Welcome to another installment of stuff in the celluloid news!
IN THIS WEEK’S “I’m not sure that clears things up” story, there are fan questions about Sony’ s Venom film. One of those recent questions has arisen from rumors that Tom Hardy will never actually suit up in the Venom suit.
Well, Hardy himself went to Instagram to put an end to those rumors. Kind of. I mean, it’s a little hard to tell from what he said. Here are his words, quoted:
“just sayin Venom suit – myths usually asinine circulate about things usually by those who have failed to garner credible intel”
Ok. I think that could be translated to something like “don’t listen to the rumors about the Venom suit”. That’s what I got, anyway. And that’s a good thing.
We’re still a good six months away from Venom being released, so it’s too soon to be freaking out, right?
IN THIS WEEK’S “Bringing the callbacks” story, as Marvel announces production on Captain Marvel, which will star Brie Larson as the titular superheroine, they also reveal that Guardians of the Galaxy stars Djimon Hounsou and Lee Pace will also be a part of the film — as will Clark Gregg, who will reprise his role as Agent Coulson from Avengers movies as well as ABC’s Marvel’s Agents of SHIELD.
In the first Guardians film, Pace played the film’s villain, Ronan the Accuser, with Hounsou playing one of his most formidable warriors, Korath the Pursuer. While their roles in Captain Marvel haven’t been made official, the upcoming film takes place in the 1990s, so it is possible that the two actors could reprise their characters from several years before they faced the Guardians.
Captain Marvel follows Carol Danvers as she becomes one of the MCU’s most powerful heroes when Earth is caught in the middle of a galactic war between two alien races.
The cast also includes Samuel L. Jackson, who will return as a pre-eyepatch Nick Fury. Ben Mendelsohn, Gemma Chan, Lashana Lynch, Algenis Perez Soto, Rune Temte, McKenna Grace and Jude Law also star.
Mississippi Grind” directors Anna Boden and Ryan Fleck are directing the film from a script they co-wrote with some of the top women writers in Hollywood: “Inside Out writer Meg LeFauve, Guardians of the Galaxy co-writer Nicole Perlman, Tomb Raider writer Geneva Robertson-Dworet, and GLOW creators Liz Flahive & Carly Mensch.
Captain Marvel hits theaters March 8, 2019.
IN THIS WEEK’S “Jungle Cruise” story, the Dwayne Johnson adventure film, Jungle Cruise, based on Disney’s park ride, will add British comedian and actor Jack Whitehall to its’ cast.
Along with Emily Blunt, Whitehall will play Blunt’s brother in the film — a key role in the storyline.
Jaume Collet-Serra is on board to direct the movie based on the classic theme park attraction, which operates in several Disney Parks across the globe and takes guests on a guided tour through the rivers of the world.
Oscar nominee Michael Green (Logan) penned the most recent draft of the script. He rewrote a screenplay by J.D. Payne and Patrick McKay.
Disney plans to develop the film as a possible franchise in the vein of its billion-dollar Pirates of the Caribbean series.
Of course they do.
IN THIS WEEK’S “New hot spot” story, Fox has moved the release date of it’s next X-Men film, X-Men: Dark Pheonix.
Simon Kinberg’s X-Men: Dark Phoenix has moved from Nov. 2, 2018, to a Feb. 14, 2019, release — on roughly the same date as past successful Presidents’ Day weekend openings for Disney’s Black Panther and Fox’s Deadpool. Marking February as a destination for superhero tentpoles, the film will open Thursday in hopes of taking advantage of Valentine’s Day as well.
The old date of Nov. 2, 2018, will now be filled by Queen biopic Bohemian Rhapsody, which had initially been set to release Dec. 25, 2018. X-Men: Dark Phoenix will also now open one week after Sony’s Spider-Man spinoff Silver & Black.
Fox’s The New Mutants has moved from Feb. 22 to Aug. 2, 2019, and the studio has shifted Joe Cornish’s The Kid Who Would be King two weeks back from Feb. 14 to March 1, 2019.
And The Force has been taken out of the release schedule, after being set for a March 1, 2019, release. Spies in Disguise has moved from Jan. 18 to April 19, 2019, and Roxann Dawson’s Breakthrough, starring Chrissy Metz, is getting a wide release April 12, 2019.
Kinberg is making his directorial debut with X-Men: Dark Phoenix, which stars Jessica Chastain and aims to retell the defining Dark Phoenix storyline from the early 1980s comic book.
The New Mutants, Josh Boone’s horror-tinged take on Marvel’s teen heroes, stars Anya Taylor-Joy, Maisie Williams and Charlie Heaton, and had earlier jumped from April 13 to Feb. 22, 2019.
Bohemian Rhapsody stars Rami Malek as Freddie Mercury, the legendary frontman of the rock group Queen. Ben Hardy, Joe Mazzello and Gwilym Lee are playing the other band members, Roger Taylor, John Deacon and Brian May, respectively.
It’s musical chairs out there for Fox.
IN THIS WEEK’S “Playing coy” story, Jeff Goldblum, who is in the next installment of the Jurassic World franchise, hints at Laura Dern being in the film as well. sort of.
Jeff Goldblum has, once again, teased an appearance of the Jurassic alum in the remaining two films of the trilogy.
“I don’t know for sure, I can’t divulge anything,” Goldblum said on “Watch What Happens Live.” “But maybe, maybe she will.”
Goldblum went on to say that “some people may or may not be in” the third movie, set for release in 2021.
Gee, could you be more vague, Jeff?
Earlier this month, Goldblum told Entertainment Tonight that it would be “good news to me and to everyone, [to] millions and billions of people all over the world… all over the universe and cosmos when Ellie Sattler returns.”
In December, Dern said she would love to reprise the character she played in 1993’s Jurassic Park.
Jurassic World: Fallen Kingdom, the second installment starring Chris Pratt and Bryce Dallas Howard, is directed by J.A. Bayona and will stomp into theaters on June 22. B.D. Wong, James Cromwell and Ted Levine also star. Colin Trevorrow, the director of the first Jurassic World, wrote the script.
IN THIS WEEK’S “As I suspected” story, If you’re still wondering why Paramount sold The Cloverfield Paradox to Netflix, we can tell you the reason. Not that it’s a big surprise, really.
Variety recently sat down with Andrew Gumpert after his first year as the COO of Paramount Pictures, and their discussion turned to the big decision the studio made to sell the distribution rights to The Cloverfield Paradox to Netflix. How did the decision come about?
“The movie was finished, we all reviewed it together with J.J. and his team. We all decided there were things about it that made us have a pause about its commercial playability in the traditional matter.”
Yeah, that’s the nice way to saying “this movie kinda sucks, so if someone calls to buy it, sell immediately”.
He goes on to say:
“There was an ability for us to be fiscally prudent and monetize. For fans of ‘Cloverfield,’ the fact is many, many more millions of people saw the movie. It’s a positive on every level.”
Yeah, that’s because Netflix was rumored to have bought it for $ 50 million. If that’s accurate, well, let’s say Paramount made out like bandits.
IN THIS WEEK’S “Ready Player ROM” story , Zak Penn, screenwriter for Ready Player One, will write the script for Hasbro’s ROM: Spaceknight property.
According to Deadline, Penn will be handling the script for ROM: Spaceknight, a sci-fi adventure based on a comic book and toy property that had a level of cult fandom decades ago and was recently rebooted for a series that’s brought the cyborg alien hero back into the spotlight.
Regardless of how well-known ROM is, though, Hasbro Studios and its Allspark Pictures brand is set on adding the property to its cinematic universe. ROM will possibly eventually cross over with Transformers, G.I. Joe and other Hasbro imprints. Back in the day, ROM interacted with fellow Marvel characters, including the X-Men and the Avengers. But he is no longer part of Marvel’s portfolio. The current ROM comics are published by IDW, where the character has already mixed with fellow Hasbro-verse entities.
All you need to know about the ROM story is that it’s about a “spaceknight” (think Jedi knights), one of many cyborg warriors from a utopian society on the planet Galador, and his part in defending his world from the invading, dark-magic-wielding Dire Wraiths. Eventually ROM leaves his planet and arrives on Earth, where he continues to fight the Dire Wraiths. Presumably, the movie will involve both cosmic adventures and his time here in our realm.
Well, this is considered good news, I suspect, for Hasbro and their Allspark production company. Penn has some experience with Marvel, contributing to X2: X-Men United and The Avengers. He’s one of the original fanboy content creators to infiltrate Hollywood, so he may be what Hasbro is looking for.
IN THIS WEEK’S “The second life of the Death of Superman” story, This summer will see the release of The Death of Superman, Warner Bros. and the DC Universe Animated Original Movies line’s second attempt at adapting the classic comic book storyline, and thanks to TV Insider we have some details of the voice cast.
The film – which will be followed by Reign of the Superman in 2019 – is set to feature Jerry O’Connell as Superman, with Rebecca Romijn as Lois Lane, Rainn Wilson as Lex Luthor, Rosario Dawson as Wonder Woman, Nathan Fillion as Green Lantern, Christopher Gorham as The Flash, Matt Lanter as Aquaman, Shemar Moore as Cyborg, Jason O’Mara as Batman, Rocky Carroll as Silas Stone and Patrick Fabian as Hank Henshaw.
These Warner/DC animated films are often good, so we’ll see if they do justice with this one.
IN THIS WEEK’S “It’s filming!”, story, Arrested Development season five is officially in production!
So that’s official. The last season was released on Netflix back in 2013. At this rate, they might get to season six in another 5 or so years.
IN THIS WEEK’S “After the theater” story, Permut Presentations has acquired Madman, a historical horror script set during the aftermath of the Lincoln assassination.
David Permut, who received a best picture Oscar nomination for Hacksaw Ridge, is producing. The script is written by Alexa Garster based on Caleb Jenner Stephens’ book Worst Seat in the House.
The story follows Henry Rathbone, a close friend of Lincoln’s who was with the president at Ford’s Theatre on the night of his murder in 1865. Rathbone was the only person to confront John Wilkes Booth that night and was haunted by horrific hallucinations of the assassin that tore his life apart while his beloved wife, Clara, desperately tried to bring him back to reality.
“I’m excited about this script because it lives in two worlds,” Permut told Variety. “It’s very much a genre horror piece, but it’s also historically accurate and tells a story not many people know. It’s unlike anything else on my slate. I think this will attract a director who has a unique cinematic style that will leave their imprint on the film.”
Sounds like a cool film.
IN THIS WEEK’S “Whatever you say” story, A few days ago, Star Trek actor Simon Pegg revealed that Paramount Pictures already had a completed script for Star Trek 4 prior to Quentin Tarantino pitching his own idea for an R-rated installment in the long-running sci-fi series.
Paramount had already announced a fourth entry in the rebooted series prior to the release of Star Trek Beyond, which would have seen Chris Hemsworth reprising his role as George Kirk, father to Chris Pine’s James T. Kirk. However, the studio applied the breaks (or at least slowed development down from warp speed to impulse power) on Trek 4 when Beyond didn’t quite perform as well as expected at the box office – something that actor and co-writer Simon Pegg attributes to a bad marketing campaign:
“I think it was poorly marketed, to be honest,” Pegg tells Geek. “If you look at a film like Suicide Squad, that was around for such a long time before it finally came out and people were so aware of it. Whereas with Star Trek Beyond, it was left too late before they started their marketing push. It still did great business, but it was disappointing compared to Into Darkness.”
“I was really angry about [the trailer] because it used ‘Sabotage,’ which was our surprise moment in the end,” he continued. “It was supposed to be a very fun and heightened twist, and something that was a big surprise and they blew it in the first trailer, which really annoyed me. They also made the film look like a boneheaded action film. And they were scared, I think, of mentioning the 50th Anniversary. It was fumbled as a thing; they didn’t know what to do with it and it’s a real shame. But I came away from it really, really happy and very proud of it.”
“From a professional standpoint for me, it was such a great experience in the end, because the critical response that we did get was exactly what [co-writer] Doug Jung and I and [director] Justin Lin had hoped for, which was a much more favorable response in terms of being Star Trek and not just something there that’s disguised as Star Trek,” he added.
Wow, I felt the opposite. I mean, I love Simon Pegg, but Star Trek Beyond was a good science fiction film, but not necessarily a good Star Trek film. But whatever. They’ll keep making them as long as there’s money to be made.
IN THIS WEEK’S “Stir crazy” story Sally Hawkins, the Oscar-nominated star of The Shape of Water, will take her first executive producer role, on Cordelia, a psychological thriller about a young woman who is haunted by past events and who starts to unravel when left alone in her apartment.
Antonia Campbell-Hughes (Lead Balloon) stars as Cordelia. She co-wrote the screenplay for the movie with Adrian Shergold (Funny Cow), who directs.
Veteran British actor Michael Gambon (Harry Potter), Catherine McCormack (28 Weeks Later), and actor and musician Johnny Flynn (Genius) round out the cast. Georgina Lowe (Mr Turner) will exec produce alongside Golden Globe-winning Hawkins.
The titular Cordelia lives with her twin sister, Caroline, and Caroline’s new boyfriend, Matt, in a basement flat in one of the less salubrious parts of London. She is trying to cope with them, a stalker, and neighbors including a mysterious cellist and an eccentric old man, Mr. Moses (Gambon).
More than a decade earlier, Cordelia was a promising actress when a routine journey changed her life forever, an episode that has left her guilt-ridden. The film follows her over a weekend in which Caroline and Matt have gone away. As she attempts to keep to her usual routine, she starts to unravel and, as she attempts to keep her fragile mind together, to question whether certain events are real.
IN THIS WEEK’S “Narcos guy joins DC” story, Pedro Pascal is joining the DC universe. The Narcos actor will star in Wonder Woman 2, The Hollywood Reporter has confirmed.
Patty Jenkins is returning to direct the sequel that will star Gal Gadot as the Amazonian princess. Very few plot details are known about the superhero film, but the follow-up will be set in the 1980s against the backdrop of the Cold War.
As previously announced, Kristen Wiig will star as Cheetah, the film’s villain. Details of his Pascal’s role are being kept under lock and key, but it will be a reunion for him and Jenkins, the two having previously worked together on the TV movie Exposed.
IN THIS WEEK’S “Had enough King Arthur stories?” story, Frank Miller and Tom Wheeler are going to create a new take on King Arthur for Netflix.
You remember the DC comics The Dark Knight limited series? You know, the one that basically redefined comics forever? Yeah, THAT Frank Miller.
Deadline reports that Netflix has given a 10-episode order to Cursed, a new drama series which will be based on an upcoming illustrated YA book from Frank Miller and Tom Wheeler. As the book isn’t set to be published until fall 2019 by Simon & Schuster, Deadline notes that this may be the first time that the same creative team will be writing a book as well as developing a TV series based upon it simultaneously.
Cursed will be a re-imagining of the Arthurian legend which will be told through the eyes of Nimue, “a teenage heroine with a mysterious gift who is destined to become the powerful (and tragic) Lady of the Lake. After her mother’s death, she finds an unexpected partner in Arthur, a young mercenary, in a quest to find Merlin and deliver an ancient sword. Over the course of her journey, Nimue will become a symbol of courage and rebellion against the terrifying Red Paladins, and their complicit King Uther.” When the book was first announced, Frank Miller said, “I have always been entranced by the mythological Arthur story—and by Nimue, in particular. It can be interpreted in any number of ways—from a delightful children’s story, as in The Sword in the Stone, to a terrifying interpretation like Excalibur,” with Tom Wheeler adding, “I am honored and humbled to be working with the living legend Frank Miller on Cursed. I cannot think of a writer-artist who has had a more formative impact on my growth as a storyteller.”
With a different point of view, maybe this will be cool?
IN THIS WEEK’S “It worked for IT, so…” story, another big Stephen King book may be coming to life.
The Tommyknockers could be the next Stephen King novel to get the feature treatment.
James Wan, the director and producer behind The Conjuring horror movies, and Roy Lee, one of the producers behind the adaptation of King’s It, are tackling the adaptation of King’s 1987 science fiction-horror novel.
The duo, who would produce via their respective banners Atomic Monster and Vertigo, have teamed up with Larry Sanitsky, the veteran producer who executive produced the Tommyknockers’ 1993 television miniseries adaptation.
The package hit studios and digital streamers such as Netflix on Thursday, ahead of Easter and Passover holiday weekend.
“It is an allegorical tale of addiction (Stephen was struggling with his own at the time), the threat of nuclear power, the danger of mass hysteria and the absurdity of technical evolution run amuck. All are as relevant today as the day the novel was written. It is also a tale about the eternal power of love and the grace of redemption,” wrote Sanitsky, who holds the screen rights, in a mission statement sent to prospective buyers and obtained by THR.
The project is expected to garner keen interest thanks to several factors. The book is the second best-selling King book of all time in its initial hard cover release and outsold such King classics as It, The Shining and Carrie. And there is already a hungry appetite for King material thanks to the success of It, New Line’s adaptation that proved to be a surprise hit when it grossed $700 million worldwide.
The story told of a town in Maine that falls under the influence of a dangerous gas from an unearthed space craft. The gas begins to transform the people, giving them enhanced abilities, but also making them violent and subject to an alien hive mentality. One man, thanks to a steel plate in his head, is immune to the effects and tries to stop the townspeople.
IN THIS WEEK’S “Arctic zombies?” story, The Walking Dead executive producer, Greg Nicotero, wouldn’t mind seeing a show spin-off located in a cold location.
The way The Walking Dead is set up, the possibilities are pretty much endless, but executive producer Greg Nicotero told Fandom that he has a very particular idea of what he’d like to see in a spin-off.
“The one thing that the comic book does great [is] when they introduce the cold weather and the winter. I had even written some webisodes that took place with a frozen zombie herd. And I think that our hopes are — my hopes — would be that we would get into an entirely different location, like a cold weather scenario. Because frozen zombies are f–ing awesome. Until they thaw out and then you’re screwed. Because they would freeze and thaw out, and they would be fine.”
I can see that, but I’d like to see them wrap up the original Walking Dead first. We don’t need two or three zombie shows on TV at once. I’m already checked out of Fear the walking Dead.
IN THIS WEEK’S “Bill and Ted’s Questionable sequel” story, there’s been a lot of talk over the years of a Bill and Ted 3 film in the works. Well, it seems like it might, maybe, possibly, happen.
A third film in the Bill & Ted franchise has been in the works for a long while, with writers Ed Solomon and Chris Matheson—who wrote Bill & Ted’s Excellent Adventure and Bill & Ted’s Bogus Journey—beginning work on a script back in 2010. The sequel has never officially been set up at a studio, but given Solomon and Matheson’s passion for the characters and stars Keanu Reeves and Alex Winter’s desire to return, the writers wrote a script completely on spec.
While Bill & Ted 3 is still technically “in development,” new details have arisen from EW, which gathered Solomon, Matheson, Reeves, and Winter for a reunion piece. Titled Bill & Ted Face the Music, the sequel focuses on Rufus’s (George Carlin) promise at the end of Excellent Adventure that Bill and Ted would go on to write music that would turn the world into a utopia. The problem is, in Face the Music, they haven’t really done that yet.
“You’re told you’re gonna save the world,” Matheson says. “And now you’re 50 and you haven’t done it. Now they’re married, and it affects their marriages, and it affects their relationships with their kids, and it affects their everything.”
“Everybody’s a little older now,” notes Reeves. “A little afraid.”
Solomon, who most recently wrote Steven Soderbergh‘s excellent branched narrative Mosaic for HBO, goes so far to say that Face the Music is “kind of like A Christmas Carol with Bill and Ted. Looking at their lives, and really kind of rediscovering what they’re about.” Solomon says they’re hoping to close a deal for financing within the next month or so, and Dean Parisot (Galaxy Quest) is still attached to direct.
“There’s certain comparisons,” says Winter. “A rock band that never goes to the place it thought it was going to get to. Having that moment in their life of going: ‘Do we try to get there, or give up the dream?’”
As previously revealed, William Sadler is returning as Death, and Steven Soderbergh is onboard as one of the producers alongside original producer Scott Kroopf.
This could be most excellent. Or totally bogus.
IN THIS WEEK’S “the disappointments continue” story, John Kricfalusi, the creator of Nickelodeon’s The Ren & Stimpy Show, has been accused of sexual misconduct, statutory rape and child pornography in a new report by BuzzFeed News.
In the report, Katie Rice and Robyn Byrd say that Kricfalusi pursued them sexually when they were teenagers. Byrd even became a live-in girlfriend. An attorney for Kricfalusi told BuzzFeed: “For a brief time, 25 years ago, he had a 16-year-old girlfriend.”
Tony Mora — an art director at Warner Bros. at the time — and Warner Bros. producer Gabe Swarr, also told BuzzFeed that Kricfalusi had a reputation for harassing female artists and teenage girls. “It’s always been there,” Mora said.
BuzzFeed’s report also cites old letters, emails and AOL transcripts from the years of the accused behavior.
Kricfalusi’s attorney also told BuzzFeed that Kricfalusi was struggling with alcoholism at the time, and was later diagnosed with mental illnesses in 2008.
Well, shit. Another show ruined for me by reprehensible behavior of its’ creator.
IN THIS WEEK’S “He’ll be back” story, Arnold Schwarzenegger has undergone emergency heart surgery, according to a report.
The actor and former California governor had a procedure to replace a catheter valve on Thursday at Cedars-Sinai hospital in Los Angeles, TMZ reported.
According to the report, Schwarzenegger experienced complications during the procedure, as the valve replacement failed and emergency open heart surgery was required.
Schwarzenegger, now 70 years old, is in stable condition, TMZ also reports. He had an aortic valve replaced in 1997.
AND in this week’s “Ugh, finally” story, SyFy will FINALLY put an end to these Sharknado movies – but not without giving us one more, with time travel.
Yep, you heard me. Sharknado 6, which will likely have a stupid subtitle to go along with it, has been announced by Syfy. It will be the final installment of the franchise, and what better way to send off Sharknado than by bringing time travel into the equation. Taking the absurd to new levels.
TV Line has first word of Sharknado 6 bringing the franchise to an end. The film follows leading man Ian Ziering returning as franchise character Fin as he wanders the Earth alone after it was destroyed in the previous sequel. Somehow, he’s left with only one option and that’s to travel back in time to stop the very first Sharknado that started this whole nonsensical apocalypse.
Joining Ziering will be returning franchise cast members Tara Reid, Cassie Scerbo and Vivica A. Fox. Other details on the story mostly remain under wraps. The only hints at what’s to come can be found in this brief but ridiculous synopsis:
“All is lost, or is it? Fin unlocks the time-traveling power of the SHARKNADOS in order to save the world and resurrect his family. In his quest, Fin fights Nazis, dinosaurs, knights, and even takes a ride on Noah’s Ark. This time, it’s not how to stop the sharknados, it’s when.”
Yep, that sounds about as ridiculous as we’ve come to expect, though somehow not much more ridiculous than the plot of the last Transformers movie, which also had Nazis, dinosaurs (or Dinobots), knights and a ride on a submarine instead of Noah’s Ark. That almost makes me pause to think the Sharknado movies aren’t much worse than some more legitimate box office fare.
Or maybe it’s showing how truly bad some main stream big box office movies can be. I mean, comparing anything to the Transformers movies is setting a really low bar.
Hey, thanks to stopping by for a week FULL of stuff happening. See you next week!