Month: June 2021

Dalmatians are proving to be Disney’s new best friends. As Cruella heads into its second weekend, The Hollywood Reporter has learned the studio behind the Emma Stone-starrer is in early development on a sequel. Cruella director Craig Gillespie and screenwriter Tony McNamara are expected to return for a sequel to the film that stars Stone as fan-favorite One Hundred and One Dalmatians villainess Cruella de Vil. Cruella debuted May 28 simultaneously in theaters and on Disney+ under the streaming service’s Premier Access tier, making it available to purchase for $30. The film has earned $48.5 million globally. It received positive reviews and has been praised for its 1970s punk rock aesthetic. “We are very pleased with Cruella’s box office success, in conjun...

Casey Bloys has had a long stretch of happy Mondays. The steady growth of viewership and buzz for “Mare of Easttown” over its seven-week run on Sunday nights has been welcome news for the chief content officer of HBO and HBO Max. The Kate Winslet murder-mystery made its mark just as HBO’s parent company was once again thrust into a massive corporate transition with the WarnerMedia-Discovery merger agreement that shocked the industry last month. “Mare” is the latest in a string of successful and buzzy series delivered over the past few years by Bloys and his programming team. The track record is impressive given the high drama that has gone on behind the scenes at HBO and other former Time Warner units since the sale to AT&T in 2018. “Though all the mergers and reorg...

Loki director Kate Herron’s heart was beating fast. She’d already had some surreal experiences during her short time in the Marvel Cinematic Universe, so a simple phone call shouldn’t make her nervous. But on the other end of the line was Owen Wilson, an actor and writer she admired and hoped would join her on a time-jumping journey through the MCU. “It was the most detailed pitch I’ve ever done, to an actor, ever. I pretty much spoke through the entire first episode with him,” Herron recalls of wooing Wilson, who wasn’t too familiar with Marvel before being cast as Mobius, an agent for the mysterious Time Variance Authority central to the series. Wilson instantly put Herron at ease with his laid-back charm as she walked the actor through 10 years of onscre...

Issa Rae is entering the Spider-Verse. Rae, the star of HBO’s acclaimed comedy-drama Insecure, has joined the voice cast of Sony Pictures Animation’s sequel to Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse. Rae becomes the first new addition to the roll call that includes Shameik Moore and Hailee Steinfeld, who are reprising their roles of Miles Morales, aka Spider-Man, and Spider-Gwen respectively. Plot details are being kept hidden in the circuits of a super-collider but will continue to feature an array of Spider-characters drawn across Marvel Comics’ time and space. According to sources, Rae will voice Jessica Drew, aka Spider-Woman. Phil Lord and Chris Miller will be the credited writers on the project along with David Callaham (Shang-Chi and the Legend of the...