Dakota Johnson is suiting up for the Sony Universe of Marvel Characters.

The actor has been cast as Madame Web in the studio’s next standalone superhero movie. It would mark Sony’s first modern comic book adaptation to feature a female in the title role. Insiders close to the project stress that Johnson’s deal is not closed but confirm she is in talks to secure the role.

S.J. Clarkson, known for her work on Netflix’s darker Marvel series “Jessica Jones” and the MCU-set spinoff “The Defenders,” has been hired to direct the “Madame Web” film. Matt Sazama and Burk Sharpless, the duo behind Jared Leto’s upcoming vampire chiller “Morbius,” will write the screenplay.

In the comics, Madame Web is key in the interconnected multiverse, a somewhat confusing concept that Sony, Disney and Warner Bros. have each separately started to tease in on-screen adventures. In effect, the mind-bending theory involves multiple versions of characters from different timelines that, in the case of Sony’s “Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse” and “Spider-Man: No Way Home,” can intersect to varying degrees of chaos.

Web often appears as a side character in “Spider-Man” comics, where she is depicted as a blind, paralyzed elderly woman who has myasthenia gravis, a chronic autoimmune disorder requiring her to connect to a life support system resembling a spiderweb. The character was introduced in issue 210 of “The Amazing Spider-Man” comic series in 1980, where she’s a clairvoyant mutant whose abilities prove to be greatly beneficial to Spider-Man and his fellow arachnid allies, like Spider-Woman.

Since Johnson’s breakout role in “Fifty Shades of Grey,” she has cultivated an eclectic resume with roles in Luca Guadagnino’s supernatural horror remake “Suspiria,” the romantic comedy “How to Be Single,” the feel-good film “Peanut Butter Falcon” and director Maggie Gyllenhaal’s psychological drama “The Lost Daughter.” Johnson recently received acclaim for two Sundance films, director Cooper Raiff’s sweet coming-of-age story “Cha Cha Real Smooth” and the romantic comedy “Am I OK?”

“Madame Web” is one of several Spider-Man related spinoffs in development as Sony spawns its own separate and expanding film franchise, one that is anchored by baddies like Venom, Morbius and Kraven. It’s not (at least, at this point) related to Disney’s Marvel Cinematic Universe, in which Tom Holland plays the popular web-slinger. He last appeared in “Spider-Man: No Way Home,” a box-office behemoth that has grossed $1.74 billion globally.

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Fresh off his Oscar-buzzed turn in Belfast , Jamie Dornan looks to have found his next big role, as sources tell Deadline he is set to join Gal Gadot in the international spy thriller Heart of Stone from Netflix and Skydance.

Tom Harper is directing the pic from a script by Greg Rucka and Allison Schroeder. Skydance’s David Ellison, Dana Goldberg and Don Granger are producing, along with Mockingbird’s Bonnie Curtis and Julie Lynn and Pilot Wave’s Gadot and Jaron Varsano. Harper, Rucka and Patty Whitcher are exec producing.

Plot details are being kept under wraps.

As for Dornan, the A-lister has had quite the fall as Belfast has become an award-season front-runner after its festival tour. His performance in the pic directed by Kenneth Branagh and also starring Caitriona Balfe and Jude Hill has delivered Dornan some of the best reviews of his career and, with Oscar voting coming to an end today, a possible first-time nomination as well. – SOURCE

Focus Features will release Kenneth Branagh’s Belfast on Friday, November 12, 2021 in theaters domestically.

Written and directed by Academy Award® nominee Branagh, Belfast is a poignant story of love, laughter and loss in one boy’s childhood, amid the music and social tumult of the late 1960s. The cast stars Golden Globe nominee Caitriona Balfe, Academy Award® winner Judi Dench, Jamie Dornan, Ciaran Hinds, and introduces 10 year old Jude Hill. Dornan and Balfe play a passionate working-class couple caught up in the mayhem, with Dench and Hinds as sharp-witted grandparents. The film is produced by Branagh, Laura Berwick, Becca Kovacik and Tamar Thomas.

Dakota Johnson is attached to executive produce and star in Rodeo Queens, a comedy, which Amazon Studios nabbed in a competitive situation from Platform One Media (a Boat Rocker Company) in association with TeaTime Pictures for series development. Christy Hall, the co-creator and executive producer of Netflix’s I Am Not Okay With This, created the series and will serve as showrunner. Portlandia co-creator Carrie Brownstein is directing.

The new series, which will soon open its writers room, follows an ensemble of Rodeo Queen hopefuls as they compete for the coveted crown.

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Theater director Carrie Cracknell, who directed ‘Sea Wall/ A Life’ on Broadway, will make her feature filmmaking debut with the project.

Dakota Johnson has signed on to star in Persuasion, Netflix and MRC Entertainment’s modern take on the Jane Austen novel.

Theater director Carrie Cracknell, who directed Jake Gyllenhaal and Tom Sturridge to Tony nominations last year in Sea Wall/ A Life on Broadway, will make her feature-helming debut with the project. Production is expected to begin in May.

Described by Netflix and MRC as a “modern, witty approach to a beloved story while still remaining true” to the novel, the logline per the companies is thus: “Living with her snobby family on the brink of bankruptcy, Anne Elliot is an unconforming woman with modern sensibilities. When Frederick Wentworth — the dashing one she once sent away — crashes back into her life, Anne must choose between putting the past behind her or listening to her heart when it comes to second chances.”

Ron Bass and Alice Victoria Winslow wrote the script.

Andrew Lazar and Christina Weiss Lurie are producing.

Exec producing are Elizabeth Cantillon via her untitled MRC Films romance label, Michael Constable and David Fliegel.

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Dakota Johnson was spotted in Miami on April, 02. Check the 182 High Quality Pictures in the Gallery. Enjoy!

Dakota Johnson was spotted in Miami on March, 31. Check the 16 High Quality Pictures in the Gallery. Enjoy!

Dakota Johnson was spotted in Miami on March, 29 & 30. Check the 16 High Quality Pictures in the Gallery. Enjoy!

Dakota Johnson was spotted in Los Angeles on March, 27. Check the 70 High Quality Pictures in the Gallery. Enjoy!

Dakota Johnson was spotted in Los Angelesy on March, 26. Check the 22 High Quality Pictures in the Gallery. Enjoy!

Dakota Johnson was spotted leaving Elton John Party on March, 25. Check the 28 High Quality Pictures in the Gallery. Enjoy!

Dakota Johnson was spotted in LA on March, 24. Check the 57 High Quality Pictures in the Gallery. Enjoy!