As we are officially into the summer movie season, the news just keeps on going. So, we got more of it!
In this week’s “Goosebumps galore” story, The trailer for Blade Runner 2049 dropped online, and it makes me all tingly. It actually gives me hope that it will be good. Gotta keep those expectations in check.
In this week’s “Great casting” story, Benedict Cumberbatch and Jake Gyllenhaal will star in StudioCanal’s drama Rio.
Bigger Splash” helmer Luca Guadagnino is directing from a script by Steven Knight.
The film follows a financial reporter (Gyllenhaal) who travels to Rio de Janeiro to visit a wealthy friend (Cumberbatch), only to get sucked into a plot to fake his friend’s death.
Ok, cool. I like the sound of all that, and these two guys are amazing.
In this week’s “Next big loss” story, veteran actor Michael Parks, died this week at age 77. Parks was in tons of stuff, including Quentin Tarantino’s Django Unchained, Grindhouse, and Kill BIll 1 & 2. He was also a favorite of Kevin Smith, and was in Tusk and Red State. His career, however, spans upwards of 50+ years. He’s one of those actors you see and say “Oh, I know him!” R.I.P., sir.
In this week’s “Putting the nail in the coffin” story, it seems that any hope of seeing a Hellboy 3 with Ron Pearlman being directed by Guillermo del Toro is truly gone. Mike Mignola, creator of Hellboy, announced that an R rated roboot will be coming and it will be directed by Neil Marshall (The Descent) and the title character will be played by Stanger Things sheriff, David Harbour. It will definitely be more horror based than the first two films.
I have weird feelings about all this. But mostly I guess I’m just disappointed that del Toro couldn’t get a Hellboy 3 together with Ron Pearlman.
In this week’s “Score!” story, Thom Yorke, the front man from Radiohead, will be composing the musical score to director Luca Guadagnino’s remake of Suspiria. This will be Yorke’s first film score.
Suspiria is set in 1977 Berlin and follows a young American woman who joins a prestigious dance company. She arrives just as one of the members mysteriously disappears. As her stock in the company rises, she begins to suspect that the dance troupe is harboring a disturbing secret.
In this week’s “Oh, THAT Winchester!” story, Helen Mirren is starring in a period supernatural thriller inspired by the real life Sara Winchester, the eccentric heiress to the Winchester Repeating Arms Company fortune, who spent her life constructing an enormous mansion in San Jose, Calif., complete with secret passages and trap doors, in order to keep at bay what she thought were the angry spirits of the people killed by her family’s firearms. The film is conveniently titled Winchester.
In the film, Winchester is visited by a skeptical San Francisco psychiatrist (Jason Clarke) who discovers that her obsession may not be so insane after all.
Today, the Winchester Mystery House is a well-known tourist attraction. Construction on the mansion commenced in 1884.
Sarah Snook and Angus Sampson also star in the movie, which was directed by awesome Michael Spierig and Peter Spierig (Predestination). Tim McGahan and Brett Tomberlin produced.
I’m ini! CBS Films will release Winchester, on Feb. 23, 2018.
In this week’s “Capote Party” story, Josh Gad, Chloe Grace Moretz, and Jack O’Connell, will star in Party of the Century, directed by Robert Pulcini and Shari Springer Berman.
Party of the Century is said to be a romance that revolves around Truman Capote’s famed Black and White Ball in New York. Gad will portray Capote while Moretz and O’Connell’s roles are currently unknown. The film will be produced by Bankside Films and Process Media.
In this week’s “From Downton to a giant peach” story, actor Hugh Bonneville will play author Roald Dahl in an untitled biopic about Dahl and his marriage to actress Patricia Neal.
Set at the beginning of the 1960s, the film explores Dahl’s struggles to write some of his most famous works and Neal’s return to acting with Hud (for which she won an Oscar).
An acclaimed British children’s author, Dahl’s works included James And The Giant Peach, Charlie And The Chocolate Factory, and Matilda.
John Hay will direct from his own screenplay which he co-wrote with David Logan. They previously collaborated on the Emmy-winning TV drama Lost Christmas.
Currently untitled, their new project is based on Stephen Michael Shearer’s novel An Unquiet Life.
In this week’s “Just add more crazy” story, it seems the bonkers sci-fi film Iron Sky, in which the premise that the Nazi’s survived and built a secret base on the moon to plan revenge for WWII, has crowd-funded a crazier sequel. The Indiegogo funded Iron Sky: The Coming Race, has been made and includes a heavily scarred Hitler – riding a dinosaur! Sweet!
In March 2016, fans who donated to the campaign got a rough cut of the film, and an earlier version of the script was also sent out to thousands of fans of the first film so they could give feedback. The Indiegogo campaign managed to garner four times the $ 150, 000 goal. Wow.
The film stars Lara Rossi in the lead role of Obi Washington, Vladimir Burlakov and Kit Dale, with Julia Dietze and Udo Kier, both from first Iron Sky, as they return to the Nazi moonbase to escape from Earth’s nuclear devastation.
You want an official synopsis? Yeah, I thought you might. And you’re going to love it:
Twenty years after the events of Iron Sky, the former Nazi Moonbase has become the last refuge of mankind. Earth was devastated by a nuclear war, but buried deep under the wasteland lies a power that could save humanity – or destroy it once and for all.
Iron Sky The Coming Race leads our heroes on an adventure into the Hollow Earth, where they must fight the Vril, an ancient shapeshifting reptilian race and their army of dinosaurs.
Oh, sweet celluloid madness, how I love thee. You know I gotta see this!
In this week’s “This could be crazy, too” story, an upcoming horror/thriller for the holidays is coming in October. The film, Better Watch Out, directed by Chris Peckover with a cast led by Olivia DeJonge, Levi Miller, Virginia Madsen, Patrick Warburton and Ed Oxenbould, is being touted by producers as “a crowd-pleasing, high-octane horror-thriller companion to Home Alone, Gremlins and Die Hard.”
Written by Peckover and Zack Kahn, the film (formerly known as Safe Neighborhood) centers on star DeJonge as a babysitter who, one snowy night on a quiet suburban street, must defend her 12-year-old charge (Miller) from intruders. But she quickly learns that this is one extraordinary home invasion that demands an equally extraordinary response. Aleks Mikic and Dacre Montgomery also star.
Well Go USA Entertainment has acquired North American rights.
Horror and the holidays? Absolutely.
In this week’s “You can be young again” story, Martin Scorcese will start filming his new film, The Irishman, this summer. stars Robert DeNiro, Al Pacino, and Joe Pesci, will get the CG de-aging process. The Irishman is the story of professional hitman Frank “The Irishman” Sheeran, which spans decades. The spectacular trio will play heir characters at the ages of 30, 50, and 70. ILM will handle the de-aging effect, while Netflix will take care of the film’s the release.
This is Scorsese’s ninth collaboration with De Niro and it’s the first time they’ve worked together in over 20 years. As for Pacino, it’s his first time working with Scorsese, who’s been trying to make a movie with the actor since 1971. Netflix is planning a 2019 release date for their first collaboration with the legendary filmmaker’s latest crime picture, which will co-star Harvey Keitel and Bobby Cannavale. Cinematographer Rodrigo Prieto, who shot The Wolf of Wall Street and Silence, is working on The Irishman as well.
Steve Zaillian (Schindler’s List) wrote the script, based on Charlie Brandt’s book, I Heard You Paint Houses, a title Scorsese was thinking about reverting to for the film. Netflix is reportedly going to give The Irishman a limited Oscar-qualifying release.
Frank “The Irishman” Sheeran, who De Niro is playing, killed 25 people and claimed to have murdered Jimmy Hoffa. “I Heard You Paint Houses” were the first words Hoffa said to Sheeran. The mob hitman served in World War II and when he returned home, he turned to crime.
This has all the great ingredients of a classic Scorcese film. Count me in!
In this week’s “Easy pickin’s” story, Brad Pitt is starring in Netflix’s military/political satire, War Machine.
Brad Pitt plays a fictionalized version of four-star General Stanley McChrystal (named as General Glen McMahon in the movie), the commanding general of international and US forces in Afghanistan. The real life general’s career tanked after a journalist exposed the wild partying, unorthodox behavior and surprising incompetence that took place behind the scenes of this military operation that appears to be unwinnable despite the general’s best efforts, and it appears that’s exactly what we’ll see happen in this movie, albeit with a bit more of an exaggerated comedic spin.
You can see the most recent trailer online now.
In this week’s “Too many ideas?” story, producer/director Shawn Levy says there are too many ideas for for season 2 of Stranger Things. Well, at least season 3 has stuff all ready to go.
Levy spoke to Collider about the season 2 process:
“As the episodes were written by the Duffers, they realized that there was too much story for nine episodes. So it forced us to be judicious in which stories we tell this season. So one of the surprises was, not all of our grand ideas are going to be serviced in one season… If we had 40 ideas going into the season, 30 [we] are going to pick, and the rest go in the back of our head for, hopefully, future chapters.”
Well, I for one am looking forward to more Stranger Things!
In this week’s “Another sequel we won’t see” story, if you were hoping for a sequel to the under-seen but great film Dredd with Karl Urban as Judge Dredd, don’t get your hopes up.
IM Global Television has partnered with UK games developer and publisher Rebellion to turn the iconic character from legendary British comic book “2000 AD” into a television series that will be titled Judge Dredd: Mega City One.
Set in the 22nd century, the ensemble drama series will follow a team of judges — futuristic cops vested with the power to be judge, jury and executioner — as they encounter the challenges of a world in which east-coast cities have merged into a giant megalopolis.
This year marks the 40th anniversary of the British born comic, Judge Dredd. Dredd was created by John Wagner and Carlos Ezquerra and first appeared in the second issue of 2000 A.D. in 1977. The 2012 film adaptation was directed by Pete Travis, written by Alex Garland and starring Karl Urban as Judge Dredd, and Olivia Thirlby and Lena Headey.
It’s a huge bummer that we won’t get that sequel, but at least Dredd will be on some kind of screen. Hopefully it will stay true to the original material and be awesome.
In this week’s “Is waiting 50 years too late for a sequel?” story, Myriad Pictures is making a sequel to the 1966 western classic Django. It’s called Django Lives!, and yes, Italian actor Franco Nero will reprise the role that brought him worldwide fame in Sergio Corbucci’s 1966 classic Django.
Christian Alvart will direct from a screenplay by John Sayles. Myriad will handle international sales and introduce the project to buyers in Cannes next week.
Django Lives! will star Nero as a drifter in California in 1914 who encounters White Supremacists.
Good or bad, I think this is kinda cool.
In this week’s “What is it, sequel week?” story, nine years after the original film The Strangers, the sequel has finally found it’s cast.
Bloom and the Fyzz Facility Pictures announced Thursday that Christina Hendricks, Bailee Madison, and Lewis Pullman will be starring in the follow-up to 2008’s original.
Picking up where Liv Tyler and Scott Speedman’s original left off, Strangers 2 will see Hendricks, Madison, and Pullman as one family terrorized by three masked figures at an abandoned trailer park during a cross-country road trip gone wrong. Johannes Roberts (47 Meters Down) will direct based on a script by Strangers scribe Bryan Bertino and Ben Ketai.
Principal photography for The Strangers 2 begins May 30 in Los Angeles, though I can’t imagine that anyone is still interested after all this time. I guess we’ll see.
In this week’s “More Mutants” story, Fox is getting thing together for a New Mutants film. Yep, Anya Taylor-Joy and Maisie Williams have been cast as two of the Mutants. That’s solid casting choices in my opinion.
Josh Boone is directing for Fox, as well as co-writing with Knate Lee (Knate??).
New Mutants, created by Chris Claremont and Bob McLeod, was the first X-Men comic spinoff, launched in the early 1980s as the franchise began two decades of dominating the comic book industry.
The pic will focus on the angst-driven adventures of a diverse group of teens that include Native American Danielle Moonstar, Scots girl Wolfsbane, Brazilian ladies man Sunspot, a Kentuckian code-named Cannonball and Russian teen Magik. Also in the mix will be an alien named Warlock.
Taylor-Joy will play Magik, a girl who has learned sorcery and uses teleportation discs to travel. She is also the sister of Colossus, an X-Man who appeared in Deadpool.
Williams will play Wolfsbane, a girl struggling to reconcile her religious beliefs with her power to turn into a wolf.
Fox and Boone are looking to fill out the rest of the cast with actors of appropriate nationalities. I guess they don’t want to be hit with the whole “white-washing” criticism. It’s about time.
In this week’s “Harry Potter goes Kick Ass” story, Daniel Radcliffe is slated to star in a film described as an “adrenaline-fueled balls-to-the-wall original action comedy reminiscent in tone to films such as Kick-Ass or Deadpool.”
The film, Guns Akimbo, is written and directed by Jason Lei Howden. Joe Neurauter and Felipe Marino are producing for Occupant Entertainment.
New Zealand filmmaker Howden – who has worked as a visual artist for numerous projects for Weta Digital, including The Avengers, The Hobbit trilogy and Prometheus – saw his debut feature Deathgasm premier at SXSW in 2015, going on to receive numerous awards from festivals around the world.
The story follows a man whose mundane existence is turned upside-down when he finds himself enrolled on a dark net website that forces complete strangers to fight in a city-wide game of death, so that their gladiatorial battles can be live-streamed worldwide to a fanatical audience. After being pitted against a seemingly unstoppable killing machine, he at first manages to avoid conflict, but when his ex girlfriend is kidnapped he must overcome his fears and stop running.
Ok, this is new ground for Radcliffe, but I’m curious to see how it plays out. And how do you not love that title?
In this week’s “Dick Move” story, someone stole a hand-written Harry Potter sequel script in a burglary and now, obviously, J.K.Rowling is pleading with fans to not buy that script if they see it turn up for sale somewhere.
Anyone that would buy it is as huge a dick as the thief. Sure, Rowling is super rich, but that doesn’t mean you throw your morals/ethics out the window.
The West Midlands police tweeted: “The (800 page) story, penned personally by @jk_rowling over 2 sides of an A5 postcard is extremely valuable & stolen during a burglary in #KingsHeath”
Well, if a fan made film shows up anywhere we’ll know who stole it, right?
In this week’s “But can he say “Da plane!”?”, story, HBO is making a movie about Herve’ Villechaize aptly called, My Dinner With Herve’. Peter Dinklage will star as Herve’ and Jamie Dornan joins as struggling journalist Danny Tate.
Written by Sacha Gervasi based on a story by him and Sean Macaulay and directed by Gervasi, My Dinner with Hervé centers on an unlikely friendship that evolves over one wild night in L.A. between a struggling journalist, Danny Tate and actor Hervé Villechaize, the world’s most famous gun-toting dwarf, resulting in life-changing consequences for both.
Gervasi, who also is a journalist, conducted the last interview with Villechaize — best known for his roles as evil henchman Nick Nack in the 1974 James Bond film, The Man with the Golden Gun, and as Mr. Roarke’s assistant, Tattoo, in the TV series Fantasy Island, shortly before Villechaize committed suicide in 1993 at the age of 50. In the extensive interview, Villechaize shared the story of his tumultuous life and career.
Apparently Gervasi and Dinklage have been trying to get this story on the screen for about 10 years. Ok then.
And in this week’s “Hey, I was just kidding” story, since Trump’s been in office as president, there have been all kinds of jokes about him. Some of those are about who you would put in office instead. “Hell, I’d vote in a box of rocks to replace Trump!” Or a common one is “I’d rather have George W. back in office at this point!”
All of this is valid. But sometimes you say things like that and it’s just to make a point. “I’d vote for Dwayne Johnson to be president!” seems funny at first, but then you have to wonder what kind of experience HE has for the job.
But that doesn’t matter, because Dwayne ‘The Rock’ Johnson has been the subject of some of this kind of harmless political chatter lately. But be careful what you wish for, people, because he has made it known he’s strongly considering running for office.
“A year ago, it started coming up more and more. There was a real sense of earnestness, which made me go home and think, ‘Let me really rethink my answer and make sure I am giving an answer that is truthful and also respectful.’ I didn’t want to be flippant — ‘We’ll have three days off for a weekend! No taxes!’,” he told GQ.
“I think that it’s a real possibility,” he added about a potential run.
Oh dear.
Ok, thanks for tuning in, folks! Stuff keeps happening so tune in next week for more!