Motion Picture: Gurinder Chadha To Create Indian Princess Musical For Disney; Tyler Perry Partners With Amazon

Action/Fantasy/Sci-Fi: Liza Koshy has joined the Transformers: Rise of the Beasts team. Koshy, who will voice Arcee, has been cast alongside Peter Dinklage (Scourge), John DiMaggio (Stratosphere), David Sobolov (Rhinox/Battletrap), Michaela Jaé Rodriguez (Nightbird), Christo Fernández (Wheeljack), and Tobe Nwigwe (Reek). This new cohort joins the previously announced cast, which includes Anthony Ramos, Dominique Fishback, Michelle Yeoh, Pete Davidson, Peter Cullen, and Ron Perlman. The latest installment will be produced by Paramount and executively produced by Hasbro and New Republic Pictures. The film will take audiences back in time to the ‘90s where the Autobots will encounter a new species of transformers, called the Maximals. Transformers: Rise of the Beasts will hit theatres on June 9th, 2023. 

Resident Evil’s Lance Reddick will reprise his role as Charon in the new film set in the John Wick universe, Ballerina. Reddick’s Charon is a concierge at a hotel for assassins with their own laws and severe consequences. Reddick will star alongside Blonde’s Ana de Armas, who will play a cunning woman seeking revenge after her family is killed by a team of hitmen. John Wick: Chapter 4’s Ian McShane and John Wick: Chapter 3’s Anjelica Huston will also reprise their roles. The film will be directed by Len Wiseman and produced by Basil Iwanyk, Erica Lee, and Chad Stahelski. Lee, on Reddick’s involvement in the film, comments that “Charon is an indispensable part of the world of Wick. It’s great to know that Lance will continue to make his mark on this franchise.” Production has begun on the feature, although a release date has not yet been announced. 

Former UFC Light Heavyweight Champion and The A-Team’s Quinton “Rampage” Jackson is set to star alongside The Tudors’s Jonathan Rhys Meyers in Operation Blood Hunt, a World War II horror film described as an amalgam of Predator, The Dirty Dozen, and Underworld. The film will follow The Reverend, an expert concerning all things whiskey and the occult, who joins a group of military “rejects” to a far-away island in the South Pacific to investigate the mysterious disappearance of a camp of Marines in 1944. When they arrive, the group discovers the massacre of the Marines by lycanthropes, or werewolves. The film will be using custom mechanically built and remote-controlled werewolves. Operation Blood Hunt will be directed by Louis Mandylor, executively produced by BGG Capital, and represented by Film Bridge International. A release date has not yet been set. 

Terrifier 2’s Lauren LaVera and City on a Hill’s Jeremy Rudd, as well as Bill Moseley and Julian Curtis will star in the upcoming horror film The Fetus. LaVera will play Alessa, an expectant mother and wife of Chris, played by Curtis, who spends the film attempting to discover the truth about their demonic unborn baby, all the while trying to cope and keep it a secret from Alessa’s evil father, Maddox, who would want to sacrifice the child. Rudd will produce and play the character Mark, although his character’s role in the film is unknown. The Fetus will be written and directed by Joe Lam and will hit theatres in 2023.

Keke palmer - Gilbert Flores

Comedy: Amazon Studios has acquired the rights to Moxie, an action-comedy starring Nope’s Keke Palmer and directed by Hawkeye’s Bert. Moxie was considered a hot commodity when it was placed on the market in mid-November. The film will follow Palmer, who will play a “foul-mouthed stripper” that offends the FBI when she miraculously becomes a top candidate for their new agent initiative. Palmer’s co-stars, as well as the film’s release date, have not yet been announced.

Mason Lee - VCG

Drama: Bend It Like Beckham’s director, Gurinder Chadha, has been hired by Disney to create, produce, and direct an original musical feature about an Indian princess. The feature will reportedly be inspired by a real-life historical Indian princess. Bride and Prejudice’s Paul Mayeda Berges will write the film alongside Chadha. It is unclear whether the film will be animated or live-action, as the feature is currently in the early stages of development. The plot is currently being kept under wraps.

Bruce Lee, a biopic about the martial artist and film star of the same name, has found its leading man. The director of the film, Life of Pi’s Ang Lee, has cast his son, Mason Lee, to play Bruce Lee. Sony’s 3000 Pictures will produce the action-drama. Elizabeth Gabler, a producer of the film, states that:

“Bruce Lee is a longtime passion project for Ang and a deeply emotional story depicting the triumphs and conflicts of one of the foremost real-life action heroes of our time. All of us at Sony and 3000 Pictures are proud to help Ang and his filmmaking team create what we believe to be an extraordinary theatrical event.” 

MGM’s Orion Pictures has bought the rights to an unnamed film based on Percival Everett’s 2001 novel Erasure, the directorial feature debut of Cord Jefferson. A Hot Set has previously reported on the plot, as well as the casting of the film, which includes Black-ish’s Tracee Ellis Ross, This Is Us’s Sterling K Brown, Westworld’s Jeffrey Wright, and Ready or Not’s Adam Brody. The film’s release date is still unknown. 

Julian Glover - ABC7

Documentary: A documentary film directed by Bay Area’s ABC7 News reporter Julian Glover, titled Our America: Lowballed, premiered in San Francisco on December 2nd, 2023. The documentary explores the “systemic inequities in the home appraisal process of people of color,” and questions how this is possible by examining “data about how often it happens” and “takes several families’ pleas to fix the problem to the halls of Congress and The White House.” The film also follows the stories of families who have been pressured to “whitewash” their homes, or to make their living spaces void of any items that “would suggest a Black family lived there.” Tenisha Tate-Austin, a woman featured in the documentary and a victim of appraisal lowballing, hopes that the film will allow other’s “voices [to be] amplified through us.” Our America: Lowballed is now streaming on Hulu. 

Tyler Perry - Stefanie Keenan

Industry Updates: Amazon has offered Tyler Perry a four-movie deal where he will direct, write, and produce four movies that will stream on Prime Video. Perry, regarding the deal with Amazon Studios head, Jennifer Salke, comments that “[she] and the entire team have welcomed me with open arms, and I’m looking forward to continuing telling unique stories and bringing my next projects to the global audiences that they reach.” The plot, genre, and names of Perry’s upcoming films have not yet been announced, and it is unclear when production will begin.

Ava DuVernay’s production company ARRAY Releasing has partnered with JetBlue to offer a selection of in-flight entertainment featuring 12 independent films from women and directors of color. Regarding the collaboration, DuVernay comments that “something about the intimacy of being in the air as stories unfold has always appealed to me…our hope is that JetBlue travelers will sit back and enjoy the magic of these films.” Mariya Stoyanova, JetBlue’s Director of Product Development, adds: “At JetBlue, we believe that to inspire humanity means you must be inclusive of all of humanity, which is why we are honored to partner with Ava DuVernay’s ARRAY Releasing to debut an all-new category of diverse, independent feature films.” The featured films debuted on December 1st, 2022.