After Anthony and Joe Russo are through explaining to confounded moviegoers why the MCU’s new star villain, Doctor Doom, has the same face, hair, and Black Sabbath t-shirts as its flagship hero, Iron Man, they’re going to save the whales. Per Variety, the Russos will shepherd a Free Willy reboot to cinemas, courtesy of the writer and director of the 2024 erotic thriller Miller’s Girl, Jade Halley Bartlett, and Mary-Margaret Kunze, who produced Miller’s Girl.
There’s little information about the “reimagining” at the moment. (If they haven’t cast Willy yet, might we suggest the Avatar: The Way Of Water breakout, Payakan.) Though we do know that the original Free Willy saw a little boy free his best friend, Willy, an Orca raised in captivity and on the verge of euthanization, with the help of a surprisingly locked-in Michael Madsen. The movie spawned three sequels: 1995’s The Adventure Home, 1997’s The Rescue, and the 2010 direct-to-DVD installment, Escape From Pirate’s Cove. There was also an animated TV series for a season because that’s just what happened in the ’90s.
Despite being on the hook for two of the largest collections of celebrity cameos in cinema history, Avengers: Doomsday and Secret Wars, the Russos have been loading up their dance cards with other movies to produce through AGBO. The production company recently announced a new action film, The Reckoner, starring Peter Dinklage and directed by Kenji Tanigaki, who just made the action film of the year, The Furious. The company has also been supplying streamers with various action franchises, including Extraction and Citadel, which is reportedly one of the most expensive series ever produced.
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