Daniela Melchior as Ratcatcher in ‘The Suicide Squad.’
Talk about a fast rise to big movies: Daniel Melchior, who made her big Hollywood debut with ‘The Suicide Squad’ last year, is heading for another hefty franchise, as The Wrap reports she’s joining the cast of ‘Fast & Furious 10’.
The increasingly physics-denying movie series (they went to orbit in the last one) is preparing to wrap up its current run with a one-two punch of the next two films.
With Vin Diesel as usual producing and starring, most of ‘Fast 10’ is under wraps right now. All we really know right now is that veteran ‘Fast’ director Justin Lin is back at the steering wheel after also making the last movie.
‘Fast 10’s story is being kept quiet, though you just know it’ll involve speedy vehicles, ridiculous stunts, a big threat plus plenty of moments of the cast bonding over BBQs and bottles of Corona.
One person who likely won’t be showing up is Dwayne Johnson, who has been in a less-than-subtle rift with Diesel during the last few years and seems content to either appear in ‘Hobbs & Shaw’ spin-off movies or stick to his own franchises.
(L to R) Vin Diesel, Charlize Theron, Michelle Rodriguez, Dwayne Johnson, Tyrese Gibson, Chris “Ludacris” Bridges, and Jason Statham in ‘The Fate of the Furious.’
As for his ‘Hobbs’ co-star Jason Statham, he appears more likely to return to the main movies following a credits sting that saw his Deckard Shaw confronted by Han. Those with a memory for the various ‘Fast’ twists and turns will recall that it was Shaw who was responsible for Han’s “death”. Hopefully they’ll be able to work it out before someone ends up dead. Again.
Or not. Look, it’s confusing.
Still, to beef up the muscle factor, the new movie is adding Jason Momoa, with the ‘Aquaman’ star reportedly playing a villain. He’s said that he’s thrilled to be joining the ‘Fast’ family and if tradition holds, he’ll only be a bad guy for so long before he ends up joining forces with Dom and co. – so far, only Charlize Theron’s Cypher has resisted the urge to switch sides.
In addition to her praised turn as Cleo Cazo AKA Ratcatcher 2, Melchior dubbed the voice of Gwen Stacey in Portuguese for ‘Spider-Man: Into The Spider-Verse’ and has a couple of other movies coming up.
‘Fast & Furious 10’ – whatever it tends up being subtitled (‘Fast 10 Forward’ is probably too ‘Star Trek: The Next Generation’ unless they plan on having Whoopi Goldberg show up) – is scheduled to drive up to theaters on May 19 next year. The 11th movie could be shot concurrently, though that doesn’t seem to be the plan right now.
If you were one of the many people who saw “Fast & Furious Presents: Hobbs & Shaw” this weekend (and, judging by the box office numbers, you probably did), you were in for a few very big surprises. We spoke with the film’s director, David Leitch, about those surprises, which you can read about here.
And oh yeah – MASSIVE SPOILER WARNING!!!
So, what we’re talking about is that Ryan Reynolds, Detective Pikachu himself, shows up early in the movie as a governmental liaison who sets up the deal for Hobbs (Dwayne Johnson) to team up with Shaw (Jason Statham). Another big surprise comes later in the movie, when Johnson’s “Jumanji: The Next Level” co-star Kevin Hart shows up as an air marshal looking to help.
These are major movie stars appearing in a giant summer movie who appear for more than just a brief cameo. The fact that none of this leaked before the movie opened is kind of a miracle. And it sounds like there was a concerted effort by the filmmakers and marketing pros to keep it secret.
“We’ve all been really diligent to keep it under wraps and again, you’re posting this after, so hopefully, fingers crossed, we’ve achieved it,” Leitch said. “I think you can see how important it is to the audience’s experience of it. Again, I’m sure the cat will be out of the bag opening weekend but that first time is really fun.” Leitch added: “As a filmmaker I really wanted to preserve that for the audience. So hopefully we can do it.”
And if it seemed like Reynolds and Hart were introduced for a specific reason, well, you weren’t wrong. Although Leitch says that a conversation about the stars returning for future installments has “never been a conversation with the studio,” Leitch said it was always his “intention.” “I wanted to lay the groundwork for something fun and big and opportunities for everyone in the film to do something beyond it in this universe,” Leitch said. “So if those guys want to come back and play, I’m sure the studio would love to have them and that’s how I intended to set them up.”
Again, given the box office (and the various plot threads established in this movie), chances are high that Hobbs and Shaw will ride again.
The spinoff, starring Dwayne Johnson, Jason Statham, Idris Elba, and Vanessa Kirby, is expected to be an even bigger draw overseas. “Hobbs & Shaw” launched internationally with $120 million for a global start of $180 million. That’s impressive, although it’s still got to earn back its sizable $200 million budget.
Its $60 million domestic opening weekend marks the biggest debut for Johnson and Statham outside of the “Fast & Furious” franchise. It’s also Universal’s fifth-highest grossing global launch ever, after “The Fate of the Furious,” “Jurassic World,” “Furious 7” and “Fifty Shades of Grey.”
The film has an “A-” CinemaScore and a 90% audience rating on Rotten Tomatoes.
Sony Pictures Releasing
Quentin Tarantino’s “Once Upon a Time in Hollywood” had a strong second weekend in theaters, landing in third place. The R-rated drama starring Leonardo DiCaprio, Brad Pitt, Margot Robbie collected $20 million, a 51% decline from its first weekend. After 10 days, the film has made $78 million in North America.
Walt Disney Studios Motion Pictures
Meanwhile, “The Lion King” was No. 2 with a solid $38 million. It’s the fourth Disney movie this year to cross $400 million in domestic ticket sales. With $430 million in North America and $1.19 billion internationally, “The Lion King” is now the second-biggest film of the year both domestically and globally.
Neon
In limited release, “Luce” debuted with $132,916 from five locations. The psychological drama starring Octavia Spencer and Naomi Watts has a 94% critics’ rating on Rotten Tomatoes: Audiences have so far given it a 74% rating. It boasted the highest per-screen-average of the weekend, with $26,583 per theater.
IFC Films
The period revenge thriller “The Nightingale,” the second film from “The Babadook” director Jennifer Kent, debuted at 2 locations with $40,082 — a second-best per-screen average of $20,041.
Here are the top 10 estimates for August 2-4, 2019
Turns out the three biggest, toughest stars in the franchise — Vin Diesel, Dwayne Johnson and Jason Statham — closely monitor their fights scenes to make sure they always end up winners.
It’s been an open secret that none of the heroes in the “Fast”-verse ever lose a fight. Now the Wall Street Journal is reporting that it’s actually a stipulation in their contracts!
“According to producers and crew members on the films, Mr. Statham, 51 years old, negotiated an agreement with the studio that limits how badly he can be beaten up on screen,” according to the Journal. “Mr. Diesel, 52, has his younger sister, a producer on the films, police the number of punches he takes. And Mr. Johnson, 47, enlists producers, editors and fight coordinators to help make sure he always gives as good as he gets.”
Not only that, at one point, Diesel reportedly came up with an elaborate scoring system to track various kinds of attacks (punches, kicks, etc.) but it proved too complex to keep up.
These attempts to look as badass as possible (and at least as badass as their co-star) are fairly noticeable in scenes when the leads fight each other. For example, in “Fast Five,” Diesel throws Johnson through a wall; eight seconds later, Johnson does the same in return.
Diesel, Johnson, and Statham did not comment on the report. But a studio spokesperson said, “Every character has their moment, and that all are seen as formidable opponents. Each ‘Fast’ character is a hero to someone watching, and we never forget that.”
We are definitely in the dog days of summer, when the sun is out longer and everything feels hotter and more exhausting than the day before. But one way to beat the heat and have your adrenaline levels comfortably spike is by slipping into the theater to see “Fast & Furious Presents: Hobbs & Shaw.” The first official spin-off in the franchise sees federal agent Hobbs (Dwayne Johnson) re-team with reformed criminal Shaw (Jason Statham) to go after a super-villainous baddie named Brixton (Idris Elba). It’s just as explosive and over-the-top as you’d imagine something like this being, with huge stunts, wicked banter, and very cool cars.
We spoke with “Hobbs & Shaw” director David Leitch about his relationship with the franchise, whether or not Keanu Reeves was ever going to join the movie, if we’ll see another “Atomic Blonde” film and, oh by the way, has he heard anything about the long-rumored new installment in “Matrix” series. Rev your engines and get to reading!
Moviefone: Looking at your filmography, it is shocking to see that you have never worked on one of the “Fast and Furious” movies. What your relationship with them before signing on?
David Leitch: It’s funny, you’re right. I must be the only stunt man in Hollywood who has never worked on one because they use every possible stunt man on the planet. If you’ve seen the action in those movies … As a guide that directs action movies, to be invited to be a part of the “Fast & Furious” world, it’s a big deal, because the set pieces are big, the resources are plenty and the expectation is high. It was really great to be called upon and them say, “Hey, would you like to do your take on the ‘Fast & Furious’ world?” So here we are.
Well what was your take? Were there things that you really wanted to add to the franchise? And was there anything that Universal asked you to include?
There weren’t any real directives from Universal per se. I think that they were really supportive of me as a filmmaker, striking my own pose and doing what I wanted to do with the universe.
There was a lot of trust in me that I would remain true to the ‘Fast’ world in a couple of things, but it was never a conversation. And I think we did — there’s elements of family that are hugely important in the franchise and we tackle them in our own way. The set pieces are big and bombastic and, you know, defy physics and they’re fun and meant for the summer movies. And I think we delivered on that.
I think the biggest choice we made was to take the tone in a more fun way. We let the audience know that we weren’t going to be so self-serious and that we could actually have some fun with these characters a lot like they do in the three movies that they’re in together. So we just built on that. That’s where I wanted to take it. When you see Hobbs and Shaw their dynamic from the previous films, I wanted to build on that.
It feels like an eighties buddy movie but exploded to “Fast & Furious” proportions.
Yes. It is sort of like the eighties buddy action movie collided with a ‘Fast’ movie and it exploded. It’s two trains on the track. But that’s what I was hoping for. And I think that, there are the movies that I grew up watching like ”Lethal Weapon” where you have these two characters that are so perfectly defined in the first 10 minutes of the movie that you can’t wait to see them collide. And that’s not unlike what we’ve tried to do with Hobbs and Shaw at the beginning of this movie.
What is your personal philosophy is in terms of going into these action sequences? Particularly in “Deadpool 2” and this, you’ve done a really great job of sort of mixing CGI and digital doubles with practical effects.
Well, with “Hobbs and Shaw” it becomes next level. “Deadpool” was a great stepping stone for the integration of practical stunts, which is my forte and where I come from, and visual effects. That was one level. And then there’s the “Fast & Furious” level, which is crazy integration. And I guess the way I approached that is I start with the practical and we get as much in camera as possible, more than most directors because they don’t come from sort of this analog filmmaking background that I come from. And we do the stunts to the best of our ability and get as many of the assets on camera.
For example, the scene in Samoa at the end, with the cars — the black hawk helicopters are real helicopters, we’re flying another picture helicopter over the chain of cars and the cars on the ground are all real. And then the digital enhancement is when they’re hanging off of it. So you’re combining all these real elements and you’re adding digital assets to enhance them. And what that does is it forces the artists to deliver more compelling work and they have better models they have a better roadmap and it allows for better integration. A lot of times filmmakers just make the digital cartoon from top to bottom and there’s nothing real. And that doesn’t make those sequences that compelling.
I mean, was there ever a point where you tried to do the motorcycle practically?
No. But my crew wouldn’t be surprised if I asked that. The motorcycle became something that was late in the game and we were developing rigs where we could slide the motorcycle on a rig that was being slid under trucks that were on Gimbels. And we were going to shoot it with real cameras. And it did become logistically like, okay, now it’s too crazy. But then the idea of the transforming bike took hold and that was something that really had to be created in CG with some great artists.
Obviously we should not ever believe anything we read online, but there were persistent rumors over the past year that the movie’s big bad was going to be played by Keanu Reeves. Was there any truth to those rumors?
We had talks with Keanu and a lot of this stuff takes time on these big movies and he was deep in the throws of ‘John Wick 3.’ It was never talked about like what he would do or what he would play or who it was. But would I like Keanu to be a part of this universe? Yes. So we were never really specific about who he was or what it was going to be, but we were, yes, we’re talking about, “Hey, you want to be in there? Because that’d be awesome.” That’s as far as went.
You and Chad created the “John Wick” franchise. Are you blown away by what it has become?
Look, I am humbled by it I really sort of grateful that this small, independent movie we made, collectively had this resonance in the action space and beyond. It’s a testament to the character that that Chad and I created in the first film and Keanu created and I look at characters living on and we’re just like grateful and we get to make more of those. It’s pretty cool.
Universal
I just wanted to quickly ask about a couple of other things: you did “Atomic Blonde” a couple of years ago and Charlize talks every so often about you guys are working on a follow-up. Is that something that you would still like to pursue?
I am. I love “Atomic Bomb” and I love the Lorraine Broughton character. I think that there have been talks about taking that world and going to other places and we’ve had ideas circling in the past. It’d be interesting what they come up with. So we’ll see.
You have worked very closely and on a number of films with theWachowskis and there’s been talk that they’re coming out of retirement for another “Matrix.” Have you, have you talked to them at all about that?
I haven’t and I hope to talk to them soon, but I haven’t heard any details or know much about it. But how exciting to see them back in the directorial space and I loved them a lot. Nothing but the best for them and I look forward to catching up with them soon.
So far this summer movie season has been pretty dismal. But if anybody can rescue it from the doldrums, it’s Dwayne Johnson and Jason Statham. The pair return, after making such beautiful musical together in “The Fate of the Furious,” to star in the first ever “Fast & Furious” spin-off movie, “Hobbs & Shaw.” And if you weren’t already jacked up about this action extravaganza (out August 2ndeverywhere), well then this exclusive featurette should properly get you in the mood. In it, the two discuss their friendship, creative partnership, and ability to make each other laugh. It’s more charming than you could possibly imagine.
Universal released the first trailer for the “Fast and Furious” spinoff starring Dwayne Johnson as Luke Hobbs and Jason Statham as Deckard Shaw. The one-time antagonists seem the least likely to team up — bromance, this is not — but they must work together to save the world (for the fourth time, by Hobbs’ personal estimation) from the nefarious plans of Brixton (Idris Elba).
Along the way, they kick multiple bad guy asses, perform some insane driving maneuvers, and scale down a skyscraper (or at least, one of them does).
The trailer definitely has the snarky buddy cop vibe of a “Lethal Weapon,” with less of the “family” feeling of the main line “Fast and Furious” movies. The franchise is already a massive money-maker and it looks like the Rock is cooking up a potential line of hit spinoffs.
“Fast & Furious Presents: Hobbs and Shaw” opens in theaters August 2.
The “Hobbs and Shaw” trailer is coming soon, and to preview its release, star Dwayne Johnson has shared a teaser promising “a nice cold can of whup ass.”
Johnson has been hyping up the “Fast and Furious” spinoff featuring his character, Luke Hobbs, and Jason Statham’s character, Deckard Shaw. The trailer premieres Friday and will likely air during the Super Bowl on Sunday.
The trailer teaser doesn’t show much. Basically, a garage door opens to reveal Hobbs flexing a fist and looking tough:
The movie teams up the one-time antagonists against a common enemy, international terrorist Brixton (Idris Elba). Joining them are Shaw’s sister, MI6 agent Hattie Shaw (Vanessa Kirby), and the mysterious Madam M (Eiza Gonzalez).
The “Fast and Furious 9” family will be missing at least a couple members.
Dwayne Johnson has confirmed that there are no plans for his character, Luke Hobbs, to appear in the next franchise main line film.
Johnson and Jason Statham are starring in the upcoming spinoff “Hobbs and Shaw,” which opens August 2.
“The plan has always been for the ‘Fast and Furious’ universe to grow and expand. As of now, we’re not in ‘Fast 9’ because they’re getting ready to start shooting,” Johnson told MTV News.
“But who knows with ‘Fast 10’ and down the road, you never know. Because look, at the end of the day, the truth is, there’s unfinished business between Hobbs and Dom. It’s unfinished.”
Johnson was involved in a much-publicized feud with star and franchise executive producer Vin Diesel. In a 2016 Instagram post, he called out some of his castmates as being “candy asses.” He also confirmed that the two did not film any scenes together in “Fate of the Furious.”
As he told Rolling Stone, “Vin and I had a few discussions, including an important face-to-face in my trailer,” he says. “And what I came to realize is that we have a fundamental difference in philosophies on how we approach moviemaking and collaborating. It took me some time, but I’m grateful for that clarity. Whether we work together again or not.”
It looks like … not. Of course, Johnson and Statham could make a brief cameo in “Fast 9” and still be key players in “Fast 10.” But if “Hobbs and Shaw” is a hit, they may just branch off into a string of their own “Fast and Furious” films.
Ahead of the summer release of “Hobbs & Shaw,” star Dwayne Johnson is keeping fans’ interest.
The actor recently revealed the latest set photo via social media and again teased a huge clash involving himself as Luke Hobbs, Jason Statham as Deckard Shaw, and Idris Elba as Brixton. In his Facebook post, he called the picture “an exclusive lil’ taste of the biggest showdown the summer has ever seen.”
Johnson also ramped up the drama by including a small descriptor of each character. He called Hobbs “the lawman,” Shaw “the international spy,” and Brixton “the Baddest Bad Guy the Fast & Furious franchise has ever seen.”
“We’re either gonna get along or we get it on,” he added. “[F**k] gettin’ along, gettin’ it on is way more fun.”
The Fast & Furious spinoff, which is directed by David Leitch, brings together the unlikely duo of Hobbs and Shaw to take down the international terrorist Brixton. Meanwhile, Shaw’s sister, Hattie (Vanessa Kirby), is involved in the story as an MI6 operative. The cast also includes Eiza González and Eddie Marsan.
