Yesterday, news broke that Henry Cavill and Amazon were working together to bring Games Workshop‘s Warhammer universe to film and television. Now, it’s official, as Games Workshop has announced the project. Working with Amazon Studios, the Warhammer 40,000 universe will come to screens big and small. Henry Cavill will be the Executive Producer and will star as well.
The deal with Amazon Studios is for rights to the universe for film and “more”. You can discover more about Games Workshop’s world of Warhammer 40,000 at our sister site Board Game Today.
Below is the official announcement as well as Cavill’s own announcement.
Amazon Studios today announced that it has secured global rights to Warhammer 40,000, based on the immensely popular intellectual property from Games Workshop (GAW) that has given rise to an immersive global hobby – Warhammer. The agreement encompasses rights to the universe across series, film, and more, and will sit alongside GAW’s activities as they continue to make the best miniatures in the world. This is the first deal of its kind for Amazon Studios for IP of this scale, and it allows the company to utilize the title across its entertainment businesses. Henry Cavill (Man of Steel, Mission: Impossible – Fallout) is set to star in and executive produce the Warhammer 40,000 franchise across all Amazon Studios productions.
Since launching nearly 40 years ago, the Warhammer universe has been constantly expanding through GAW’s miniatures, sourcebooks, tabletop games, animations, novels, a wealth of licensed material, and video games.
Warhammer 40,000 is set in the far future, where humanity stands at the edge of what might be its brightest future, or its darkest age. The threats to humankind’s empire are many — traitors driven by the fires of ambition, alien empires sworn to reclaim the stars, and the corruption of reality by malevolent gods.
“Warhammer 40,000 has captured the imagination of fans of all ages, from all walks of life, and all over the world,” said Jennifer Salke, head of Amazon and MGM Studios. “We are excited to work with Henry, Vertigo Entertainment, and Games Workshop across our Amazon entertainment businesses on this brilliant, immersive franchise for our global customers to experience for years to come.”
“I have loved Warhammer since I was a boy, making this moment truly special for me. The opportunity to shepherd this cinematic universe from its inception is quite the honour and the responsibility,” said Henry Cavill. “I couldn’t be more grateful for all the hard work put in by Vertigo, Amazon and Games Workshop to make this happen. One step closer to making a nigh-on lifelong dream come true.”
“It’s great news and we’re absolutely thrilled; we’re working with a fantastic triumvirate in Henry, Vertigo, and Amazon. Henry’s well-known love of Warhammer 40,000—and his passion as a world-builder and storyteller—will serve us all well in the coming years. Finally, Warhammer will make it to the screen as the fans have hoped, and as they deserve. Exciting times!” said Andy Smillie, creative director of GAW.
Vertigo Entertainment’s Roy Lee and Natalie Viscuso (Barbarian, The Lego franchise, the It films, The Departed) partnered with Henry Cavill early on to secure the coveted IP and deliver it to Amazon Studios. Vertigo will executive produce with Cavill and GAW’s Andy Smillie and Max Bottrill alongside Amazon Studios.
Henry Cavill’s numerous projects on the horizon include Matthew Vaughn’s globe-trotting spy thriller Argylle, the highly anticipated reboot of Highlander, Guy Ritchie’s The Ministry of Ungentlemanly Warfare, and Season Three of The Witcher. He is represented by WME.
Cavill took to Instagram for his own announcement about the project:
For 30 years I have dreamt of seeing a Warhammer universe in live action. Now, after 22 years of experience in this industry, I finally feel that I have the skill set and experience to guide a Warhammer Cinematic Universe into life. Partnering with Natalie Viscuso at Vertigo has been a blessing beyond words, without her we might not have found the perfect home at Amazon. And having a home like Amazon will give us the freedom to be true to the massive scope of Warhammer. To all of you Warhammer fans out there, I promise to respect this IP that we love. I promise to bring you something familiar. And I endeavour to bring you something fantastic that is, as of yet, unseen.
Our first steps are to find our Filmmaker/Creator/Writer. Watch this space, my friends.
James Gunn took to Twitter to tease what’s coming as far as the DC cinematic universe. While specifics were limited, Gunn did say that part of the slate is a new Superman film focused on the earlier part of Superman’s life, though not an origin story. That means Superman won’t be played by Henry Cavill.
It’s a big shift from recent announcements. In October, Cavill declared “I am back as Superman” after his appearance as the character in Black Adam. This was just a day before the new duo of James Gunn and Peter Safran were announced as heading up DC’s properties for Warner Bros. Discovery.
Below is Gunn’s Twitter thread.
Peter & I have a DC slate ready to go, which we couldn’t be more over-the-moon about; we’ll be able to share some exciting information about our first projects at the beginning of the new year.
Among those on the slate is Superman. In the initial stages, our story will be focusing on an earlier part of Superman’s life, so the character will not be played by Henry Cavill.
But we just had a great meeting with Henry and we’re big fans and we talked about a number of exciting possibilities to work together in the future.
This is slightly different than Cavill’s statement which makes it seem like his time is completely over, while Gunn leaves open the possibility of future work.
It’s the latest drama concerning DC’s movies that include rumors that execs weren’t happy about Dwayne Johnson’s inclusion of Cavill’s Superman in the film and fans claiming it was all a stunt pushed by Johnson to hype the film throwing Cavill under the bus in a way.
Gunn will be writing the untitled Superman film but the director hasn’t been decided.
Also mentioned was a meeting with Ben Affleck who has said he wants to direct a film. They’re working on finding the right project to make that happen.
Is there already fallout from Henry Cavill‘s return as the Man of Steel? News broke today that The Witcher will get a new lead for the fourth season. Netflix announced that Cavill will be exciting the series after three seasons and Liam Hemsworth will take over.
The third season of The Witcher is expected to debut in summer 2023. A four episode prequel series, The Witcher: Blood Origin starring Sophia Brown, Michelle Yeoh and Laurence O’Fuarain, will debut December 25.
It’s unknown exactly why Cavill is stepping down but it was recently announced he would return as Superman in DC’s movie universe. In a 2021 story in The Hollywood Reporter, Cavill said he planned to follow through with the series with a focus on it lasting seven seasons.
Liam Hemsworth is mainly known for The Hunger Games where he played Gale Hawthorne.
Henry Cavill has taken to social media to declare that he’s back as Superman. The actor said in a statement that his recent appearance in Black Adam is a small taste of what’s to come.
While further details weren’t provided a rumor of a new film starring Cavill was in the works. It’s one of multiple Superman projects being worked on currently, not all featuring Cavill’s “Kal-El Superman”.
Cavill’s Sueprman debuted in 2013 in Man of Steel and he’s gone on to play the role in multiple films including Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice and the versions of Justice League. The character cameoed at the end of Shazam! though it wasn’t Cavill as the character was shown neck down. He re-appeared in a cameo during the credits of Black Adam.
The actor’s run with the character has been mixed in the drama regarding Zack Snyder’s controversial vision and handling of DC’s properties during his film runs. While some actors have continued their roles, Cavill’s return has been a question mark. Rumors had suggested that previous Warner Bros. leadership didn’t want Cavill’s return and with the recent shake-up revolving around the purchase of Warner Bros. by Discovery that barriers were dropped and management changed.
Dwayne Johnson, the star and driving force behind Black Adam, has stated that Superman is involved in the storyline they envision.
The beloved teenage super-sleuth is coming to comic form on August 23, 2022, in Legendary Comics YA’s upcoming graphic novel Enola Holmes: Mycroft’s Dangerous Game, from author Nancy Springer, written by Mickey George with artwork by Giorgia Sposito and colors by Enrica Angiolini. Starring Millie Bobby Brown as the young and brilliant Enola, the graphic novel will feature an original story that bridges the adventures of the first film with the highly anticipated sequel forthcoming on Netflix.
Picking up where last year’s exceptionally popular film left off, readers and fans will join Enola, the rebellious teen sister of Sherlock Holmes (Henry Cavill), in a thrilling adventure and uncover the new mystery that she is up against. After a mysterious group of anarchists abduct her brother Mycroft (Sam Claflin), Enola investigates his disappearance in hopes of rescuing him and recovering something precious he took from her. With the help of Lord Tewkesbury and a young boy on the streets named Shag, she uncovers the truth behind her brother’s abduction and unravels a web of mystery that takes her deep into the London underground as she tries to foil the anarchists’ nefarious plot!
In 2017, I was excited to see Justice League on the big screen. The film brought together classic DC characters in a new formula that skipped the individual origin films and started with a spectacle. The film was middling, not good and not bad. There were things to like and things not to. Four years later, we get to see a new take on the film on HBO Max with Zack Snyder’s Justice League.
The film is director Zack Snyder‘s take using some of his original material and some new scenes and reshoots filmed just for this. Snyder was unable to deliver his vision originally due to a family tragedy. And all these years later, we get a sense of what he wanted to do and while it’s very different, it too is rather middling. Like the original take, some things work and some things don’t. It’s not a disaster of a film but also delivers nothing new, in fact, it feels like steps back in the gains comic films have made in the four years since.
Zack Snyder’s Justice League basks in its creator’s vision. That’s drilled into viewers before the first scene rolls, stating that’s the reason the film is in 4:3 ratio. The movie is full with visuals that only work on a big screen (thankfully my tv is large with a solid sound system) and has a glee about it, like a child playing with toys in an ever-escalating adventure. It’s also very basic in its concepts. At no point does it really show that it “gets” its characters beyond their powers in a very surface-level way.
Despite a reported additional $70 million spent, the special fx far too often looks dated. This becomes apparent early on in the opening slow-motion of various Mother Boxes where some look very “off” in a glitchy sort of way. Wonder Woman’s opening scene is another example of this. Her speed was handled in a less jerky/choppy way in her own film. Here, here movements look like a nightmare from 1999’s House on Haunted Hill. Her solo film handled this in a much-improved manner and one that’s more visually appealing. Cyborg, Steppenwolf, far too much looks slightly off in its delivery where lines don’t match up at times or even “collisions” of objects. There’s far too much of a reliance on CGI that hurts the film and distracts.
Slow motion is to Snyder’s vision as lens flair is to J.J. Abrams. It’s overused and a distraction. In Snyder’s case, it also drags out the film, slowing the pace to the point of near boredom at times. The dour mood of the film is enhanced by the overuse and obsession with the technique. It’s so overused that by the time The Flash is introduced (in the third segment) that his powers, which benefits from the technique, no longer feels interesting visually.
At a little over 4 hours, the film delivers more of everything. Each of the characters are given more to do as the movie attempts to deliver the epic fight with evil while acting as an origin story for six characters. It does what it can with that with a jumble of side-quests and tangents as we meet the various pieces of the puzzle. The Flash and Cyborg, play by Ezra Miller and Ray Fisher gain the most out of this and each plays a more pivotal role than just members of the team. Miller especially comes out a star with his different and very likable take on Barry Allen.
There are things that make absolutely no sense in the film beyond style. The battle between the Amazons and Steppenwolf left me with so many questions. Queen Hippolyta pausing to do battle while escaping. The fact they thought sealing a rock building would do anything. And again, the fx that look like they belong in video games like Dragon’s Lair and Revolution X as opposed to a big-budget film in 2021. The movie is filled with WTF moments that feel so stilted and not fleshed out and dialogue that’s childish in creativity at best.
About the only way Snyder’s version improves upon the original release is in the film’s ending. Though there are some issues with it still, the film delivers a more satisfying ending in its key action, again giving The Flash and Cyborg a much bigger role in stopping things. The epilogue too feels like it’s a much better way to send things off.
This is a film though that’s Snyder’s to own. And it’s a depressing one. From the action sequences, to the look, to the color, the film has a dour sense about it. It’s drap, depressing, and lacks joy. The actors (as wonderful as Gal Gadot, Ben Affleck, and Henry Cavill are in their roles) feel like it’s all a bit too serious. Beyond Miller’s Flash, everyone feels like a stick is up their asses with a stiffness that sucks the fun from it all. It’s a bit too serious and at four hours, it all drags.
Zack Snyder’s Justice League isn’t bad. There’s a lot to enjoy about it. It’s an improvement upon the original in some ways. It’s a step back in others. The enjoyment of it all will be in the eyes of the viewer and whether you enjoy Snyder’s style. It can work, and work well, in a lot of his other films, but here it results in a downer of a film. This is one that should have been an exciting coming together of titans but the end result is a film that takes itself too seriously.
Deadline is reporting that there’s a Superman reboot in the works under the guidance of Ta-Nehisi Coates and J.J. Abrams. Coates is writing the script while Abrams is producing under his Bad Robot label. Hannah Minghella will serve as producer.
Details are scarce, really non-existent, and it’s unknown if Superman will be recast or if Henry Cavill will return. Cavill has expressed interest in reprising the role.
Coates is a celebrated and award-winning author who has covered cultural, social, and political issues. He’s also written numerous comics for Marvel including a current run on Black Panther and Captain America.
J.J. Abrams has been tied to Warner Bros. and DC for a while now and is reportedly developing Justice League Dark for film and television.
In Zack Snyder’s Justice League, determined to ensure Superman’s (Henry Cavill) ultimate sacrifice was not in vain, Bruce Wayne (Ben Affleck) aligns forces with Diana Prince (Gal Gadot) with plans to recruit a team of metahumans to protect the world from an approaching threat of catastrophic proportions. The task proves more difficult than Bruce imagined, as each of the recruits must face the demons of their own pasts to transcend that which has held them back, allowing them to come together, finally forming an unprecedented league of heroes. Now united, Batman (Affleck), Wonder Woman (Gadot), Aquaman (Jason Momoa), Cyborg (Ray Fisher), and The Flash (Ezra Miller) may be too late to save the planet from Steppenwolf, DeSaad, and Darkseid and their dreadful intentions.
It’s rare for a franchise to almost completely reinvent itself in almost every outing. It’s even more rare for it to deliver, arguably, its best film twenty years in. Writer and director Christoher McQuarrie delivers his best film ever, as though he’s taken everything he’s learned from his past two and a half decades of experience, writing such classics as The Usual Suspects and being frequent Tom Cruise collaborator, to craft a great movie about the stakes of failure.
Failure is one of the great recurring themes in the film, as Cruise’s Ethan Hunt just wins by sheer luck. Several times in the film you think the good guys lose — because they do, repeatedly — and wonder if maybe this film will end with them losing, or with a noble self-sacrifice.
Our story begins with some stolen plutonium, and a failed recovery plan where Ethan chooses to save the lives of his longtime teammates Luther (Ving Rhames) and Benji (Simon Pegg) rather than recover the nuclear materials. So the CIA Director (Angela Bassett) does her best Amanda Waller impersonation and assigns one of their most deadly agents, August Walker (Henry Cavill), to provide “oversight” on the IMF team. Translation: he will kill anyone who gets in their way, including Hunt and his team if they go rogue.
Their clashing styles and the chemistry between Cruise and Cavill provide some of the best material of the film. Cavill is an imposing presence and director McQuarrie somehow makes it look like he hits harder here than as Superman. Cavill is also just really good as a spy and an action movie star, but somehow in a completely opposite way from his turn in The Man From U.N.C.L.E.
But the emotional core here is with Pegg and returning actors Rebecca Ferguson and Michelle Monaghan. First, all three of them give great performances. Pegg has perhaps the most interesting character arc of any person in the franchise, going from computer geek in MI:III to hero-in-his-own-right in this outing. But it’s each of the characters’ connections to Hunt and his need to protect them that make the stakes of this so much higher and more personal than in previous outings. PS- If you need more reason to love Simon Pegg, you should see his recent apology for mocking Jar Jar Binks here. Really insightful stuff.
The last Mission Impossible film was full of bombastic stunts and plot, but two years later I couldn’t tell you a thing about it or what happened. Its villain, Solomon Lane, was supposedly so much smarter and always a step ahead of Hunt, but you never really felt that. In Fallout, you feel very much like the good guys are constantly being outsmarted and the stakes for failure — nuclear annihilation for a huge portion of the world’s population — are possible.
McQuarrie writes this in the same way as his tour de force The Usual Suspects, with layers upon layers of misdirection and snappy dialogue. He builds tension and releases it, hiding important exposition n moments of humor to help the explaining go down. Like Usual Suspects, there’s real humor in here. And if you’re familiar with the principle of Chekov’s Gun, he loads and cocks so many guns and leaves you waiting for the payoff. Even when you see something coming — especially when you see it coming — you just are left waiting in anticipation for sweet release of the payoff.
He’s also willing to take some risks. There is a point about two hours into the movie when I was convinced it was over, and this would be The Empire Strikes Back of a trilogy about Ethan Hunt and Solomon Lane. Indeed, in a world where Hobbits, Hunger Games, and Harry Potters are split into multiple movies for financial reasons, you can imagine wanting to extend this franchise in that way. But it doesn’t, and gives you this brilliant denouement of a final thirty minutes that gives specific payoff to everything not only from the previous two hours but the last twenty years. Yes, this is two and half hours long. It doesn’t feel like it. Bravo, Chris McQuarrie, bravo.
And then there’s his visual style. Wow, just wow. The cinematography here is brilliant. The pacing is unbelievable. There’s an extended chase scene through Paris that goes on for what seems like twenty minutes, and there’s never a dull moment. Eat your heart out, French Connection.
This may be the best Mission: Impossible movie. And it is certainly the best spy thriller we’ve had in a long time. This is a cure for what ails the late summertime blues and the rare summer blockbuster that doesn’t require you to turn off your brain to have fun with it.
From Batman V Superman: Dawn Of Justice comes Superman. The portrait sculpt has been expertly modeled to craft an exceptional screen-accurate likeness of acclaimed actor Henry Cavill. Built on a newly designed One:12 Collective body featuring over 38 points of articulation Superman is outfitted in an amazingly detailed and accurate costume. To match the on-screen creation of award winning designer Michael Wilkinson, the One:12 Collective Superman’s outfit has been specially created using state of the art techniques. The result is a stunning recreation of the films costume.
We open up the box and show off the figure! You can pick yours up: Amazon or ToyWiz
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t’s rare for a franchise to almost completely reinvent itself in almost every outing. It’s even more rare for it to deliver, arguably, its best film twenty years in. Writer and director Christoher McQuarrie delivers his best film ever, as though he’s taken everything he’s learned from his past two and a half decades of experience, writing such classics as The Usual Suspects and being frequent Tom Cruise collaborator, to craft a great movie about the stakes of failure.
