Oh look – more things happening!
IN THIS WEEK’S ” Beyond Method” story, who would be good to play a young Tony Soprano in the Sopranos prequel? How about the son of actor James Gandolfini?
Yep, Micheal Gandolfini will play a young Tony Soprano in the film, The Many Saints of Newark.
IN THIS WEEK’S “Really?” story, Channing Tatum may end up in the director’s chair for Gambit.
Gambit, the long-gestating 20th Century Fox superhero movie that has seen a revolving door of directors while Tatum grew out his hair to no avail. With Disney’s acquisition of 20th Century Fox ongoing, it seemed like Gambit was out for the count. But a new report about Tatum’s departure from his longtime talent agency suggests that Gambit may see action after all.
Channing Tatum has been attached to star in Gambit since the film was first announced in 2015, but he’s remained the only constant in the film’s long, tortured production history. Rupert Wyatt (Rise of the Planet of the Apes) was the first director hired, but exited because of behind-the-scenes conflicts. Doug Liman (The Bourne Identity, Edge of Tomorrow) was next in the line-up, but soon left because he couldn’t connect with the story. Gore Verbinski (Pirates of the Caribbean) came and went due to scheduling conflicts. Kong: Skull Island director Jordan Vogt-Roberts was even rumored to be among those contending for the job.
Now it seems that Tatum could be taking matters into his own hands. Per a Deadline report about the actor parting ways with his longtime reps at UTA and Management 360:
He has been trying to get going the X-Men spinoff Gambit. He has long been slotted to play the charming card-throwing mutant, and buzz has been that he might direct the film after several other filmmakers have been in and out. But there is no start date at this point and its still being worked on.
IN THIS WEEK’S “Wright goes psychological” story, Edgar Wright tells Empire that he’s working on a psychological horror film set in London that will star a female lead. As inspirations for the film, he cites two classics: Roman Polanski’s Repulsion” and Nicolas Roeg’s Don’t Look Now.
“I realised I had never made a film about central London — specifically Soho, somewhere I’ve spent a huge amount of time in the last 25 years,” Wright tells the magazine. “With ‘Hot Fuzz’ and ‘Shaun of the Dead’ you make movies about places you’ve lived in. This movie is about the London I’ve existed in.”
It isn’t his only project in the works, as Wright confirms that “a first draft of ‘Baby Driver 2’ exists” and it “takes the story further,” as sequels are wont to do.
IN THIS WEEK’S “Netflix and Sandra, sittin’ in a tree…” story, Sandra Bullock is re-teaming with Netflix to produce the science-fiction movie “Reborn” for the streaming service.
Chris McKay has been signed to direct the comic book adaptation. It producer Vertigo Entertainment is also on board to produce. Bullock starred in the Netflix movie Bird Box, which has been viewed in more than 80 million households, according to the streaming giant.
Reborn, written by Mark Millar and Greg Capullo, centers on an elderly woman who dies in a Manhattan hospital only to find herself reborn in the afterlife world of Adystria, where good and evil are waging an eternal war amid dragons. She then sets off on a quest to find her ladte husband.
Reborn has not yet been cast. Bullock will produce (an who knows, MAYBE star in ) with Roy Lee and Miri Yoon for Vertigo Entertainment. Millar and Capullo will be executive producers. Co-producer will be Samantha Nisenboim.
McKay directed The Lego Batman Movie and is an executive producer on The Lego Movie 2: The Second Part, which opens Feb. 8.
Netflix bought Millarworld, the comic book publishing firm founded by Millar, creator of characters and stories including Kick-Ass, Kingsman, and Old Man Logan, in 2017. Terms of the transaction weren’t disclosed. Netflix said at the time that it would it develop films, TV shows, and kids’ series based on Millarworld’s portfolio of character franchises. News about Reborn was first reported by Deadline Hollywood.
Dragons. Cool.
IN THIS WEEK’S “Cage and…Lovecraft?” story, Nicolas Cage is set to star in an adaptation of H.P. Lovecraft‘s celebrated horror story Color Out of Space, with Hardware and Dust Devil helmer Richard Stanley directing — his first feature in twenty years.
This is AMAZING news. I heard about it earlier and I believe posted about it here, but it indeed deserves more coverage!
The folks behind the mind-melting phantasmagoria that was Mandy are those bringing this celluloid delight into our lives. Color out of Space comes from ACE Pictures and SpectreVision, the latter of which teamed with Cage on his spectacular 2018 revenge horror. Principal photography on Color Out of Space will kick off next month with Joley Richardson, Tommy Chong, Elliot Knight, Julian Hilliard, and Q’Orianka Kilcher also starring.
Daniel Noah, Josh C. Waller, Lisa Whalen and Elijah Wood will produce for SpectreVision, with Timur Bekbosunov, Johnny Chang, Emma Lee and Peter Wong executive producing for ACE Pictures. Stacy Jorgensen will executive produce for SpectreVision.
Color Out of Space is one of Lovecraft’s most well-known stories, and chronicles the appearance of a mysterious alien force that crash lands in a small town, mutating life and space-time. Here’s the official synopsis for the film, per the press release:
“Color out of Space is a story of cosmic terror about The Gardners, a family who moves to a remote farmstead in rural New England to escape the hustle of the 21st century. They are busy adapting to their new life when a meteorite crashes into their front yard. The mysterious aerolite seems to melt into the earth, infecting both the land and the properties of space-time with a strange, otherworldly color. To their horror, the Gardner family discover that this alien force is gradually mutating every life form that it touches…including them.”
Cage reuniting with SpectreVision after the searing madness of Mandy is wonderful, but throwing Richard Stanley into the mix is next level genius. Stanley’s early career burned bright and fast with the back-to-back release of cult favorites Hardware and Dust Devil in 1990 and 1992, but then came the famously ill-fated production the 1996 The Island of Dr. Moreau remake starring Marlon Brando and Val Kilmer. Stanley directed for the briefest moment before being replaced John Frankenheimer in the complete clusterfuck that was captures in the 2014 documentary Lost Soul: The Doomed Journey of Richard Stanley’s Island of Dr. Moreau.
SpectreVision partner Daniel Noah said, “Lovecraft is the dark father of modern horror, and we have been searching for an adaptation that captures the true scope of his cosmic dread for years. Richard Stanley – a wizard in his own right – will at long last bring Lovecraft’s humbling power to the screen unfiltered.”
This is like, the holy grail of projects. Dare I say, next to Godzilla: King of the Monsters, this is my most anticipated film yet.
IN THIS WEEK’S “Seriously good” story, Amazon has acquired the worldwide subscription streaming rights to the first three seasons of the awesome sci-fi show, The Expanse.
Amazon will be airing seasons 1-3 before they premiere the fourth season. All three seasons, comprising 36 episodes in all, will become available on the service in over 200 countries and territories starting Feb. 8.
Amazon picked up the fourth season of “The Expanse” after NBCUniversal’s Syfy cancelled the show last year. Jeff Bezos, founder and CEO of Amazon, announced that deal in May 2018 at the National Space Society’s International Space Development Conference in L.A. (Amazon hasn’t announced a premiere date for season 4.) Bezos has a personal passion for space exploration, having founded space-aeronautics and spaceflight company Blue Origin in 2000.
The Expanse, produced by Alcon Television Group, is based on the novels by Daniel Abraham and Ty Franck (under the pen name James S. A. Corey). The story is set 200 years in the future, when humans have colonized the solar system, with the United Nations controlling Earth and an independent military power inhabiting Mars. The series begins with Earth and Mars on the verge of war over air and water resources located in the asteroid belt — and a conspiracy threatens the survival of humanity.
The TV series was co-created and written by Mark Fergus (Iron Man) and Hawk Otsby (Children of Men). Naren Shankar is the showrunner.
The show is one of my faves. Can’t wait for season 4 later this year!
IN THIS WEEK’S “STILL a weird film choice” story, Matt Smith is in final talks to join Jared Leto in Morbius, a film based on the Spider-Man villain of the same name.
Safe House director Daniel Espinosa will helm the movie. Exact details of who Smith would play are unknown at this time, other than it being a major role in the film.
Matt Sazama and Burk Sharpless, who co-created the Netflix series Lost in Space, penned the script. Avi Arad and Matt Tolmach are producing Morbius with Lucas Foster. Palak Patel will oversee the pic for Sony.
Writer Roy Thomas and artist Gil Kane created Morbius in 1971 for “The Amazing Spider-Man #101.” The character was a scientist who tried to cure himself of a blood disease, with tragic results. He became afflicted with vampiric traits such as fangs and a thirst for blood — and wound up battling Spider-Man.
Morbius appeared sporadically in Marvel Comics in the subsequent years and was revived in the 1992 series “Morbius, the Living Vampire,” which had a 32-issue run through April of 1995.
IN THIS WEEK’S “Sequel galore!” story, In Thursday’s episode of Watch What Happens Live with Andy Cohen, Anne Hathaway revealed that there is a script for a new The Princess Diaries film. It would follow the original movie from 2001, and 2004’s The Princess Diaries 2: Royal Engagement — and it may include Julie Andrews, now 83, who famously played Queen Clarisse Renaldi, Hathaway’s character’s grandmother.
“There is a script for the third movie,” the 36-year-old actress confirmed. “I want to do it. Julie wants to do it. Debra Martin Chase, our producer, wants to do it. We all really want it to happen. It’s just we don’t want to unless it’s perfect because we love it just as much as you guys love it.
The process of bringing the third installment to life might be taking longer than expected because the director of the first two movies, Gary Marshall, died in July 2016.
Uh, that’s a weird way to say that, but I guess the folks over at People Magazine were sleepy when they wrote it. Whatever, it’s still just another sequel in an over-loaded slate of sequels and reboots.
IN THIS WEEK’S “White people problems” story, Netflix will fully finance the economic drama Hillbilly Elegy, with Ron Howard directing and producing through Imagine Entertainment.
The streamer has committed to spend $45 million on the film after winning an auction conducted by CAA.
Imagine began developing Hillbilly Elegy after winning the movie rights in 2017. The company signed Oscar nominee Vanessa Taylor, who co-wrote The Shape of Water with Guillermo del Toro, to adapt the script last year from J.D. Vance’s bestselling memoir of the same name. Imagine partner Brian Grazer and the company’s Karen Lunder will also produce. Julie Oh is the exec producer.
Vance’s book recaps growing up in the Rust Belt and the everyday struggles of America’s white working class as they navigate through drug addiction, and social and economic challenges. Vance grew up in Middletown, Ohio, and the Appalachian town of Jackson, Ky. After enlisting in the Marine Corps and serving in Iraq, he graduated from Ohio State University and Yale Law School. He joined CNN as a political contributor in 2017.
I’m sorry, did I just read that right? “the everyday struggles of America’s white working class”? Ok, just checking.
Howard is currently in post-production on the Luciano Pavarotti documentary Pavarotti. The news about Hillbilly Elegy was first reported by Deadline Hollywood.
IN THIS WEEK’S “Speaking of sequels…” story, Ryan Reynolds’ Detective Pikachu is already getting a sequel. That’s right, 4 months before the film releases, they already have a sequel in development.
Oren Uziel will write the script for the second installment to the upcoming live-action movie Detective Pikachu.
Uziel most recently worked on the screenplay for Paramount Pictures’ Sonic the Hedgehog. His past credits include writing and directing Shimmer Lake, and penning The Cloverfield Paradox and 22 Jump Street.
Detective Pikachu is directed by Rob Letterman, and stars Reynolds, Ken Watanabe, Justice Smith, and Kathryn Newton. It’s being released by Warner Bros. on May 10. Toho will distribute the pic in Japan, as it has done in its partnership with Legendary Entertainment on the Godzilla reboot.
The story involves the father of Smith’s teenage character being kidnapped, forcing him to team up with Pikachu in order to find him. Newton will portray a journalist.
Ugh.
IN THIS WEEK’S “What’s next for Christopher Nolan?” story, The untitled WB event film on July 17, 2020 is now Christopher Nolan’s next event film. The untitled pic will also be released in Imax.
Don’t know what the film is, but apparently Nolan has that date perpetually reserved. I mean, no details are available about the movie, but this not unusual for the Dunkirk director.
The third weekend in July is a lucky date for Nolan: It’s not only where he’s launched two $1 billion-grossing Batman titles, Dark Knight and Dark Knight Rises, and Inception, which went on to over $828M WW, but it’s a time when the five-time Oscar nominee opened Dunkirk, which defied domestic box office perceptions as a British war film, beat tracking and debuted to $50.5M, and finaled at $189.7M domestic, $527M WW. That movie also scored eight Oscar noms, and three wins.
Whatever it is, I’m probably be interested in it.
And IN THIS WEEK’S ” RAZZIES!” story, Here are this year’s Razzie nominations for Worst Picture:
Gotti
The Happytime Murders
Holmes & Watson
Robin Hood
Winchester
I’d say these are all deserving of this award.
See ya next time!