NEWS
NEWS ON ALL YOUR FAVOURITE MOVIES AND TV SHOWS
RESIDENT EVIL MOVIE REBOOT IN DEVELOPMENT
A new Resident Evil movie is in development from Johannes Roberts, the director of 47 Meters Down and its sequel, and The Strangers: Prey at Night. The last installment of the franchise Resident Evil: The Final Chapter was released in January 2017. In an interview, Roberts said: “We are in active development of that at the moment. I pitched them a take, and they really loved it. So, we are just gearing up on that as we speak, really. I’m in the office all the time there. So, yeah, it’s great. It’s gonna be super scary. It’s super, super scary. And it’s just getting back to the roots of the game. I think, at the moment, I’m not really allowed to say much more than that. But it’s gonna be a lot of fun.”
JOHN CHO THRILLER SEARCHING IS GETTING A SEQUEL
The cast of Mortal Kombat has grown a bit bigger now that the film has found its Liu Kang, Mileena, and Jax Briggs. A Mortal Kombat reboot started to make progress once James Wan signed on as a producer. It was reported in March that Joel Edgerton was being eyed for Kato, but that casting decision has yet to be officially confirmed. Joe Taslim was cast as Sub-Zero last month, but now the film has cast three more characters. Brooks is set to play Jackson ‘Jax’ Briggs, while Stringer and Lin have been cast as Mileena and Liu Kang respectively. Tadanobu Asano is in talks to play Raiden.
CHAD STAHELSKI COMING ON BOARD FOR DC'S BIRDS OF PREY
Stuntman and director Chad Stahelski will help add new action scenes during Birds of Prey (And the Fantabulous Emancipation of One Harley Quinn) reshoots. Stahelski worked for many years as a stuntman in Hollywood, before making his directorial debut on John Wick. His stunt firm, 87 Eleven, has been working on Birds of Prey since the film started production. Warner Bros. and DC's Birds of Prey movie is directed by Cathy Yan with a script by Christina Hodson, making it a fully female-fronted affair. In addition to Robbie, the film stars Jurnee Smollett-Bell as Black Canary, Mary Elizabeth Winstead as Huntress, Rosie Perez as Renee Montoya and Ella Jay Basco as young Cassandra Cain - who takes up the Batgirl mantle in the comics. They'll be facing off against the villainous Black Mask (Ewan McGregor) and Victor Zsasz (Chris Messina). Ahead of the movie's February 2020 release date, Birds of Prey is preparing for reshoots.
OBI-WAN KENOBI TV SHOW CONFIRMED FOR DISNEY+, EWAN MCGREGOR RETURNS TO THE ROLE
Ewan McGregor is returning to Star Wars in an Obi-Wan Kenobi series that will be exclusively available on Disney's streaming service, Disney+. Lucasfilm had originally planned a Kenobi project to be one of their spinoff films, but in February there were reports the script had been adapted into a six-episode series for Disney+. Ewan McGregor signed up to reprise the role of Obi-Wan Kenobi in an as-yet-untitled TV series. This will be exclusively available on Disney+, adding to the wealth of original content Disney has booked for their new streaming service. Further details are currently being kept under wraps.
JOHN CHO THRILLER SEARCHING IS GETTING A SEQUEL
Amazon's upcoming Wheel of Time TV show, an adaptation of the epic fantasy book series by Robert Jordan and Brandon Sanderson, finally announces the bulk of the casting for its lead roles. Josha Stradowski will play Rand al’Thor, Perrin Aybara will be played by Marcus Rutherford and Mat Cauthon by Barney Harris, Nynaeve al'Meara will be played by Zoë Robinsand and Madeleine Madden will play Egwene Al’Vere. Previously the only known casting had been the announcement of Rosamund Pike being cast in the role of Moiraine Damodred.
RUSSELL BRAND IN TALKS TO JOIN DEATH ON THE NILE
Russell Brand is in negotiations to join Kenneth Branagh in 20th Century Fox’s whodunit Death on the Nile, the sequel to 2017’s Agatha Christie adaptation Murder on the Orient Express. Gal Gadot, Armie Hammer, Letitia Wright, Tom Bateman, and four-time Oscar nominee Annette Bening are among those expected to star in the film, which is based on Christie’s 1937 novel of the same name. Orient Express scribe Michael Green is returning to adapt Christie’s marvelous mystery, and the sequel is being produced by Ridley Scott, Simon Kinberg, Kevin Walsh, Judy Hofflundand Mark Gordon. Fox executive Steve Asbell will oversee the project on behalf of the Disney-owned label, and Disney will release the film on Oct. 9, 2020.
LOVE, SIMON DISNEY+ TV SHOW SETS THE MAIN CAST
Love, Simon's Disney+ series has found its star, Michael Cimino. The upcoming show is inspired by Greg Berlanti's 2018 film of the same name, which was adapted from Becky Albertalli's young adult novel Simon vs. the Homo Sapien's Agenda. The half-hour series, "begins production this month in Los Angeles," and follows Cimino's character, Victor, who's, "a new student at Creekwood High School on his own journey of self-discovery, facing challenges at home, adjusting to a new city, and struggling with his sexual orientation." The only character that will be returning from the film will be Nick Robinson's titular character, Simon, who will be narrating the series. His character will also be interacting with Victor a handful of times on the show, mainly when Victor, "reaches out to Simon to help him navigate the ups and downs of high school, when it all, seems too much." Robinson is also set to be producing the series.
RIAN JOHNSON ON HIS NEW STAR WARS TRILOGY
Rian Johnson says his upcoming Star Wars trilogy will tap into the franchise's essence while telling a story featuring all-new characters. “I think that the fun and challenging part of it is to dive in, figure out what’s exciting and then figure out what it’s going to be. We’re doing something that steps beyond the legacy characters. What does that look like? To me, the blue sky element of it is what was most striking about it. I know the way that I’m coming at it and what’s fun about it for everyone in George Lucas’ films is figuring out, ‘what’s the next step?’ It really makes you think and figure out what the essence of Star Wars is for me and what that will look like moving forward.”
NEILL BLOMKAMP NO LONGER WORKING ON ROBOCOP SEQUEL
Neill Blomkamp is no longer working on the sequel RoboCop Returns, having turned his attention to a new horror-thriller project instead. The filmmaker behind District 9, Elysium, and Chappie has long been compared to RoboCop director Paul Verhoeven, given their shared inclination for making ultra-violent sci-fi action movies that double as scathing social satires. For that reason, it made perfect sense when Blomkamp was announced to direct an R-rated continuation of Verhoeven's original film in July 2018. Blomkamp confirmed he's "off" RoboCop Returns, saying he's getting to work on a new horror-thriller and MGM "can't wait/need" to shoot the RoboCop sequel before he's available again.
JOHN CHO THRILLER SEARCHING IS GETTING A SEQUEL
The thriller starring John Cho Searching is getting a sequel. While the original creative team of director Aneesh Chaganty and his co-writer Sev Ohanian are slated to return, the plot will revolve around a new cast of characters who have to solve a mystery that will play out entirely from the perspective of a screen. No specific date was given for the sequel’s release or whether any actors might reprise their roles from the first film.
G.I. JOE SNAKE EYES SPINOFF EYEING HENRY GOLDING
Henry Golding has entered talks to play Snake Eyes in the upcoming G.I. Joe live-action movie spinoff about the character. Paramount's reported end goal is to launch an entire cinematic universe of Hasbro movies, with the potential for cross-overs between the biggest sub-franchisees like G.I. Joe and Transformers. In addition to Snake Eyes, they are actively developing a Micronauts film and Dungeons & Dragons reboot for release in 2021 and have another Transformers sequel in the pipeline.
JORDAN PEELE'S CANDYMAN STARTS PRODUCTION
Jordan Peele’s Candyman movie has started production, with the full cast now confirmed. Onboard, the so-called “spiritual sequel” are Yahya Abdul-Mateen II, Teyonah Parris, Nathan Stewart-Jarrett and Colman Domingo. Filming will take place entirely in Chicago, and in addition to the aforementioned cast members, original Candyman star Tony Todd – who played the murderous Candyman, will also return, as revealed by the actor himself. The new film is directed by Nia DaCosta. Peele co-wrote the script alongside Win Rosenfeld and they are also executive producing Candyman.
DOCTOR DOOM MOVIE SCRIPT IS DONE
The Doctor Doom movie script is complete, but it is now ultimately up to the writer and director Noah Hawley to sell Marvel Studios on the idea of making it. "I mean, where it stands is now that the movie is done and Legion is done and I’ve taken a little time off because someone told me there was this word “vacation,” which means you don’t work, which sounded really interesting to me. But you know, I need to circle back to them and announce that I would love to make it and figure out if that’s something that is possible. Whether or not they already have a plan in place for what to do with those characters or whether they’re open to my kind of vision for what to do with those characters. But it’s sort of on me right now to go push them, which I will do as soon as I come up for air", Hawley said.
DISNEY UNIMPRESSED WITH NEW MUTANTS MOVIE
Disney is reportedly unimpressed with the upcoming X-Men spin-off The New Mutants. The Josh Boone-directed film is the final Fox X-Men movie yet to be released by Disney. It will introduce a whole new group of mutants in what is said to be the first horror-driven X-Men film. Despite the movie having a star-studded cast and a competent director, The New Mutants has had a lot of setbacks ever since it was announced back in 2015. Disney isn't confident in the upcoming X-Men movie and is worried about The New Mutant's box office profitability. Insiders are claiming Dark Phoenix underperformed partly because the film was ignored by Disney and didn't get appropriate attention when it came to marketing, which could also happen with The New Mutants.
DISNEY EXPLORING IDEAS FOR LIVE-ACTION ALLADIN SEQUEL
Disney's live-action take on Aladdin took the iconic characters to a whole new world this summer, as Guy Ritchie's adaptation earned more than $1 billion at the worldwide box office. Due to the massive success in theaters, and the fact that the original Aladdin already had sequels, it should come as no surprise to learn that Disney is actively exploring ideas for a sequel. "We have now," says Lin. "We certainly when we first made the movie wanted to just make the best movie we could and let audiences tell us if they wanted to see more. And I would say resoundingly audiences want to see more. They've watched this movie multiple times. We have lots of fan letters about people who really go back and they bring their friends and bring their family. And so we feel like there's more story to tell. We are going to treat it the same way we treat the original Aladdin movie and not going to do a shot by shot remake of anything that's been done before. We're really looking at what's been done before in the past and the home video, and there's just more story to tell with the underlying materials. So without giving away too much, we are certainly exploring where we can go with this franchise."
ROBERT DE NIRO AND SHIA LABEOUF TO STAR IN CRIME DRAMA AFTER EXILE
Robert De Niro and Shia LaBeouf will portray a father and son in the upcoming independent crime drama After Exile. LaBeouf will play an ex-con who, after being released from prison for killing an innocent man after a violent robbery, must re-enter his old life with his father (De Niro) in order to save his younger brother from a life of drugs and crime. De Niro will play another ex-con suffering from alcoholism and guilt. Joshua Michael Stern, whose credits include the Steve Jobs biopic Jobs and the Epix series Graves, will handle directing duties. Anthony Thorne and Michael Tovo are writing the script. Filming will start in Philadelphia in October.
DJIMON HOUNSOU HAS BEEN CAST IN A QUIET PLACE 2
Djimon Hounsou is replacing Brian Tyree Henry in A Quiet Place 2. Hounsou is starring in A Quiet Place 2 after Henry had to step down due to scheduling conflicts. Henry, who's remained extremely busy over the past few years, is starring in director Lila Neugebauer's upcoming untitled drama and was recently confirmed to be part of Marvel's Eternals. It's unknown if Hounsou is playing an ally of the Abbott family or someone more adversarial in nature. In general, A Quiet Place 2 plot specifics are hard to come by, with Krasinski only teasing that it won't be a "typical" sequel. Rather than being a stale retread of what made the original so memorable, Krasinski is interested in further exploring the world of A Quiet Place, following other people to see how they survive.
MARLON WAYANS HOPES TO PLAY PLASTIC MAN
Comedic actor Marlon Wayans has revealed that the comic book role he'd most like to tackle is that of Plastic Man. "I would love to play Plastic Man. I think he works with the comedic skill set that I have, in terms of how I'm physical, I'm bendy. And I think it'd be cool to just do it without... You know, what's great about Black Panther is he's a black superhero, right? But sometimes [it's fun] to just do something. Like, you wouldn't think Plastic Man was a black guy, but it's not black - it's just, he's plastic. I think it'd be fun for me, because I know I got to add my humor to it. The only two superheroes I ever really wanted to play was Plastic Man and The Mask. Those are the two superhero films I would love to play."
LOKI TV SHOW WILL REPORTEDLY CONNECT TO THOR: LOVE AND THUNDER
The latest reports suggest that Marvel's Loki series, which will premiere on Disney+ in spring 2021, will directly set up Taika Waititi's Thor: Love and Thunder. "Loki follows Loki after the events in Avengers: Endgame as the trickster uses the power of the Tesseract to travel throughout human history and change historical events." According to their sources, Loki's adventures will end with him emerging in the mainstream MCU - and he'll somehow bring Mjolnir with him, explaining how Jane Foster is able to become the Mighty Thor in Thor: Love and Thunder." reports say. It's worth noting that, at this stage, these reports are still unconfirmed.
CHRISTIAN NAVARRO ON 13 REASONS WHY SEASON 1 SUICIDE SCENE
One of the most-talked-about parts of season 1 of 13 Reasons Why was Hannah's suicide in the very last episode. Recently, Netflix took to editing out the scene nearly two years after its premiere. The streaming service wanted to be mindful of the debate around the show and decided, upon consulting with psychologists and medical experts, that the best decision was just to take it out. Now, the scene just features Hannah looking at herself in the mirror before cutting to her parents' reaction. Christian Navarro, who plays Tony Padilla in the 13 Reasons Why, took to Twitter to express his opinions on Netflix cutting the season 1 suicide scene: "Something’s been bothering me....we at 13 have worked so diligently to speak to our young people and inspire positive change. Because of one scene, our show was vilified, all of the detractors shot arrows at our labor of love. When you’re first you take the arrows."
