Motion Picture: First Look At Johnthan Majors' Role As Marvel's New Villain; Aujanue L. Ellis To Star In 'The Nickel Boys'
Action/Fantasy/Sci-Fi: The first trailer for the third installment of Marvel’s Ant-Man series has dropped, giving audiences the first look at the new villain, “Kang,” played by Jonathan Majors. Majors returns to Marvel after his role as “He Who Remains” in Disney+’s Loki series. In Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania, Majors plays this same character but from an alternate universe. According to The Hollywood Reporter, Kang will become “Marvel’s next chief villain.” He is set to reprise his role as Kang in Avengers: The Kang Dynasty (2025) and Avengers: Secret Wars (2026). The film takes place in the future after Avengers Endgame and follows Ant-Man (Paul Rudd), his daughter, Cassie (Kathryn Newton), and The Wasp (Evangeline Lilly) as they once again find themselves interfering with the Quantum Realm in an alternate universe. It is here that they encounter Kang, who offers to help them return home. The trailer ends by revealing Kang’s face. Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania is currently in post-production and will be released in the United States on February 17, 2023. With its release, Marvel will usher in its fifth phase.
Jumping over to the Star Wars universe, Sharmeen Obaid-Chinoy, who has previously worked with Disney for Ms. Marvel, is set to direct a new Star Wars feature film. Although the title has not been released, and the plot of the film is being kept tightly under wraps, Disney has announced that upcoming Star Wars films will be released in December 2025 and December 2027. Obaid-Chinoy will be working with Damon Lindelof, who is listed as a co-writer of the script. Obaid-Chinoy’s previous work includes a directorial credit for the documentary A Girl in the River: The Price of Forgiveness (2016) and Saving Face (2012), both of which she won an Academy Award.
Altitude, a UK distribution and production company, has released new stills from its upcoming movie T.I.M., the directorial debut film of Spencer Brown. The images feature the protagonist, played by Georgina Campbell. The film is “inspired by ‘90s stalker thrillers” and follows Abi (Campbell), her cheating husband, Paul, and her A.I. human invention, T.I.M., which stands for Technologically Integrated Manservant. However, T.I.M. begins to grow obsessed with Abi and yearns to become the perfect replacement for her husband. Campbell will star alongside Eamon Farren, Mark Rowley, Amara Karan, Nathaniel Parker, and Tom Bell. The film will be presented to buyers at the Altitude Film Sales this November.
America Ferrera and Rushi kota - Dave Kotinsky / Amanda Edwards / Stringer
Comedy: Sony and Black Bear’s upcoming film Dumb Money’s cast now includes Rushi Kota and America Ferrera. The film is an adaptation of the book The Antisocial Network by Ben Mezrich, which details the story of how Redditors raised GameStop’s stock by 1,7000 percent in January 2021.
Kota is rumored by Deadline to be playing Baiju Bhatt, “one of the co-CEOs of the stock and investing app Robinhood.” Additionally, America Ferrera has also joined the all-star cast. It is unclear what role she will play. Kota and Ferrera will star alongside Seth Rogen, Paul Dano, Sebastian Stan, Pete Davidson, Anthony Ramos, Vincent D’Onofrio, Shailene Woodley, Dane DeHaan, and Myha’la Herrold.
Aujanue Ellis - Mike Coppola
Drama: Imran J. Khan, a Pakistani-American and Muslim filmmaker, is currently working on his first feature film titled Mustache, where he will act as both writer and director. The film is “largely autobiographical” for Khan, as it follows an “eccentric” young teenage boy as he goes through public school in California. However, he has a mustache, hence the name of the film, that his parents will not let him shave off. The film has coming-of-age themes and will portray the experiences of Pakistani Americans. The lead, Ilyas, will be played by Atharva Verma, best known for his role in Stargirl (2020). Rizwan Manji, (Schitt’s Creek) is set to play Ilyas’s father, Hameed, while the mother will be portrayed by Meesha Shafi, a Pakistani-Canadian singer. Manji’s daughter, Ayana Manji, has been cast as Ilyas’s school friend, Yasmeen. The rest of the cast includes Hasan Minhaj and Alicia Silverstone, whose roles are not yet known. The film will be produced by Christina Won and Jessica Sitting, both representing MakeSay, along with Christopher Storer and Tyson Bidner of American Light and Fixture. The film is financed by MakeSay and Cinereach, while UTA Independent Film Group will be representing worldwide sales. Rizwan Manji, after expressing his excitement to be a part of the film, comments that “Mustache is an honest representation of growing up Muslim in the ‘90s. I found the script special, and immediately connected to the father-son relationship that is central to the film.”
King Richard and Academy Award-nominated actress Aujanue L. Ellis will star in The Nickel Boys, a film set in Florida during the Jim Crow era that follows two boys who are sent to a “brutal” reform school. Ethan Herisse (When They See Us, 2019), Brandon Wilson (The Way Back, 2020), Hamish Linklater (The New Adventures of Old Christine, 2006-2010), and Fred Hechinger (Eighth Grade, 2018), will star alongside Ellis, according to The Hollywood Reporter. The film will be produced by MGM’s Orion Pictures, Plan B Entertainment, and Anonymous Content. The film is based on Colson Whitehead’s novel of the same name, which won a Pulitzer Prize for Fiction in 2020. It will be directed by RaMell Ross, who was nominated for an Oscar for his documentary feature Hale County This Morning, This Evening (2018). In a statement, Ross commented that “it is an honor to be working with such talented people and trusted with such an incredibly written story, with historical roots. I’m constantly impressed by the passion and creativity of the collection of people moving this project forward.”
MRC
Documentary: The film/television studio MRC has shelved a completely finished Kanye West documentary. This comes after West’s anti-Semetic comments that he shared in both interviews and on Twitter. On October 8th, in a tweet that has been since deleted, West stated: “I’m a bit sleepy tonight but when I wake up I’m going death con 3 [DEFCON 3] on JEWISH PEOPLE. The funny thing is I actually can’t be Anti Semetic because black people are actually Jew (sic) also. You guys have toyed with me and tried to black ball anyone whoever opposes your agenda.” The CEOs of MRC, Modi Wiczyk and Asif Satchu, alongside COO Scott Tenley, stated in their open letter that “this morning, after discussion with our filmmakers and distribution partners, we made the decision not to proceed with any distribution for our recently completed documentary about Kanye West. We cannot support any content that amplifies his platform.”
SACHEEN LITTLEFEATHER -GLOBE PHOTOS
Industry Updates: Sacheen Littlefeather, a Native American activist, actress, and model, died on October 2, 2022 at the age of 75.
Littlefeather, popularized after she “raised a hand to decline” the best actor Oscar trophy for Marlon Brando in 1973, had small roles in The Laughing Policeman (1973), Freebie and the Bean (1974), and Winterhawk (1975). Speaking on Brando’s behalf, she stated that he could not accept the award due to “the treatment of American Indians by the film industry, and on television in movie reruns, and also by recent happenings at Wounded Knee.”
This past September, the Academy issued a formal apology to Littlefinger, claiming that she received “unwarranted and unjustified abuse” and hosted an “evening with Sacheen Littlefeather.” Before the end of her life, Littlefeather commented that the apology gives her the feeling that “the sacred circle is completing itself before I go in this life.”
Editor’s note: A Hot Set acknowledges the controversy regarding the legitimacy of Littlefeather’s Native ancestry. Given the debate is over her Native heritage and not over her being of Mexican descent, we have decided to cover her passing as she was still a person of color in the entertainment industry.
