Zendaya Wants to Direct a Movie and Play a Villain in the Future: ‘Tap Into That Evil, Supervillain Vibe’

Zack Sharf Digital News Director In a new profile on Paul Dano published by The Guardian, his “The Batman” director Matt Reeves confirms they filmed “70 or 80 takes” of the Riddler and Batman’s final confrontation in the 2022 DC comic book tentpole. Dano starred as the film’s villain opposite Robert Pattinson. The film earned rave reviews (it was named the third best film of 2022 by Variety) and was a box office hit with $771 million worldwide.

Zack Sharf Digital News Director A new oral history on “Mamma Mia!” from Vogue magazine ends with the cast and crew all in support of making a third installment in the Universal Pictures franchise, which kicked off in 2008 with a film adaptation of the musical and continued in 2018 with “Mamma Mia! Here We Go Again.” Combined, the two musical films grossed over $1 billion at the worldwide box office. “Universal would love to make a third movie, and I’ll leave it at that,” Universal Pictures chairman Donna Langley said point blank when the discussion turned to a potential “Mamma Mia 3.” Amanda Seyfried, who leads the franchise as Sophie, added, “I dare you to show me one person who doesn’t want a third Mamma Mia!” But she also cast a bit of a doubt on a third movie since, according to her, its existence would most likely depend on Universal paying the cast what they are worth, which is far more now than when the franchise started.

Zack Sharf Digital News Director Alan Moore, the comic book visionary best known for writing such revered works as “Watchmen,” “V for Vendetta” and “Batman: The Killing Joke,” revealed to The Telegraph that he is longer accepting royalty checks from DC Comics for films and television series based on his works. He’s asked the company to instead reroute these checks to Black Lives Matter.

Zack Sharf Digital News Director “Stranger Things 4” pushed television episode lengths to crazy extremes with two episodes that ran around 90 minutes and a season finale that was the length of a Hollywood blockbuster at nearly two-and-a-half hours. Anyone thinking the upcoming fifth and final season of the Netflix series will scale things back is mistaken. Speaking to Total Film magazine, “Stranger Things” executive producer and director Shawn Levy said Season 5 will only expand the scale of the already-humungous Season 4.

Zack Sharf Digital News Director “Batgirl” directors Adil El Arbi and Bilall Fallah told Insider while promoting their new Syrian war drama “Rebel” that watching Warner Bros.’ most recent DC tentpole, “The Flash,” was a sad experience for them. They claim they were told by studio executives that “Batgirl” would release after “The Flash,” thus continuing Michael Keaton’s revived run as Batman/Bruce Wayne. But that never panned out after Warner Bros.

Zack Sharf Digital News Director Timothée Chalamet’s “Wonka” director Paul King recently told Total Film magazine that his singing voice in the upcoming Warner Bros. family adventure is “beautiful” and reminiscent of Bing Crosby, whose rendition of “White Christmas” remains the world’s best-selling single of all time with over 100 million sales. Chalamet is playing a younger version of the eponymous chocolatier in the film, which follows Willy Wonka as he attempts to open up his first chocolate shop.

EXCLUSIVE: Distributor-producer Lucky Red is one of Italy’s most respected independent film and TV companies. Run by former actor Andrea Occhipinti since 1987, the firm has released more than 500 titles and produced more than 50 films.

Zack Sharf Digital News Director A new article from The New York Times on how the “Barbie” movie’s success will pay off for Mattel reveals that executives at the company were first treated to a 147-page script for the film. The screenplay by Greta Gerwig and Noah Baumbach would be shaped into a 114 minute film. Mattel Films head Robbie Brenner was the first exec to read the script.

EXCLUSIVE: It’s a scorching 90 degrees in Rome at the end of July, but producer Lorenzo Mieli isn’t breaking a sweat.

UPDATED with latest: The Telliride Film Festival began August 31 with a lineup for the Rockies event’s 50th edition that includes world premieres of Alexander Payne’s The Holdovers (Focus Features), Emerald Fennell’s Saltburn (Amazon) and Free Solo filmmakers Elizabeth Chai Vasarhelyi and Jimmy Chin’s narrative feature Nyad (Netflix).

Zack Sharf Digital News Director Elizabeth Olsen told The Times of London in a recently-published interview (conducted pre-strike) that she is aggressively seeking a “variation” of characters after working for four years solely in the Marvel Cinematic Universe. Olsen filmed “WandaVision” and “Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness” back to back, which was perhaps too much time dedicated to only playing Scarlet Witch. That’s a large reason Olsen was drawn to playing alleged axe murderer Candy Montgomery in Max’s “Love and Death.” “I’m trying to figure out… Because, specifically in the last four years, my output has been Marvel,” Olsen said.

Zack Sharf Digital News Director The upcoming “Hunger Games” prequel movie “The Ballad of Songbirds & Snakes” may not feature Jennifer Lawrence as Katniss Everdeen, but it does feature her longtime franchise director Francis Lawrence behind the camera. Francis Lawrences directed every “Hunger Games” sequel and is back for the Lionsgate prequel, which features “West Side Story” breakout Rachel Zegler in the lead role of Lucy Gray Baird, a tribute from District 12 who is mentored by a young Snow (Tom Blyth) for the 10th annual Hunger Games. “Katniss was an introvert and a survivor,” Lawrence told Empire magazine about the big difference between Katniss and Lucy.

Zack Sharf Digital News Director Ridley Scott’s historical epic “Napoleon” clocks in at a whopping 158 minutes, but even at over two-and-a-half hours a lot of material was left on the cutting room floor. In the September 2023 issue of Empire Magazine, Scott reveals that he has a “fantastic” cut of the movie that runs nearly four-and-a-half hours. As reported by Empire, Scott’s near 270-minute “Napoleon” cut “features more of Joséphine’s life before she meets Napoleon.

Nick Vivarelli International Correspondent The 80th Venice Film Festival kicks off tomorrow with a robust roster of awards season hopefuls making their bows, such as Michael Mann’s “Ferrari,” Bradley Cooper’s “Maestro,” Sophia Coppola’s “Priscilla” and David Fincher’s “The Killer,” accompanied by a smattering of stars. As previously reported by Variety, the festival has confirmed that Adam Driver will be in Venice to promote “Ferrari” while Cailee Spaeny and Jacob Elordi, who play Priscilla and Elvis Presley in “Priscilla,” as well as Priscilla Presley herself, are also expected to be on the Lido.

Zendaya has revealed she’d like to play a villain character for her next role.The actor, known for playing Rue in the HBO series Euphoria, was asked what role she’d like to tackle next during an interview with Elle magazine.“I would love to play a villain of sorts,” Zendaya said. “Tap into the evil, supervillain vibes.

Denis Villeneuve has revealed that he is considering turning his Dune film series into a trilogy.Speaking to Empire, Villeneuve spoke of his hopes to make a third film in the sci-fi epic series: “If I succeed in making a trilogy, that would be a dream”. Currently, Villeneuve’s Dune and the yet-to-be-released Dune: Part Two films tell the story of author Frank Herbert’s original 1965 novel.While Villeneuve has yet to confirm if a third film has been green-lit, he hinted to Empire that he’s already working on a script: “I will say, there are words on paper.”A potential third Dune film from Villeneuve will see his retelling of Herbert’s ‘Dune Messiah’ novel, which was the direct sequel to the first Dune book.

Denis Villeneuve has bigger plans for Dune.

Zendaya has teased a brand-new direction for her career after she finishes playing teenager Rue in the hit HBO series Euphoria.In a wide-ranging interview with ELLE, the Emmy-winning actress, who turns 27 in September, spoke about tackling more “grown-up” roles.“From a character perspective, I want to find things that will push me,” she said. “As I get older, you know, I can’t play a teenager for the rest of my life.”The actress is next set to appear in Luca Guadagnino’s tennis drama Challengers, in which she plays a former champion-turned-coach, who finds herself in the middle of a love triangle between two highly competitive players, portrayed by Josh O’Connor and Mike Faist.“I felt like it was a good step into a more, I guess you could say, ‘grown-up’ role and into that next phase,” Zendaya said of the film.

Zendaya was too busy listening to Beyoncé‘s ‘Break My Soul’ when the song first released that she supposedly didn’t engage with her co-stars for a day on the set of Challengers.During an interview with the upcoming film’s star Josh O’Connor, the British actor was surprised by Zendaya, who revealed that she would be conducting the chat for V Magazine.In the latter portion of their chat, the pair spoke about O’Connor’s love for ceramics and ceramicists, with Zendaya saying her co-star “nerds out” on the topic. In response, O’Connor explains that his excitement over ceramics is no different from Zendaya’s love of Beyoncé.O’Connor said to Zendaya: “There was a day when we were shooting and Beyonce’s new track was coming out–and I’m not saying that Beyonce is like your equivalent of my ceramics, but no one could talk to [Zendaya].

TeamDeakins, the podcast run by acclaimed cinematographer Roger Deakins and James Deakins, his collaborator, a script supervisor, and his wife, is consistently entertaining and listenable. On a recent episode, the Deakins duo had actor Benicio del Toro on the podcast to discuss their work together on “Sicario”—Roger was the DP, del Toro co-starred— and much of the Latin American actor’s impressive career.