News of the Week: The First 'Thor Love & Thunder' Trailer Is Here

Summer blockbuster movie season is around the corner and movie news is heating up. This week has brought a bunch of big trailer drops, including Marvel’s most anticipated, some big casting news, a reteaming of an iconic Hollywood bromance, and more. As always, Atom Insider brings you a few hand-picked stories we think you’ll like. Ready? Let’s dive in.

The First ‘Thor: Love & Thunder’ Teaser Trailer Has Finally Arrived

With less than three months to go before the movie’s release, Marvel fans have been getting increasingly nervous about where the trailer for Thor: Love & Thunder was. Their prayers were finally answered with the first teaser trailer releasing this week.

There’s not a lot to go on there–Marvel is famous for pulling all the material for its trailers from the first act only, and sometimes the second act, reserving the third as a surprise. So don’t expect the Guardians of the Galaxy to be in the whole movie–it would appear this is still Thor’s journey. And the teaser didn’t give us our first look at Christian Bale’s villain, Gorr the God Butcher, but it did have a great reveal of Natalie Portman’s Jane Foster as the Mighty Thor. Clearly, all those workouts she was doing to prepare for the role paid off as she looks great. The vibe looks to be a little more ’80s hair metal to Thor: Ragnarok‘s ’80s New Wave, but just as colorful and fun. Less than three months to go until we see what Thor’s been up to with the Guardians since the end of Avengers: Endgame.

Jason Momoa To Star In ‘Minecraft’ Movie For Warner Bros.

Ten years ago, it was comic books, and now movies based on video games and board games are the new hotness in Hollywood. Warner Bros. has its next video game adaptation lined up with Minecraft, and they also have their star lined up, too. Jason Momoa is in talks to headline the adaptation. The details of the plot are being kept tightly under wraps, but considering the pieces Warner Bros. has assembled, it’s likely it will have more than a bit of comedy: Napoleon Dynamite director Jared Hess has been tapped to direct off a script from Masterminds writers Chris Bowman and Hubbel Palmer. Minecraft is an open-world sandbox game where players can build their own buildings, machinery, and more; different game modes include survival mode and creative mode. With such a simple premise, the movie adaptation has a lot of room to play around narratively. Originally, the Minecraft project was given a release date of March 4th of this year, but with the pandemic pushing everything back, that obviously didn’t happen. Currently, it’s undated.

‘Fast & Furious 10’ Gets An Official Title As Production Begins

A quick bit of news for this one: Vin Diesel revealed on his Instagram (the same way he revealed that Brie Larson had joined Fast & Furious 10) that the upcoming tenth Fast & Furious movie has an official title. The new title for the movie is Fast X which he shared in a post:

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The caption is uncharacteristically brief for Diesel, but packs a punch: “Day one…” it reads. That’s because Fast X has officially begun production. Principal photography began yesterday (Wednesday) in the UK. Among the new faces on set for this one are two big names and one rising star. The aforementioned Larson, Jason Momoa, and The Suicide Squad breakout Daniela Melchior have all joined the cast. Currently, the release date for Fast X is set for May 19, 2023.

Ben Affleck & Matt Damon Are Reteaming For A Nike Drama

The boys are back together; specifically, Ben Affleck and Matt Damon. Affleck is set to direct a Nike sports drama for Amazon Studios, Skydance Sports, and Mandalay Pictures, and he’s also pulling double duty in the role of Phil Knight, the co-founder of Nike. Meanwhile, his old friend Damon will be playing Sonny Vaccaro, an ambitious sneaker salesman who wants to push Nike to the top. The as-yet-untitled film will tell the story of how Vaccaro helped transform the new company Nike into one of the biggest brands in the world by pulling off the unthinkable: pursuing a contract with Michael Jordan. In the mid-’80s, it was unthinkable. At the time, Jordan was the biggest athlete in the world and Nike was a no-name, fledgling company, but Vaccaro and Knight pulled off the impossible and Nike’s partnership with Jordan became the blueprint for the athlete/athletic brand relationship. According to Deadline, Vaccaro went above and beyond when courting Jordan:

“Sonny’s relentless quest to sign Jordan to what was then the third-place shoe company takes him to Jordan’s parents, and in particular his powerful, dynamic mother, as well as to former coaches, advisors, friends and those close to Michael. Jordan himself is a giant mythic figure hovering above the movie and never seen, while Sonny tries to reach him by gaining access to those close to him and around him.”

The Black List script was written by Alex Convery. Affleck and Damon are reportedly doing another pass on the script, but no release date is yet set for the biopic.

A Live-Action ‘Voltron’ Movie Is In The Works

The live-action Voltron project is reportedly heating up this week. The project, which has Red Notice director Rawson Marshall Thurber attached to direct, has started to be shopped around the town. While talks are early, it’s expected that Amazon will win the bidding war for the movie, which was up for grabs by a number of studios. Thurber is writing the script with Ellen Shanman, and Todd Lieberman and David Hoberman are set to produce alongside Bob Koplar.

American audiences who grew up in the ’80s know all about Voltron. Based on the Japanese sci-fi series, the animated ’80s cartoon Voltron: Defender of the Universe revolved around five mech pilots and space explorers whose individual vehicles come together to form the giant super robot known as Voltron. Hopefully, the live-action adaptation of Voltron will fare better than 2017’s disappointing live-action Power Rangers attempt.

Weekend Box Office Forecast

This weekend features an eclectic but highly anticipated mix of movies at the box office. The Nic Cage and Pedro Pascal-led meta-comedy The Unbearable Weight of Massive Talent, the Alexander Skarsgård epic historical drama The Northman, and the family-friendly animated The Bad Guys all hit theaters this week. With them being smaller and more niche movies, the haul for the weekend isn’t expected to be huge, with The Bad Guys projected to take home the most with $15 million. Meanwhile, Robert Eggers’ R-rated Northman is eyeballing a take between $8-12 million, while the Nicolas Cage satire is tracking for $5-7 million. All three movies have had great reviews, particularly Bad Guys and Unbearable Weight, so it’s entirely possible that word-of-mouth will bump those totals up or see them gain a second-weekend bump. Meanwhile, they’ll be up against weekend #3 of Sonic the Hedgehog 2 and the second weekend for Fantastic Beats: The Secrets of Dumbledore. But all movies will have to do their business by May 6th, when they’ll clear out of the way for Marvel juggernaut Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness.

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