn’t work out that well. They instead chose to do reshoots for the film around the time that Disney acquired 20th Century Fox. After Disney’s acquisition of the studio, they decided not to do reshoots for the film and the film was completed in March 2020. They were most recently planning on releasing the film to theaters in April 2020.
‘The New Mutants’ stars Maisie Williams, Anya Taylor-Joy, Charlie Heaton, Alice Braga, Blu Hunt, and Henry Zaga. It was directed by Josh Boone who came back to the project after the acquisition of 20th Century Fox. Boone as well as Knate Lee are the people who wrote the film based on the comic book story of the same name by Chris Claremont and Bob McLeod. Producers of the film include Simon Kinberg (The X-Men Franchise), Karen Rosenfelt, and Lauren Shuler Donner (The X-Men Franchise). Due to the Coronavirus Pandemic, the film’s release date has become indeterminate and will be discussed at a later date.
In video games, there are, more often then not, NPCs that populate the world you are playing in. For those unaware, NPC stands for non-player character; a simulation of a person. There are games where these characters are important to the story of a game and are responsible for moving a plot along. On the other hand, there are games where NPCs are there to simply populate the game world for depth or to add challenge. Unless they are a part of a game’s story, they don’t have many actions they can do, but some can still interact with the player. What if an NPC that isn’t suppose to interact with a player decides to and realizes that he is in a game?
The upcoming movie ‘Free Guy’ tells the story of one such NPC who finds out one day that he is a part of a video game world. Guy is the name of the character, and he discovers that the game he is in, called Free City, is soon going to be shut down. He manages to gain awareness of the world that he lives in after a new code is inserted into the game world by the game publisher Antoine. The code developed by programmers Milly and Keys who must similarly help to try and keep the game they have been working on from shutting down. With help from Guy, they just might be able to do it.
‘Free Guy’ was announced by Ryan Reynolds a little while back and it seemed like an interesting idea. It is a concept that hasn’t really ever been given life before, but it could do very well. The comedy in the film seems to be what anybody would have expected from those who have been listed working on it. The world that it is set in, from a player’s perspective, seems like it is a film industry look at what a game world is like, which doesn’t seem great. However, the way the world looks from the perspective of the NPCs is what makes it look real, and I think this is one of the points of the film.
‘Free Guy’ itself is a sci-fi action comedy film directed by Shawn Levy, who also directed Big Fat Liar, Cheaper by the Dozen, the Night at the Museum series, and Stranger Things. Acting in the film is Ryan Reynolds, Jodie Comer, Joe Keery, Lil Rel Howery, Utkarsh Ambudkar, and Taika Waititi. The story, as well as screenplay, was written by Matt Lieberman with screenwriter Zak Penn (The Avengers) assisting with the screenplay. It is being produced by Reynolds, Levy, Greg Berlanti, Sarah Schechter, and Adam Kolbrenner. As of now, it is slated for theatrical release on July 3, 2020.
Disney, as we all know, is a multimedia empire that owns all different kinds of properties that are beloved. With that said, it is an entertainment industry. So, in order to continue to bring in revenue and innovate to increase stock or at least keep it level, they must keep selling tickets and merchandise. With Covid-19 preventing people from leaving home or gathering anywhere, Disney is having a hard time making up for the whole mess. Parks and stores are closed, productions are cancelled, and theaters are shut down.
Movie productions have all but shut down as of now and since Disney owns so many properties, they are losing time for future films. Among the movies whose productions have shut down are the Avatar sequels, the live-action Little Mermaid, Shang–Chi and the Legend of the Rings, The Last Duel, Nightmare Alley, Vacation Friends, Shrunk, Peter Pan & Wendy, and Home Alone for Disney+. With these films in development limbo, Disney has a hard time ahead of them because they, like many other companies, are losing out on a lot of revenue. They are still bringing money in with Disney+, but they are losing out with investors since everything is shut down.
To put in perspective how much Disney is losing and how much has already been lost, one month ago their stock was sitting at 141.30, but now sits at somewhere around 92. They aren’t the only company getting hit hard by the crisis, with airline companies also being gouged by everything that is going on. Things going wrong for them has just been a bit more noticeable because they are, like many businesses, still paying employees who cannot work due to the virus. Not only that, but due to health concerns, they have had to push film releases such as Black Widow, back from their original release as well. Although they originally had no plans to do so, things have taken a drastic turn.
On the brighter side, to put it lightly, with streaming services and people being able to work from home, the conglomerate hasn’t had to shut down completely. This is an issue shared by numerous, if not all companies at the moment. The question that remains is how they will try and recover when everything is said and done. Some believe that other companies can take advantage of Disney’s current misfortune, but other companies are going through similar issues or will be going through them. During quarantine or following it, we will see how they manage to react to the issue and make up for it.
Not too long ago, it was revealed that the pre-production for an Uncharted live action film had begun. Next month, shooting for the film was supposed to have started but as stated above, that is being pushed indefinitely. It is starting to become more and more apparent that everyone, including actors are becoming infected with the Coronavirus. With that in mind, the safest thing to do in order to stem infection is to cancel all productions. This isn’t the first film that has had its production halted by the virus. Other films included on that list are The Little Mermaid‘s live action edition, the Avatar sequels, Nightmare Alley, and more.
For those that don’t know what the premise of the game or its series are, I’ll go through it quickly. The games follow the story of treasure hunter Nathan Drake and his travels all over the world. His goal is to uncover all number of historical mysteries that people have never been able to figure out. In an Indiana Jones fashion, the games always have a faction of rival treasure hunters that want the same artifact the main character does. This is how the games in those series go plot-wise and keep the stories fun, yet simple.
The ‘Uncharted’ film was to be led by Tom Holland as the lead character of Nathan Drake. Also starring alongside Holland was supposed to be Mark Wahlberg as Sullivan the friend and mentor of Drake. The movie is supposed to be a prequel to the games starring Holland as a younger Drake. ‘Uncharted’ sees Drake meeting Sully for the first time and the details of them becoming friends.
Other actors that were set to premiere within the film were Antonio Banderas, Tati Gabrielle, and Sophia Ali. Ruben Fleischer, the director behind Zombieland: Double Tap and Venom, is the director for the film and the current version of the script is written by Art Marcum and Matt Holloway. They are still on board with the film at this time, but with Sony’s announcement, we haven’t received any word on whether the release date will be pushed. As of now, the movie is set to be released on March 5th, 2021, but this will likely change in the near future. We will find out in the near future when, or if, they will continue their plan to film in Berlin, but for now it may be a few months.
Amazon Prime has been dropping all sorts of new shows and movies lately through their own production studio. The shows that they pump out are full episode series that manage to keep people entertained and are regularly given decent to good reviews. The shows themselves vary wildly, but the variety does well for the shows and Amazon itself. Prime Video is a place that offers a lot of different streaming opportunities for different kinds of people. One such example is the upcoming title ‘Upload’ mentioned above.
‘Upload’ is an upcoming Amazon Prime Video sci-fi comedy satire series. The premise of the show is that when people are near-death, they can inject their consciousness into a virtual afterlife. The series is set in an advanced future where hologram phones, 3D food printers and automated grocery stores are normal. In this world, people must decide on a whim if they want to live in a virtual realm for the remainder of eternity.
This series follows young app developer Nathan Brown after he gets into a self-driving car accident. In the hospital, following the accident, he must make the decision that will forever decide his fate. After a very quick discussion with his girlfriend, he is transported to her family’s luxurious virtual afterlife, the Horizen company’s “Lakeview.” Nathan meets his customer service “Angel” Nora Anthony once uploaded who becomes his guide and friend in the afterlife.
‘Upload’ is a series which stars starring Robbie Amell (Code 8), Andy Allo (Pitch Perfect 3), Kevin Bigley (Undone), Allegra Edwards (New Girl), and Zainab Johnson (American Koko). The series was created by Greg Daniels (The Office, Parks and Recreation) who also serves as executive producer along with Howard Klein (The Office). The series is an upcoming satirical comedy which shows us a world that can give us everything we think we want. It will release on Amazon Prime Video for the public on May 1st, 2020.
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