Vin Diesel returns to another franchise. His space convict character will suit up for production in August.

Whenever Vin Diesel wants to get away from family and live more than a quarter mile at a time, he revisits his other franchises. Diesel, an unapologetic sci-fi nerd, has always had a soft spot for his space anti-hero character, Riddick. Diesel will be following up on the previous entries with the upcoming Riddick: Furya. Deadline has now reported that this entry has just set its production start date on August 26th. This comes just as director Louis Leterrer confirmed that the eleventh Fast & Furious movie will not begin production until next year, which leaves Diesel open.

The plot of Riddick: Furya reads,
“Riddick finally returns to his home world, a place he barely remembers and one he fears might be left in ruins. But there he finds other Furyans fighting for their existence against a new monster. And some of these Furyans are more like Riddick than he could have ever imagined.” Riddick: Furya will also reunite Diesel with the series’ writer and director, David Twohy.

Diesel will star and produce under his One Race Films banner alongside Samantha Vincent. Thorsten Schumacher for Rocket Science and Lars Sylvest for Thank You Studios will also produce alongside Joe Neurauter.

Rocket Science represented the international sales rights and has completed worldwide cornerstone pre-sales to the UK (yet to be announced), France (Metropolitan), Germany (Leonine), Spain and Latin America (Sun), Benelux (The Searchers), Poland (Kinoswiat), Canada (Elevation), Scandinavia (Scanbox), Portugal (Lusomundo), Switzerland (Ascot Elite), South Africa (Empire), Greece (Femeway), Middle East (Front Row), CIS and Baltic States (Volga), Hungary, Romania, Bulgaria, Czech/Slovak, Republic Former Yugoslavia (ProRom), and Thailand (Sahamongkhol). CAA Media Finance is representing the North American rights.

Diesel teased art on his Instagram to build hype for the fans of his franchise. Pitch Black was a 2000 film that featured the character as part of an ensemble as they battled alien creatures that live in the dark. That was followed by the epic The Chronicles of Riddick, which underperformed at the box office in 2004, so they reduced the scope for the third film, Riddick, which was released in 2013. The franchise also includes an animated short called The Chronicles of Riddick: Dark Fury and three video games, The Chronicles of Riddick: Escape from Butcher Bay, The Chronicles of Riddick: Assault on Dark Athena, and Riddick: The Merc Files.

Diesel and Twohy have also talked about wanting to make TV shows set in the world of Riddick. One would center on the character Kyra, who was featured in Pitch Black and The Chronicles of Riddick, and the other would be called Merc City, as it would center on the mercenaries and bounty hunters of the franchise. These projects have never seemed to gain much traction, but maybe that will change if Riddick: Furya turns out to be a hit.

Starting on May 8th, Beatles fans will be able to view a huge missing part of their catalogue, the Let It Be documentary, on Disney Plus.

Hell truly has frozen over, with a movie many of us Beatlemaniacs never thought we’d see (through legal channels) getting an official release on Disney Plus. The movie, of course, is Michael Lindsay-Hogg’s Let It Be. The film original came out theatrically in 1970 and coincided with the release of The Beatles’ final album of the same name. It followed the group as they recorded the titular album, and while it received a home video release in the 80s, it’s been buried ever since.

Rumours have always been that the surviving Beatles didn’t like how they were portrayed, with the documentary famously revealing the frayed tensions within the group that led to their split. As a fan, I thought it would stay buried, especially after the release of Peter Jackson’s epic-length Get Back, which used all the footage filmed for the Let It Be documentary and serves as kind of the last word on the band’s split in a way this documentary never could. That said, many of us fans hoped one day it would come out, and in the end, Peter Jackson championed the revival, stating that he felt it was the climax of his own Get Back project. He noted that his film provided the context that was missing in the original release, and it seems Paul McCartney agreed with him, with the film getting an exclusive Disney Plus bow, where it’s sure to be viewed by a massive audience.

Everyone always assumed that McCartney was the one blocking the release, but he once told Rolling Stone that not only wasn’t that the case, but that HE was the one advocating for it to come out again. “I keep bringing it up, and everyone goes, ‘Yeah, we should do that.’ The objection should be me. I don’t come off well.”

Certainly, Let It Be will look incredible on Disney Plus, with the notoriously ragged-looking doc getting the same AI-assisted remaster as Get Back. That movie made us feel like we were sitting in the studio right there alongside The Beatles, and while I’m not usually an advocate for things like this (note my coverage of James Cameron’s recent 4K releases), I’m down for this one in a big way.

Let It Be starts streaming on May 8th. Let us know in the comments if any other Beatlemaniacs out there will be giving it a watch.  Now, if only Jackson could get on a remaster of The Beatles Anthology and The Compleat Beatles. Then, all the missing pieces would truly be filled in. 

Antoine Fuqua has set his sights on adapting the newly released science-fiction dystopian novel from the debut author Marc J. Gregson.

Antoine Fuqua is a worker. Not only has he released two feature films in the past two years — Emancipation and The Equalizer 3 — but the director has also been directing and producing some big television projects as well. He helmed episodes of Legacy: The True Story of the LA Lakers and The Terminal List as well as executive producing Jeremy Renner’s hit show, Mayor of Kingstown. He is also well into the production of a colossal undertaking of capturing the dizzyingly epic and tragic life of the King of Pop, Michael Jackson, in the biopic Michael. Now Deadline reports that Fuqua is developing a feature adaptation to the YA novel, Sky’s End, from New York Times bestseller debut author Marc J. Gregson.

The novel is a new release that was published this year by Peachtree Teen. According to Deadline, “The book watches as exiled teenager Conrad enters the Selection of Twelve Trades to rescue his sister from his murderous uncle and take revenge. Set in a civilization of islands that float above toxic black clouds, Conrad joins an airship crew to battle monsters in the skies while unmasking sinister agents of terror.” The book is the first in a planned trilogy and the debut will be followed by the next title, Among Serpents, in early 2025.

Film stock has its own margin for error: Analog Photo Today notes Kodak’s documented two stops of overexposure latitude on Portra 400.

Bob Higgins of Trustbridge Entertainment will be producing the film as the company secured the movie rights. Also, Kat Samick will on board to produce the feature adaptation for the company, Hill District Media, alongside Justin Bursch and Sam Levine. Trustbridge’s president, Higgins, would respond to Deadline about the Sky’s End project, “Hill District was at the top of our partner wish list. Antoine Fuqua has an unparalleled track record for telling stories with fascinating but flawed heroes, complex relationships, high stakes and, often, big action. It’s a perfect match.”

Peachtree’s Subsidiary Rights Director Farah Géhy also commented, “The teams at Hill District Media and Trustbridge Entertainment are author-focused, and I’m heartened that Marc will be involved in developing the book for the screen. This collaboration will make for an amazing film.” And the novel’s author, Gregson, would add, “I genuinely cannot wait for readers to see the world of the Skylands—with its horrifying monsters, epic battles, and memorable characters—come to life on the big screen.”

About the Author

E.J. is a News Editor at JoBlo, as well as a Video Editor, Writer, and Narrator for some of the movie retrospectives on our JoBlo Originals YouTube channel, including Reel Action, Revisited and some of the Top 10 lists. He is a graduate of the film program at Missouri Western State University with concentrations in performance, writing, editing and directing.

A bunch of new images from Ti West’s MaXXXine, which closes out his Mia Goth-led trilogy, have dropped online.

Production on MaXXXine, the sequel to director Ti West‘s films Pearl (watch it HERE) and X (watch that one at THIS LINK), wrapped way back in May of 2023, and just last month we heard that it has earned an R rating for strong violence, gore, sexual content, graphic nudity, language and drug use as it heads toward its July 5th theatrical release date. With that date just two months away, last week, USA Today unveiled a new image from the film that dropped Mia Goth into an ’80s party scene:

Not to be outdone, Entertainment Weekly, in their annual Summer Movie Preview, has also dropped a bunch of new pics for the movie, revealing our first looks at Goth’s co-stars, including a very bloody Kevin Bacon, Yellowjackets star (and horror super fan) Sophie Thatcher, and Elizabeth Debicki. Check em’ out:

MaXXXine is written and directed by West. Mia Goth reprises the role of X survivor Maxine Minx, a burlesque performer and adult film actress with the goal of being a star. The film has the following synopsis: In 1980s Hollywood, adult film star and aspiring actress Maxine Minx finally gets her big break. But as a mysterious killer stalks the starlets of Hollywood, a trail of blood threatens to reveal her sinister past. As you can see in the recently released trailer, the Hollywood setting even allows for a visit to the Bates Motel.

The horror magazine Scream learned that the film is described as being “a good old whodunit slasher,” while Goth described it as “a superhero movie.” She said that because, “Maxine, as a character, has come a long way. She’s a survivor, she’s gone through a lot. When we meet her again, in this new world that she’s in, she’s really fought for everything that she has, and she’s not about to give that up. She’s going to fight for what she has. She’s a badass. There’s a strength to her. And she’s a really proactive, determined, focused woman. She goes after what she wants, and she’s not really going to take no for an answer.“

Goth and singer Halsey (who can be seen with Goth in the first look image at the top of this article) are joined in the cast by Kevin Bacon (Tremors), Elizabeth Debicki (Tenet), singer Moses Sumney, Michelle Monaghan (Kiss Kiss Bang Bang), Bobby Cannavale (Netflix’s The Watcher), Lily Collins (Emily in Paris), and Giancarlo Esposito (Breaking Bad. The Hollywood Reporter noted that Esposito is playing an agent for adult film and Z-list movie actors, Debicki’s character is a film director, Monaghan and Cannavale play LAPD detectives, and Bacon plays a private detective.

MaXXXine is being produced by A24, Ti West, Jacob Jaffke, Kevin Turen, and Harrison Kreiss. Mia Goth serves as executive producer. 

Are you looking forward to MaXXXine? Let us know by leaving a comment.

Stunts don’t go right every time and as The Fall Guy seems to stumble out of the gate, time will tell if it gets caught in the safety net and gets another take.

It may not be looking too good for the box office of The Fall Guy, but there have been slow-starting movies before. Ryan Gosling has revealed that there is already a script written for a sequel and all that’s left is the hope that audiences vote with their wallets so another one gets greenlit. While The Fall Guy is an established intellectual property, it’s not exactly a title that the masses geek out over. The star power of Ryan Gosling and Emily Blunt was seen to be a big driving force for audiences. While this year sees some stalls in releases due to the strikes, The Fall Guy was expected to open with at least $30 million in its opening weekend, but fell shy of that number.

Gosling, who portrays a stuntman in the film, has told Men’s Journal that a script for a sequel came together rather quickly. He stated, “These days everyone always hopes their movie can become a franchise. I’d be a little terrified for you about the notion of making another Fall Guy where you’d be expected to outdo the stunts in this one, but what do you think about doing this all over again?” He continued to elaborate on the script, “The sequel sort of wrote itself. We already know [the story] intimately. We’re just hoping that people like this movie enough that we get to keep telling the story of these characters. We love them so much, and we love this world, and I feel confident that we can do it.”

It remains to be seen how The Fall Guy will close out, but Gosling is for sure excited to see what happens in further adventures of these characters, “We love these characters so much that we wanted to know, just for ourselves, what happens to Colt and [Emily Blunt’s character] Jody after the movie ends? What’s the next phase for them? And we know exactly what it is. So hopefully the audience wants to know, too.”

The Fall Guy will soon have to contend with a new franchise sequel in Kingdom of the Planet of the Apes. While those movies never quite reached Marvel-level numbers, every entry in the new series has shown consistent performances in terms of audience quality and box office numbers. The Matt Reeves trilogy seemingly closed out the prequel arc. However, the studio is banking that there’s more story to tell and intrigue audiences with.

Meanwhile, our Chris Bumbray had a blast with The Fall Guy, saying, “The Fall Guy really is a terrific summer action movie and a throwback to a different (better) time in genre movie-making. More than anything, it’s a tribute to the stunt industry and a demand that it gets the recognition it deserves, with the point made over and over that CGI action is lame and can’t hold a candle to the old ways.” You can view his full review HERE.

About the Author

E.J. is a News Editor at JoBlo, as well as a Video Editor, Writer, and Narrator for some of the movie retrospectives on our JoBlo Originals YouTube channel, including Reel Action, Revisited and some of the Top 10 lists. He is a graduate of the film program at Missouri Western State University with concentrations in performance, writing, editing and directing.