Month: July 2019

Don’t expect action movie actor Dave Bautista to join the Fast & Furious franchise anytime soon. The Guardians of the Galaxy and James Bond actor said on Twitter, probably jokingly to some extent, that he would “rather do good films.”

His comment came in reply to someone on Twitter (via IndieWire) suggesting that Bautista would make for a good villain in a Fast & Furious spin-off starring The Rock and John Cena. The Rock and Cena, after all, are appearing together in Fast & Furious 9. Of course, Bautista’s replies were flooded with messages about “bad” movies that he made in the past.

For what it’s worth, Bautista admits to appearing in some films that were less than great, but he said he did so to help advance his career. He also pointed out that he had the experience of working with Hollywood legend Sylvester Stallone in the Escape Plan series.

Bautista’s next big role is in the action-comedy Stuber, which he stars in alongside his MCU colleague Karen Gillan, as well as Kumail Nanjiani. Some of his other upcoming roles include parts in Escape Plan 3, My Spy, Dune, Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3, and Army of the Dead.

In other news about Dave Bautista, the actor has said he wants to play Marcus Fenix in the Gears of War movie. However, no casting announcements have been made.

Avengers: Endgame returned to theatres this weekend with bonus footage–and included in that is Epic Games boss Donald Mustard. Mustard, who is worldwide creative director at the Fortnite studio, said on Twitter that he appears for 3.2 seconds as a pony-tailed character.

Mustard shared a photo of himself in costume, chatting to Iron Man actor Robert Downey Jr. and Doctor Strange actor Benedict Cumberbatch. A second photo posted by Mustard’s wife, Laura Mustard, shows them all hanging out with directors Joe and Anthony Russo.

In another tweet, Mustard says he thought about stealing his sling ring, but the film crew had security locked down. The Russo brothers are big fans of Fortnite; they’ve worn Fortnite t-shirts in various media appearances, and they even put a Fortnite scene in Endgame.

Endgame made a further $5.5 million in the US and Canada this weekend, and a few million more overseas, pushing its total lifetime haul to $2.76 billion. That’s about $27 million shy of Avatar’s overall all-time record; it’s a record that Endgame may never beat.

Avengers: Endgame returned to theatres this weekend with bonus footage, but it still hasn’t passed Avatar as the biggest box office smash of all time–and it may never.

That’s according to “box office insiders” who spoke to The Hollywood Reporter about the matter. The re-release pulled in $5.5 million in the US and Canada this weekend and a further $2.3 million from overseas markets. In total, Endgame has now made $2.76 billion worldwide. That’s about $27 million short of Avatar’s $2.78 billion record.

The box office insiders told THR that Endgame will not surpass Avatar in the immediate future, if ever. The suggestion there is that it’s theoretically possible the movie will be re-released again down the road, though nothing is confirmed. After all, Avatar was re-released after it initially premiered, and that second run helped it make $33 million more.

Endgame returned to theatres not only in an attempt to catch up to Avatar’s box office record, but also as a tie-in to Spider-Man: Far From Home. That film, which opens this week, deals directly with the events of Endgame.

Avatar recently became a Disney property when Disney acquired the majority of Fox’s entertainment assets. In fact, Disney owns 7 of the top 10 highest grossing movies ever globally. The top 10 list is below.

Biggest Box Office Of All Time Worldwide

1. Avatar — $2.78 billion
2. Avengers: Endgame — $2.76 billion
3. Titanic — $2.18 billion
4. Star Wars: The Force Awakens — $2.068 billion
5. Avengers: Infinity War — $2.048 billion
6. Jurassic World — $1.671 billion
7. The Avengers — $1.518 billion
8. Furious 7 — $1.516 billion
9. Avengers: Age of Ultron — $1.405 billion
10. Black Panther — $1.346 billion

Amazon’s new Lord of the Rings TV show will film in New Zealand, just as Peter Jackson’s Lord of the Rings and Hobbit trilogies did. This is according to The New Zealand Herald, which reports that a “huge” part of the show will be made in the country; Auckland and Queenstown were specifically called out as potential filming locations.

An Auckland films industry senior member told the publication that at least two different New Zealand film production companies, Kumeu Film Studios and Auckland Film Studios, are already doing pre-production work on the show. In fact, it’s reported they’ve been working for more than a year already on the project in various endeavors such as building studio locations.

It was previously rumored that the Amazon Lord of the Rings TV show may film in Scotland. It’s still possible the production will shoot in other locations outside of New Zealand. The NZ Herald reported that a “huge” part, but presumably not all, would be filmed in New Zealand.

An official announcement is presumably expected soon.

The new Lord of the Rings show is set in the Second Age, which is a 3,441-year period that covered major events like the forging of the Rings of Power, including the One Ring; the War of Sauron, the beginning of the Ringwraiths, and when Numenor the island sank into the ocean. Also, it was during the Second Age that the Elven city of Rivendell was developed and that the great battle where men, elves, and dwarves fought together for the first time against Sauron. A popular rumor was that the show would focus on a young Aragorn, but that may not happen.

JD Payne and Patrick McKay are writing Amazon’s Lord of the Rings show. They have no TV writing credits to their name, but neither did David Benioff and D.B. Weiss when they made the massively popular Game of Thrones series. Amazon’s Lord of the Rings show recently brought on Game of Thrones series producer Bryan Cogman, who was known as the “third head of the dragon” for Game of Thrones, along with Weiss and Benioff.

There is no word yet on when the Lord of the Rings show will premiere or who will star in it.

In other news, a new Lord of the Rings video game focused on Gollum is in development at Daedalic Entertainment, while a AAA online Lord of the Rings game is also on the way.