Jurassic World: Fallen Kingdom director J.A. Bayona stepped away from helming Brad Pitt’s World War Z sequel just before its planned production start because he wasn’t the right fit for the job, Bayona told Den of Geek.
“We were working on that project for around a year, and we had a great idea,” Bayona said. “We were very excited. We designed great set pieces, and we were very excited with the direction we were taking with the film, but somehow, we never found a way to connect it all together.”
“There was a moment where we were about to start production, and I wasn’t ready,” he added. “I told them and I said, ‘Listen, I’m not the right guy for this. There’s probably another guy who’s able to take care of this in a way that the movie will not get affected,’ so I decided to step out of the project.”
Asked about his original plans for World War Z 2, Bayona said, “I would prefer not to tell you, because they’re working on it now. I had a conversation with them recently, and they’re very excited, so I prefer them to talk about it.”
Quentin Tarantino has set Scoot McNairy to join the cast of his Sony Pictures film Once Upon a Time in Hollywood. McNairy will play the role of a cowboy named Business Bob Gilbert, a character in the Western TV show from the time period that is an element of a Pulp Fiction-like tapestry of the summer of 1969 in Los Angeles.
McNairy joins a killer cast that is led by Leonardo DiCaprio, Brad Pitt, Margot Robbie, Timothy Olyphant, Luke Perry, Damian Lewis, Dakota Fanning, Al Pacino, Emile Hirsch, Clifton Collins Jr, Tim Roth, Michael Madsen, Keith Jefferson and Nicholas Hammond.
McNairy, who starred for four seasons on AMC’s Halt and Catch Fire, currently is filming a lead role in the third season of HBO’s True Detective and most recently was seen starring in Netflix’s Godless. Other upcoming projects include Destroyer opposite Nicole Kidman, The Parts You Lose opposite Mary Elizabeth Winstead and The Sound of Philadelphia with Matthias Schoenaerts and Garrett Hedlund, which he will shoot after this project. He is repped by The Group and WME.
As the 2018 awards race hits the halfway mark, there is one solid best-picture bet so far: “Black Panther.” As usual, the year is bottom-heavy and impartial execs who have seen the upcoming films say it could be one of the most fun awards years in memory.
Disney-Marvel’s “Black Panther,” directed by Ryan Coogler, has enough originality and goodwill to overcome any “superhero” resistance from Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences voters. The film’s artists (above and below the line) deserve Oscar attention — and TV viewers would love the adrenaline jolt to the Oscarcast.
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Plan B (Dede Gardner, Jeremy Kleiner, and Brad Pitt) has three year-end films (“Backseat,” “Beale Street,” and “Beautiful Boy”) and a possible fourth (“Ad Astra”). Given their track record with “12 Years a Slave” and “Moonlight,” these are films to keep an eye on.
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Thank you Vaska!
Marsden and Butters join an ever growing cast that includes Leonardo DiCaprio (Django Unchained), Brad Pitt (Inglorious Basterds), Margot Robbie (I, Tonya), Burt Reynolds (Smokey and the Bandit), Timothy Olyphant (Santa Clarita Diet), Michael Madsen (Sin City), Tim Roth (Selma) Damian Lewis (Billions), Luke Perry (The Fifth Element), Emile Hirsch (Speed Racer), Dakota Fanning (The Alienist), Clifton Collins (Pacific Rim), Keith Jefferson (The Hateful Eight), Nicholas Hammond (The Sound of Music) and Al Pacino (Scarface).
Set in Los Angeles in the summer of 1969, Once Upon a Time in Hollywood focuses on a male TV actor named Rick Dalton (DiCaprio) who’s had one hit western series and is looking for a way to get into the film business. His sidekick Cliff Booth (Pitt) — who’s also his stunt double — is looking for the same thing. The horrific murder of Sharon Tate (Rick’s neighbor in the film, portrayed by Robbie) and four of her friends by Charles Manson’s cult of followers serves as a backdrop to the main story. The movie is said to be similar to a “Pulp Fiction-like tapestry” that covers a group of characters during that summer.