● Long since the trailer campaign began for Roy Chow’s Dynasty Warriors, the film now has an official trailer ahead of its Hong Kong release on April 29. The film is based on the popular Koei Tecmo hack-and-slash videogame and stars Louis Koo, Wang Kai, Han Geng, Tony Yang and actresses Gulnazar, Carina Lau and Ray Lui.
● Trade reports confirmed on Wednesday that Without Remorse star Michael B. Jordan, long touted as the heir to the director’s chair for the third installment of the Creed saga, will in fact make his feature directing debut. Jordan’s performance in the first two films from Ryan Coogler and Stephen Caple Jr. have tacked on nearly $388 million dollars in succession of the Rocky franchise, with Sylvester Stallone bowing out of the iconic character in Creed 2. Jordan will direct from a script by Keenan Coogler (“Space Jam: A New Legacy”) and Zach Baylin (“King Richard”), based on an outline by Coogler for a November 23, 2022 release. (THR)
● On the heels of launching production for John Wick 4, Chad Stahelski will direct Classfied which New Line won after an auction. Billed as a cross between Die Hard and Indiana Jones, Classified is “set inside a top secret government bunker, the kind that ends Raiders of the Lost Ark. That bunker contains relics covertly recovered during World War II, and they turn out to be more powerful and dangerous than ever imagined.” He will produce at 87Eleven Entertainment with Jason Spitz and Alex Young, and Underground’s Trevor Engelson. (Deadline)
● Universal Pictures’s F9 shifted to a new release date now stamped for June 25, one month back from its previously-announced May release, and April prior. The film was initially slated for last May but fell to delay due to the onset of the Covid-19 pandemic resulting in theater closures. Deadline reported the reason is likely due to overseas markets which remain closed even as select markets in the U.S. slowly ramp up theater openings.
● Lovecraft Country EP Misha Green and actress Journee Smollett could be in the throes of a new action vehicle together for Amazon Studios. Kat Wood is penning the film, billed as “a fresh take on a familiar character” to lead an “action-packed female empowerment story that will subvert the relationship between cars and masculinity…” (Deadline)
● Oscar-nominated Braveheart writer Randall Wallace will write, produce and direct The Swiss Guard, “set in the modern-day Vatican and centers around a plot to kidnap the newly installed Pope who has committed himself to total reform of the Church and its finances. When a corps of assassins enter the Vatican, all that stands between them and their mission is a woman, the first female Swiss Guard, who has just
been summoned by the Pope to help him confront a mysterious past and a dangerous future.” (Deadline)
● A quintet of talent now heads new action thriller, Agent Game, from Nighthawks director Grant S. Johnson. Featuring Mel Gibson, Dermot Mulroney, Katherine McNamara, Rhys Coiro and Annie Ilonzeh, Johnson directs from a script by Mike Langer and Tyler W. Konney, which “follows Harris (Mulroney), a CIA officer involved in missions to detain and relocate foreign nationals for interrogation. When a political shift in Washington turns his allies into enemies, Harris finds himself the scapegoat for a detainee’s murder and must run from a team of operatives sent to bring him in (McNamara and Coiro), led by a ruthless double agent (Ilonzeh). Gibson has a small role as an intelligence official running the unsanctioned covert operation to hunt down the disgraced spy.” (Deadline)
● The official trailer is out for action thriller Vanquish, starring Ruby Rose and Morgan Freeman, and directed by George Gallo. Centered on a former Russian drug courier forced to do the bidding of a retired cop in order to rescue her daughter, Vanquish rolls out on VoD and digital April 23, and on DVD and Blu-ray April 27. (EW)