Latest news with #OlgaKurylenko
Geek Tyrant
19-05-2025
- Entertainment
- Geek Tyrant
THUNDERBOLTS* Director Jake Schreier Talks About Olga Kurylenko's Reaction to Her Character's Fate in the Film — GeekTyrant
We've written a couple of times about the surprising death of the character Antonia Dreykov, aka Taskmaster, played by actress Olga Kurylenko in Marvel's Thunderbolts* a couple of weeks ago. It was one of those choices in a movie that you don't see coming, seeing as how that character was one of the core members of the team, but director Jake Schreier previously said to The New York Times that the decision was made when they realized how little bloodshed had happened in the first drafts of the film's script. Schreier explained: "That was a tough one because it's a character that matters to a lot of people and we don't want to take that lightly. That idea came after the strike when it just felt like the movie at that point was a little bloodless. 'It's not rated R, but if we were trying to tell a story that had real tension about people who killed people for a living, you needed to depict that in a way. 'Obviously, we could have introduced a new character and then gotten rid of them, but then it wouldn't have the resonance or potentially the shock of doing it to Taskmaster." When asked asked how Olga Kurylenko reacted to the news of her character's early death, Schreier responded: "It's not easy. It's like in sports: Players want to play. Olga's a great actress and of course that's a hard conversation to have, but she was an absolute pro about it and willing to show up, and I'm very grateful for that." It was sad to see her character go. I loved her in Black Widow , and was interested in seeing her again, so it was too bad her screentime was cut short. But it did serve the story, and who knows, maybe we will see her again before the multiverse is closed for good.
Geek Tyrant
07-05-2025
- Entertainment
- Geek Tyrant
Taskmaster's Cut Story Arc Was Packed With Heart, Trauma, and Skittles; Here Are The Details — GeekTyrant
By now, most fans know Taskmaster only gets a few minutes of screentime in Marvel's Thunderbolts* before being killed off, but it wasn't always that way. In fact, screenwriter Eric Pearson recentlyu confirmed that Olga Kurylenko's Antonia Dreykov was originally supposed to be a major part of the film. We now have details to share for her emotional redemption arc, a newfound sisterhood with Ghost and Yelena, along with a running gag involving…. Skittles. Scooper @MyTimeToShineH shared the new details and Taskmaster clearly had a much bigger role that might've been fun to see play out. It's revealed: 'Antonia shows up in OXE's Vault Level Five, sent by Val to kill John Walker. She recognizes Yelena from their Red Room days and fights like a machine, using her mimicry and reflexes to dodge and strike. The team realizes Val's playing them, and when they're trapped in an incinerator Antonia's confusion hints there's a deeper issue with her.' That deeper issue is her broken memory. Antonia's backstory was supposed to dive deeper into the aftermath of the explosion from Black Widow that left her brain damaged, further warped by years of experimentation. It's explained: 'She opens up about her past, an explosion at nine messed up her brain (the one caused by Black Widow) leaving her with patchy memory after years of lab experiments. She snaps at Walker for being a jerk about it. 'This vulnerability bonds her with Yelena and Ava/Ghost who get her pain. Ava makes a video for Antonia with her explaining things in it to help her every time she feels lost... They all share Skittles (bonding moment).' Throughout the original script, Skittles were going to be a recurring symbol of trust and camaraderie. From tense elevator shaft confessions to rooftop chaos, the candy popped up again and again. 'In the elevator shaft escape Antonia shares her history, her dad's accident, lab life, and Val's false promises to fix her if she do work for her. She connects with Ava over shared trauma. 'After Bucky ambushes them Antonia's memory flickers... She's the only one who's able to get free and kicks Bucky's ass in a fight, he's impressed by her mimic abilities, until he outsmarts her. Her story of Val's control softens Bucky, he releases the others and joins their plan to stop Val. 'But not before they take a breather and share some Skittles.' The Skittles were apparently a part of the film's original emotional spine. By the third act, Antonia was supposed to take a heroic stand, emotionally supporting Walker, battling the Sentry, and showing compassion even when Val deserved none of it. 'In the showdown in the penthouse, Antonia nearly kills Val but stops short. When Sentry (Bob) arrives she's shocked but fights hard, teaming with Ava. 'Sentry wipes them out, she tosses her weapons to sway Sentry, helping spark his doubt about Val's orders. He doesn't listen. Antonia escapes with the team. 'Rest of it is pretty much the same as it was in the film but with Taskmaster involved.' And in the end? 'The movie ends with The New Avengers sharing Skittles.' It's unclear why Marvel scrapped the arc, or the Skittles. Maybe it was cut for time, or maybe execs were wary of overstuffing the film. Whatever the reason, fans are left with just a shadow of what could've been: a redemption story, a new core trio, and the MCU's most unexpected emotional candy. Would you have liked to see this Taskmaster arc in the final cut? Or would the Skittles have been too much?
![THUNDERBOLTS* Director Jake Schreier Explains [Spoiler]'s Death and Why It Was Added Late in the Process — GeekTyrant](/_next/image?url=http%3A%2F%2Fstatic1.squarespace.com%2Fstatic%2F51b3dc8ee4b051b96ceb10de%2F51ce6099e4b0d911b4489b79%2F6817d8ad5e15c412cc8adfe6%2F1746568039440%2Fthunderbolts-director-jake-schreier-explains-spoilers-death-and-why-it-was-added-late-in-the-process.jpg%3Fformat%3D1500w&w=3840&q=100)
Geek Tyrant
06-05-2025
- Entertainment
- Geek Tyrant
THUNDERBOLTS* Director Jake Schreier Explains [Spoiler]'s Death and Why It Was Added Late in the Process — GeekTyrant
Director Jake Schreier opened up about the decision to take out the character Antonia Dreykov aka Taskmaster (Olga Kurylenko), the tragic, mind-controlled villain from Black Widow early on in the film. The character was in every Thunderbolts* trailer and poster, seemingly touted as one of the team members. But in her very first scene in the movie, she's unceremoniously shot in the head by Ghost (Hannah John-Kamen), who was just fulfilling her latest contract from Contessa Valentina Allegra de Fontaine (Julia Louis-Dreyfus), unaware that it was all a ploy to get her, Taskmaster, U.S. Agent (Wyatt Russell), and Yelena Belova (Florence Pugh) to kill each other, thereby erasing all evidence of Val's illegal shadow ops and clearing her of any wrongdoing for her ongoing impeachment trial. While Yelena figured out the scheme in time to save herself and the others, it was too late for Taskmaster. She unfortunately doesn't live long enough to find redemption or become one of the New Avengers team members, and as it turns out, her death was added to the script kind of last minute, according to the director. Schreier told EW, "Coming out of the strike, we were about to shoot, and we got shut down, and it gave us some time to step back from the movie. And when we all got back in the room, once the strike was over, and we were thinking about how to improve it, it really felt like the movie seemed just a little bloodless." While Thunderbolts* was never going to be R-rated, Schreier still wanted to make it feel like any of the characters could die at any moment, especially considering these are all killers and former (maybe still current?) villains. Schreier added, "For who these characters are, it should live up to those movies that have attention to 'em, where you really don't know who's going to survive it. I know that's tricky in today's era where things get out before movies, but within the context of the film, it felt like we needed to take a swing like that so that you didn't really know who was going to make it, and also so that it was clear that it could have been any one of them." The speed with which Taskmaster is killed in the movie was also by design to make it as shocking as possible for viewers, which was certainly attained. "The decision to do it when we did it, we went through a lot of different versions of that, and we thought very carefully about it," the director explains. "And it felt like, while it would've been very nice — and Olga is a wonderful actress — to have her on the team for longer, that death would've kind of reverberated a lot harder and made it harder to find our tonal balance if it had happened later in the film." He continues, "And it would've occupied such a kind of more emotional space that would've stepped on what we really need to be building. And we have so little narrative real estate to do it, which is the connection between Yelena and Bob [Lewis Pullman], and the movie is really going to hinge on that. And so in order to keep our tone and to build that team together, it actually felt best, even if it feels a little cold-blooded, to have that happen early." The director also wanted to clarify that, despite their powers and skills, none of these characters are unkillable. "I think it's good to give the audience a reminder of that," he says. While it seems as if Taskmaster's death has no immediate consequences, Schreier argues that it has a greater impact by driving the rest of the story forward. "As Yelena says later in the movie, 'She had a tough life. She killed a lot of people, and then she got killed, just like us someday,'" he says. "And I think that her character lives on in the movie in the way they think about that, and what they've done, and what it means to be just sort of blithely going around doing what one is instructed to do, ordered to do, and existing kind of in this darker isolated place." Marvel doesn't kill very often, but the director says there was no pushback from the comic giant on killing Taskmaster so soon into the movie. That's an interesting perspective from the director. We saw the movie last Thursday, and my son says he believes Taskmaster is still alive. I don't think so, but anything is possible in Marvel, especially when the multiverse is in play. I was bummed not to see more of her in the story, but I did enjoy what the Thunderbolts* did offer us, and I look forward to seeing them return in Doomsday.
Geek Tyrant
06-05-2025
- Entertainment
- Geek Tyrant
THUNDERBOLTS* Screenwriter Was Shocked That His Big Story Arc For Taskmaster Was Cut From The Film — GeekTyrant
In a move that even surprised the guy who wrote a draft of the script, Marvel's Thunderbolts* axed a major Taskmaster storyline, and screenwriter Eric Pearson only found out about it the same way fans did: by watching the movie. Pearson, who also wrote Black Widow , had no idea Taskmaster's arc was gutted until he saw an early cut of the film, Pearson told Polygon: "It was decided after my work. When I sat down to watch the first cut, one thing was totally different and shocked the hell out of me, and it was that. Everything else, I was like, 'Yeah, that's the movie that I wrote!' But that decision…" In the final film, Taskmaster (Olga Kurylenko), the brainwashed assassin introduced in Black Widow , is abruptly killed off early on… shot in the head by Ghost (Hannah John-Kamen) during the infamous vault sequence. It's a moment that was clearly designed for shock value, but it also left some fans scratching their heads. Turns out, they weren't alone. Originally, Taskmaster wasn't just another body to drop. Pearson revealed that she had 'a pretty big subplot' in his draft, one that actually gave her and Ghost an emotional throughline. He explained: "As people who'd grown up in labs and been controlled that way," the two were supposed to form a bond. 'And Ava, having won her autonomy earlier in the chronology than Taskmaster, was kind of big-sistering her a little bit, in a way of 'how to break free and be your own person.'' There was even a comedic twist to it. Taskmaster, still struggling with memory loss from her past trauma, would repeatedly forget she and Ghost were no longer enemies. 'There was a gag where she just kept restarting the fight and forgetting that they had made up and become friends. They would be discussing the plan of how to get out [of the vault], and she'd just go after him again, and they'd all have to pig-pile on each other, and pull her off, and be like, 'No, we know each other! We've had this conversation before!'' Director Jake Schreier addressed the change in a previous interview, saying it was about injecting uncertainty into the story. 'Obviously, it's a big decision. We felt like a movie like this needed something like that, where you're like, 'Okay, if they'll do that, they could do anything,' you know, and you don't really know exactly where the thing is going to go. It needed a bit of shock or surprise." Sure, the shock was there. But now that we know what was left on the cutting room floor, a layered, funny, and redemptive subplot for two of the MCU's most tragic figures. Iit's hard not to wonder what Thunderbolts* could've been if Marvel had let that story play out. Would you have preferred the original Taskmaster-Ghost storyline?
Forbes
29-04-2025
- Entertainment
- Forbes
‘Thunderbolts*' Reviews: Do Critics Think New Marvel Movie Has Zap?
"Thunderbolts*" partial movie poster featuring Olga Kurylenko, Hannah John-Kamin, Florence Pugh, ... More David Harbour and Wyatt Russell. Thunderbolts* — Marvel's antihero adventure starring Florence Pugh, Sebastian Stan and David Harbour — is opening in theaters Friday. What do critics have to say about the new film? The official summary for Thunderbolts* reads, 'Marvel Studios assembles an unconventional team of antiheroes — Yelena Belova (Pugh), Bucky Barnes (Stan), Red Guardian (Harbour), Ghost (Hannah John-Kamen), Taskmaster (Olga Kurylenko) and John Walker (Wyatt Russell). 'After finding themselves ensnared in a death trap set by Valentina Allegra de Fontaine (Julia Louis-Dreyfuss), these disillusioned castoffs must embark on a dangerous mission that will force them to confront the darkest corners of their pasts. Will this dysfunctional group tear themselves apart, or find redemption and unite as something much more before it's too late?' Rated PG-13, Thunderbolts* is directed by Jake Scheier (Netflix's Beef) and also stars Lewis Pullman, Geraldine Viswanathan, Chris Bauer and Wendell Pierce. The review embargo for Thunderbolts* was lifted on Tuesday afternoon. Thunderbolts* so far has earned an 88% 'fresh' rating from Rotten Tomatoes critics based on 96 reviews. The RT Critics Consensus and Popcornmeter score is still pending. David Rooney of The Hollywood Reporter is among the top critics on RT who gives Thunderbolts* a fresh review, writing, 'There's a disarming freshness to this first-time assembly, not to mention something even more unexpected: heart. That's due to an appealing ensemble cast but also to the new blood of a creative team with a distinctive take on the genre.' Nicolas Barber of the BBC also praises Thunderbolts* in his 'fresh' review on RT, noting that Thunderbolts* is so much better than most of Marvel's post-Endgame films. It's not just because it's a rough-edged, big-hearted spy thriller about lovably clueless anti-heroes. It's because it has an actor as charismatic as [Florence] Pugh at its center.' Alison Wilmore of New York Magazine/Vulture also praises Florence Pugh in her review on RT, writing, 'Pugh, in particular, gives the movie an emotional tangibility that makes it feel realms more solid than the last few years of Marvel product. William Bibbiani of The Wrap in one regard knocks Thunderbolts* but still gives the film a 'fresh' review on RT, noting, 'Although it's hard to shake the sense that on a practical level this studio is just scraping the bottom of the barrel, desperately hoping their minor characters can be converted into headliners, they've done a damn good job of it.' In his 'fresh' review on RT, Peter Debruge of Variety compares the team members in Thunderbolts* to another famous band of MCU misfits, noting, 'As with the Guardians of the Galaxy films, what works here is the uneasy tension within a team that comes together out of necessity, rather than any natural sense of affinity.' Robbie Collin of the U.K.'s Daily Telegraph is the sole top critic on RT who gives Thunderbolts* a 'rotten' review to date, writing, 'Despite its notionally spiky tone, moroseness is the film's root chord.' Thunderbolts* plays in Thursday previews before opening in theaters nationwide on Friday.
