February is chugging along and Hollywood is charging into the third act of the 2022 awards season with tons of big news for your eyeballs. Exciting projects are on the horizon this week, with the headlines bringing big casting announcements for two superhero movies, a first look at the next Nolan joint, and updates on the Oscars ceremony this year. As always, Atom Insider brings you a few hand-picked stories we think you’ll like. Ready? Let’s dive in.
Fred Hechinger Is Cast As Chameleon In ‘Kraven The Hunter’
Sony’s Kraven the Hunter has grown by one more cast member. Deadline broke the news that Fred Hechinger (The White Lotus) has been cast in the role of Dmitri Smerdyakov, a.k.a. Chameleon, a Marvel supervillain and the first villain Spider-Man ever fought in the comics. He’s known as being a master of disguise and has an uncanny knack to impersonate almost anyone. In the comics, he’s also the half-brother of Sergei Kravinoff, the movie’s titular Kraven the Hunter. He joins a cast that already includes Aaron Taylor-Johnson in the lead role as the big game hunter, and Russell Crowe, whose role is unspecified, but it makes sense that he’d play Nikolai Kravinoff, the father to both Sergei and Dmitri.
Hechinger’s career is heating up. He saw his breakout role playing Quinn, the son of Steve Zahn’s and Connie Britton’s characters in HBO’s smash hit The White Lotus. He currently can be seen in Hulu’s limited series Pam & Tommy, and is busy filming Scott Cooper’s fictional historical horror movie The Pale Blue Eye with Christian Bale and Gillian Anderson. The next project he can be spotted in is the upcoming Nicolas Cage Western Butcher’s Crossing. Kraven the Hunter, which is being directed by J.C. Chandor, is aiming for a theatrical release on January 13, 2023.
First Look At Cillian Murphy In ‘Oppenheimer’ & More Casting News
Christopher Nolan’s Oppenheimer is shaping up to be one of the most exciting projects out there for a number of reasons. It’s revealed the first look at Cillian Murphy in the titular role of J. Robert Oppenheimer, who oversaw the Manhattan Project during WWII and became known as the “father of the atomic bomb” before having his loyalty to the United States later questioned. The first image shows Murphy in character as Oppenheimer, a moody, black and white shot of him in a fedora with a cigarette hanging out of his mouth.
The biopic, which is based on the 2005 Pulitzer Prize-winning book American Prometheus: The Triumph and Tragedy of J. Robert Oppenheimer by Kai Bird and the late Martin J. Sherwin, will chronicle a lengthy span of Oppenheimer’s life, including his part in creating the atomic bomb and beyond. It already has an absolutely stacked cast. Along with Murphy, the cast boasts Robert Downey Jr., Matt Damon, Emily Blunt, Florence Pugh, Rami Malek, Benny Safdie, Josh Hartnett, Dane DeHaan, Jack Quaid, Matthew Modine, Alden Ehrenreich, David Krumholtz, and it also just added Kenneth Branagh and Michael Angarano to the call sheet. This will be the first movie that Nolan has shot after his public breakup with his longtime studio partner, Warner Bros., but it doesn’t appear to have slowed down the filmmaker any. Universal set a release date for Oppenheimer for July 21, 2023.
‘Uncharted’ Overperforms In Its Opening Weekend
Despite poor reviews, Tom Holland’s Uncharted came out of its opening weekend as a surprise success, well overperforming expectations at the box office. Heading into the long holiday weekend, Uncharted was tracking for a $27 million opening over three days and $30 million over four days. Instead, it came out of the Presidents’ Day weekend with $44 million in the three-day timeframe and $51 million over the full four-day weekend, a full $20 million more than what was projected. That’s a huge success no matter how you cut it. It doesn’t hurt that the movie was led by Tom Holland coming fresh off his monstrous hit with Spider-Man: No Way Home.
Though the Uncharted adaptation generated plenty of criticism from fans of the Sony video game franchise for how many liberties it took with the games, it would appear that we can conclusively put to bed the idea that video game movies are cursed. Between this, Sonic the Hedgehog, Detective Pikachu, and even the Tomb Raider reboot and the recent Mortal Kombat, it would appear Hollywood has slowly started to crack the code on how to adapt video games for the big screen. Currently, Uncharted stands at $143.5 million global, but the real tell of whether or not it’s a legitimate success will be its second-weekend dropoff. If it sees a normal drop or slightly less, it’s almost certain that a sequel will be greenlit sooner rather than later. When that sequel might happen is unclear as Holland is one of the busiest actors in Hollywood. Still, considering his close working relationship with Sony and the blockbuster nature of the Uncharted franchise, it’s likely to be a priority project for him should a sequel be greenlit.
‘No Way Home’ Stars Recreate Iconic Spider-Man Meme
For months now, Spider-Man: No Way Home stars Tom Holland, Tobey Maguire, and Andrew Garfield have been talking about how much fun they had shooting the movie together. It was an affirming and cathartic process for all three of them, with all of them describing how emotional the final day of filming was for each of them. The trio even formed a “Spider-Man” text group that is still active. Now, a new picture was released to promote the home release of No Way Home that’s just plain fun. The three recreated the famous Spider-Man meme of the two Spider-Men pointing at each other taken from the 1960s Spider-Man cartoon. Later, that meme was modified to show cartoon versions of all three live-action Spider-Men pointing at each other and indeed, that’s the meme the three recreated:
For reference, this is the original modified meme with the three Spider-Men:
Not bad, guys.
Spider-Man: No Way Home will hit streaming and digital on March 22 and be available on physical media (Blu-ray and 4K UHD) on April 12.
Oscars Ceremony To Cut Some Categories From Live Awards Show
In an attempt to keep the show’s length down and boost ratings, the Academy has decided that eight of the 23 current Oscar categories will not be televised live during this year’s Academy Awards. Instead, they’ll be taped before the broadcast and shown at different points throughout the show. AMPAS President David Rubin sent out a letter to nominees and Academy members explaining the reason for the changes, but, again, it’s clearly an attempt to expand the audience for the show in an attempt to bolster its flagging ratings. Reportedly, the changes were made after suggestions by Oscars network ABC and industry insiders. Those eight categories are
- Documentary (Short Subject)
- Film Editing
- Makeup and Hairstyling
- Music (Original Score)
- Production Design
- Short Film (Animated)
- Short Film (Live Action)
- Sound
This isn’t the first change the Academy has made in recent weeks in an attempt to reignite interest in an awards show that has long been seen as out of touch with the general public. The Academy also launched an #OscarsFanFavorite hashtag campaign on Twitter encouraging fans to vote for their favorite movie of the year, the winner of which will be announced in a special presentation during the broadcast. Though derided as an ill-advised campaign, it’s a sign that the Academy is aware it is in desperate need of reconnecting with the broader audience that has long since lost interest in an awards ceremony that has very few movies they’ve seen and even fewer that excite them. It remains to be seen if these two bids to generate more interest will pay off when the Oscars air on Sunday, March 27.
Aaron Pierre Joins Mahershala Ali In Marvel’s ‘Blade’
Marvel’s Blade reboot with Mahershala Ali is quietly picking up steam over the past few months. After the exciting news late last year that veteran actor Delroy Lindo would be joining the project, a new face has been added that’s just as exciting. Deadline reports that Aaron Pierre has joined the cast in an unspecified role. Bassam Tariq is directing off a script by Stacy Osei-Kuffour. Though his role isn’t known, it’s apparently a pivotal one and one that was highly sought by a number of actors. Marvel reportedly took their time in casting in, with Pierre emerging as the clear frontrunner in recent weeks.
Similar to Kraven the Hunter‘s Fred Hechinger, Aaron Pierre is one of the hottest young up-and-comers in Hollywood in the past year. He recently had starring roles in Barry Jenkins’ event series The Underground Railroad and in M. Night Shyamalan’s horror-thriller Old as well as appearing earlier in the short-lived Krypton. He’s also been tapped by Disney to work with Jenkins again, this time voicing a younger Mufasa in its The Lion King prequel movie. Currently, he’s busy filming the Garth Davis thriller Foe opposite Saoirse Ronan and Paul Mescal.
Trailers & Clips of the Week
The Bad Guys – Official Trailer #2
Okay, that looks like a lot of fun.
Elvis – Official Trailer
No one does bombastic glamor like Baz Luhrmann. No one.
The Adam Project – ‘Adam Meets Adam’ Clip
Ryan Reynolds just really doesn’t miss, does he?
