simon kinberg

THE 355 Trailer: A Quintet Of Spies Set Out To Save The World

The sixten words I long to hear most: “I’m putting together a team and you’re the best in the world at what you do.” Okay, if I actually heard that line, I’d probably cut the speaker off after the first 5 words and volunteer to join no matter what the role. Have I mentioned I love heist movies? So, as you can tell, the official The 355 trailer has dropped and has a very heist-y feel for an espionage pic: Mace (Jessica Chastain) is told that she can’t officially look into something, so puts together a diverse team of intelligence agents from other countries including Colombia, Great Britain, China, and Germany. So what’s the goal? Well, let’s follow the synopsis, for starters: When a top-secret weapon falls into mercenary hands, wild card CIA agent Mason “Mace” Brown (Oscar®-nominated actress Jessica Chastain) will need to join forces with rival badass German […]

355: Jessica Chastain Spy Thriller Lands In Paris As Production Begins

Lee B. Golden III

Production has reportedly begun on Dark Phoenix helmer Simon Kinberg’s female fronted spy thriller, 355, as announced by actress and producer Jessica Chastain. All signs here point to Paris as the starting point after recovering from the stalemate surrounding headliner Fan Bingbing’s tax evasion charges last year amid China’s crackdown on tax fraud in the industry. Universal Pictures acquired North American rights at Cannes last year for a 2020 date to be later announced. Kinberg penned the script with Theresa Rebeck with Chastain and Fan joined by Lupita Nyong’o, Penelope Cruz, Sebastian Stan, Edgar Ramirez and Diane Kruger – the latter whose casting was reported in June by Variety’s Justin Kroll who divulges the following on the film’s basic plot: The movie follows a group of spies from international agencies around the world. These women must bond together, overcoming their suspicions and conflicts, to use all their talents and training […]

MV5BNWNjYjRkOWQtNGYzYi00MDAxLTk4OTgtN2ZhMjA5MGU0ZTM4XkEyXkFqcGdeQXVyNTU3Njk4NTU@._V1_SY1000_CR0,0,1295,1000_AL_.jpg

355: Actress Fan Bingbing Retains Her Spot In The Female Spy Ensemble

Lee B. Golden III

Variety reports that Fan Bingbing (X-Men: Days Of Future Past, The White-Haired Witch Of Lunar Kingdon) will yet see her starring alongside her colleagues in the female spy ensemble, 355. The news comes just as the actress has since emerged from obscurity following a disappearance from the public for several months – part of the extensive fallout she’s faced amid China’s sprawling crackdown on tax evasion last year. With 355, Bingbing re-officiates her position with headliners Jessica Chastain, Lupita Nyong’o, Penelope Cruz and Marion Cotillard. Simon Kinberg (upcoming Dark Phoenix) will direct the project from a screenplay by Theresa Rebeck described as a “large-scale espionage film about international agents in a grounded, edgy action thriller”. Universal acquired the film last summer at Cannes for a $20 million deal with Chastain set to star, as well as produce via her Freckle Films banner. Question remains, however, as to who will help […]

The Latest Official Trailer For DARK PHOENIX Gets…Pretty Darn Dark

Lee B. Golden III

Yeah… the trailer pretty much gives something away here. You might be keen on this notion if you’ve been reading the news at all since Wednesday night about Simon Kinberg’s solo directing debut, Dark Phoenix. I’m no avid comic follower as much as I dig the culture and so whatever lies ahead, I’m still pretty interested in what lies ahead at this point – this being Fox’s final entry into the near two decade-old X-Men saga. In DARK PHOENIX, the X-MEN face their most formidable and powerful foe: one of their own, Jean Grey. During a rescue mission in space, Jean is nearly killed when she is hit by a mysterious cosmic force. Once she returns home, this force not only makes her infinitely more powerful, but far more unstable. Wrestling with this entity inside her, Jean unleashes her powers in ways she can neither comprehend nor contain. With Jean […]

X-MEN: DARK PHOENIX Sees A Heroine On The Brink In The Official Trailer

Lee B. Golden III

Without question, director Bryan Singer has done some incredible work on the X-Men saga dating back to the early two-thousandies. Recent events and troubling revelations may or may have not dampened his prospects on the franchise – I’m not at all certain, though fans weren’t exactly keen on seeing Simon Kinberg take the mantle either. The comments at the time were, in a word, passionate. At any rate – it is what it is – and forthwith, 20th Century Fox has begun its key campaign with all the initial assets for X-Men: Dark Phoenix. Stemming from the pages of Marvel, the franchise segues back in tow with featured actress Sophie Turner succeeding her performance in the pivotal 2016 franchise entry, X-Men: Apocalypse, in which Professor Charles Xavier compels our heroine to relinquish her power in dispelling the villainous supermutant in the effort of teamwork. Suffice it to say, the next […]

SDCC_2015_-_Tom_Hiddleston_26_Jessica_Chastain_281972487457229_28cropped29

355: Chastain, Kinberg Partner For ‘Grounded’, ‘Edgy’ All-Female Spy Actioner

Lee B. Golden III

Mike Fleming Jr.’s exclusive at Deadline brings news of an all-star female line-up being readied for spy espionage ensemble, 355, penned by screenwriter Theresa Rebeck. Actresses Jessica Chastain, Marion Cotillard, Penelope Cruz, Fan Bingbing and this week’s starring addition to John Woo’s The Killer, Lupita Nyong’o are all being circled for the project which will be announced at Cannes with the cast, and director Simon Kinberg in attendance at the Croisette. The film involves these top agents from organizations around the world uniting to stop a global organization from acquiring a weapon that could plunge an already unstable world into total chaos. They have to overcome cultural and political differences to form a bond and work together. 355 is aiming for what Deadline describes as “a grounded, edgy action thriller” that will not only launch a franchise, but also reshape an oft male-dominated genre with a female-centric cast in the vein […]

Sci-Fi Classic LOGAN’S RUN Sets Up Potential Female-Driven Remake At Warner Bros.

Lee B. Golden III

Denis Villeneuve’s thrilling delivery with Blade Runner 2049 is the precedent reportedly being set for Warner Bros.’s current push to revive 1976 sci-fi classic, Logan’s Run. Word from Deadline on Friday writes, The Town scribe Peter Craig is being eyed to pen the script for Fox’s noted X-Men film saga producer Simon Kinberg to direct. Set in an idyllic 23rd century, actor Michael York starred as Logan 5, a Sandman embedded in an agency established to hunt down “Runners” against society’s established order of pleasureable life until death at thirty. When Logan is assigned to track down a secret safe haven for Runners, he learns his own life clock was pushed forward by four years, forcing him to become a runner himself. David Zelag Goodman adapted the 1967 novel by William F. Nolan and George Clayton Johnson for director Michael Anderson. The film eventually landed a short-lived television series prior […]

Sophie Turner Is On Fire In New First Look Photos For X:MEN: DARK PHOENIX

Lee B. Golden III

When news broke last year that Simon Kinberg was going to direct an X-Men movie, the news wasn’t met with a lot of optimism on my end from folks who’ve said something on it. Personally, I didn’t know what to believe even though he’d worked on at least three X-Men titles in addition to having been involved with Bryan Singer’s canonical inductions with Days Of Future Past and Apocalypse. Is that a referendum of some kind? Nah. I have rather enjoyed Fox’s little corner of the MCU sans Brett Ratner’s The Last Stand, and especially with regard to Singer’s work from the very beginning. So, I’m keen on giving Kinberg a chance with whatever lies ahead for X-Men: Dark Phoenix, and judging by what’s discussed over at Entertainment Weekly’s exclusive pictorals, it looks like he’s doing alright by the fans thusfar. Sophie Turner returns to in the title role with […]

Fox’s NEUROMANCER Taps Tim Miller To Direct The Cyberpunk Novel Adaptation

Lee B. Golden III

More than a year after departing efforts to return to the director’s chair for Deadpool 2, Tim Miller will instead be boarding Twentieth Century Fox’s latest move to sci-fi, Neuromancer. Simon Kinberg is producing the film now hailing as a major project for Miller’s notable VFX workshop, Blur Studios, following decades of industry attempts to bring William Gibson’s 1984 cyberpunk novel to the big screen. Case was one of the best console cowboys until he stole from one of his employers, who in turn damaged his nervous system so that he cannot access cyberspace anymore. Broke and destroying himself, Case is contacted by Molly, a heavily modified razorgirl, to work for a shadowy colonel who needs a cyberspace cowboy for a secret mission. The employer fixes Case’s damaged brain, but implants a slow dissolving poison to make sure the cyberspace wiz does his bidding, in attempting to abduct a perverse […]

DARK PHOENIX: Fox Makes It Official With Simon Kinberg Directing For Novemeber 2018 Release

Lee B. Golden III

With two new X-Men movies on the horizon and movement on both over at 20th Century Fox, franchise producer Simon Kinberg is reportedly attached to helm the next endeavor for the studio, X-Men: Dark Phoenix. The film will mark Kinberg’s debut at the helm following the start of his involvement on Fox’s X-Men saga in 2006. The mythology has been played around with ever since the first film directed by Bryan Singer and eventually took a turning point between X2 and X-Men: The Last Stand. Actress Famke Janssen’s role as Jean Grey struggled with the length and brevity of her powers as a telekinetic until eventually transforming into the penultimate anomaly, the Phoenix, and appeared a few more times next to actor Hugh Jackman between the main timeline as well as the actor’s 2013 Wolverine spin-off sequel. The new film, which will be shot in Montreal this October ahead of […]

Fox’s X-MEN Live-Action Series Lands Jamie Chung

Lee B. Golden III

Big screen efforts haven’t waned for the X-Men film saga at all recently and you needn’t look further than the latest developments with Simon Kinberg’s latest attachment to possibly write and direct the next movie in question. That said, we now advance toward small screen endeavors wherein it was last summer that Bryan Singer and Matt Nix were officially reported as on-board for a pilot committment with Fox Television’s advancement of a live-action X-Men TV series inspired by the hit Marvel franchise. On Wednesday, you’ll find things bustling a bit with word via Variety that actress Jamie Chung has been tapped for a role as the mutant, Blink, in the series pilot. Based on the teleporter as seen in the comics as early as 1994, Blink (a.k.a. Clarice Fong) is described as a sardonic, lively, mild tomboy forced to adjust to her new life in the aftermath of a series […]

Simon Kinberg May Direct X-MEN: THE NEW MUTANTS For Fox

Lee B. Golden III

I haven’t yet seen X-Men: Apocalypse so I couldn’t tell you my opinion on it just yet, but the word now from Collider is that Simon Kinberg is poised to direct the next film in the franchise for 20th Century Fox. For this, the report also suggests it may possible, albeit currently unclear, that actress Sophie Turner may reprise her role as Jean Grey in the supposed film following earlier reports of Josh Boone’s own development of said film previous noted as being based on The New Mutants story back in 2015. Kinberg shares credits on plenty of Fox’s Marvel treatments, namely X-Men: The Last Stand, X-Men: Days of Future Past, X-Men: Apocalypse and Deadpool, as well as the latest series premiere of FX superhero series, Legion, and the upcoming release of the highly-acclaimed James Mangold-directed X-Men spin-off, Logan. Sources are also reporting that the new film will also forsee […]

Liam Neeson To Star In Brian Kirk's NARCO SUB For Fox

Lee B. Golden III

It’s been a while since we heard anything about Safe House scribe David Guggenheim’s script for 20th Century Fox’s planned production of Narco Sub, and not too long since action star Liam Neeson kicked off the year with two action thrillers of his own, Taken 3 and last month’s Run All Night. On that note, the latest report from The Wrap has confirmed the actor’s role in the new film in addition to TV veteran Brian Kirk‘s attachment to direct. Simon Kinberg and Ridley Scott will produce with executive producers Aditya Sood and Elishia Holmes of Genre Films and Scott Free Productions for Guggenheim’s script which will see Neeson under durress as a disgraced American naval officer forced to navigate a drug-loaded into the U.S. undetected. There’s no word yet on who will join the cast but the film will undoubtedly be one of several more action roles Neeson plans […]

tmp_1073-elysium-neill-blomkamp-simon-kinberg-1-722795990

Kinberg And Blomkamp Board Robinson's THE LEVIATHAN

Lee B. Golden III

It wasn’t too long ago that Irish filmmaker Ruairí Robinson impressed the hell out of the internet with The Leviathan, an original short conceptual sci-fi video with fitting nods to Moby Dick, set in the 22nd century where mankind has colonized many worlds and supraluminal travel is made possible by harvesting exotic matter from eggs of large creatures. It’s been scoring points since making the rounds earlier this month and fans and critics have been advocating in support of Robinson and his contribution to the genre as an independent piece completed thanks in part to financing from the Irish Film Board and a jestful moment with Fight Club (1999) and Jumper (2008) scribe Jim Uhls which evidently spawned the creativity we now see in the video. This week, it’s all turning out quite favorably for Robinson with all the publicity he’s been getting, now with word from Deadline that X-Men […]