It’s another fun-filled week of interesting or infuriating film news! So, I’ll start with some interesting news:
Newsflash!: Deadpool still making money! It’s made about 172 million or so now. Giddy up!
Looks like the Blade Runner sequel has a release date, and it’s disconcerting. Blade Runner 2 is to be released on January 12, 2018. Now this is worrying because, as we all know, January is the usual dumping ground for movies that are, well, not so good. So does Warner Bros. have so little faith in their film that they relegated it to this celluloid wasteland, or will it be one of those surprises of the season? I dont’ know, but it is being written by the original Blade Runner co-writer, Hampton Fancher, and produced by Ridley Scott, directed by Denis Villeneuve (Prisoners, Sicario), with Harrison Ford returning as Rick Deckard in some level of appearance, with Ryan Gosling starring. That’s a lot of awesome potential. But, we all know that kind of potential doesn’t always add up to success. I guess we’ll just have to wait and see.
Oliver Stone is directing a film called Snowden for Open Road Films, starring our favorite hashtag – #JGL. That’s right, Joseph Gordon-Levitt stars as NSA whistleblower Edward Snowden, along with Shailene Woodley as his girlfriend, Lindsay Mills. Melissa Leo, Zachary Quinto, Tom Wilkinson and Timothy Olyphant round out the cast. the release date has been moved from May 13 to September 16, 2016.
Most notable about this story is that Oliver Stone is still making films.
If you’re waiting for that new Holiday comedy, wait no more! Jennifer Aniston and Jason Bateman are co-starring in Office Christmas Party for Dreamworks. T.J. Miller and Kate McKinnon also star. The film, which follows an office Christmas party that gets out of hand (surprise!), faces a tight turnaround, as it will head into production this Spring before Paramount releases the film on Dec. 9, 2016.
Everyone wants to know what Brad Pitt is doing, right? Well, his Plan B company and Cross Pictures are teaming with writer Tony Kushner to develop medical research drama He Wanted the Moon. They have have acquired movie rights to the memoir, written by Dr. Perry Baird’s daughter Mimi and Eve Claxton, titled “He Wanted the Moon: The Madness and Medical Genius of Dr. Perry Baird, and His Daughter’s Quest to Know Him.”
Baird was a rising medical star in the late ’20s and ’30s who researched the biochemical root of manic depression, just as he began to suffer from it himself. By the time the results of his groundbreaking experiments were published, he had been institutionalized multiple times and he had become estranged from his family. He later received a lobotomy and died from a seizure. Ok, this sounds like an interesting film – and a possible Oscar contender.
I’ve been hearing about some controversy about the live action production of Ghost in the Shell. They have cast Scarlett Johansson in the lead role. Oh look, more white people in people of color roles. So far, it appears that there are no actors of Asian descent. Way to go, Hollywood. This is based on a Japanese animated film, but there are no Japanese people cast in it. SMH.
In this weeks vexing, eye-rolling news story, Shia LeBeouf is involved in another art performance project – as we speak. This project is called #Elevate and it puts LaBeouf in a stationary elevator in Oxford, England for 24 hours and invites visitors to come in and talk with him and his artistic collaborators, Luke Turner and Nastja Sade Ronkko, about whatever they want.
The ride began at 9 a.m. GMT Feb. 19 and will go until 9 a.m. Feb. 20 with a brief pause, during which LaBeouf will give a talk at Oxford Union, at 8 p.m. Topics broached so far include how his parents feel about his art, which animal he would want to be and which movies he wants to see.
“How do we do this and not feel douchey about it?” LaBeouf asked during the stream. “How do we make this egalitarian like the Internet? Let’s just move the talk to the elevator.” Frankly, how does LaBeouf do ANYthing without it being douchey? I mean, Hell, his performance project last year was him sitting a New York movie theater for three days straight watching all of his own movies in reverse order. Ugh.
See you next week for more intriguing, and surprising nonsense!