News Shotgun 5/18
- Jackie Chan to retire from action movies: At Cannes this week, Jackie Chan announced that his latest action movie, Chinese Zodiac, will be his last action movie. He will be focusing on more dramatic roles and trying to showcase his actual acting chops, not his karate chops.
- Ryan Reynolds might be offered the new Highlander: Ryan Reynolds is supposedly in talks to be the lead in Lionsgate’s remake of the 80’s action classic. Juan Carlos Fresnadillo, director of 28 Weeks Later, is directing. It’s not clear whether the lead character would still be Scottish warrior Connor McLeod and if it will have any of the other aspects of what made the 80’s version a cult classic.
- Blade Runner follow up officially a sequel, original screenwriter on board: Ridley Scott’s follow up to Blade Runner was announced a few months ago but now it’s confirmed that it will be a sequel to the original classic. Original screenwriter, Hampton Fancher, is on board to write the script for this new movie but that’s basically all the information there is.
- A Dame to Kill For coming October 2013: October 4th, 2013 to be precise.
- James Badge Dale joins Iron Man 3 as villain: Dale, who has been in Rubicon, The Pacific and The Grey, has signed on to play a villain named Savin in Iron Man 3. Since it’s inspired by the Extremis storyline, I’m wondering if he will be the character who gets infected with the Extremis nanotechnology and forces Iron Man to upgrade himself.
- Channing Tatum in talks for White House Down: White House Down, coming out in November of next year, is one of the two “Die Hard in the White House” movies in production and now Channing Tatum is signed on to play the lead in White House Down. Tatum will play a single parent and Secret Service agent who has to rescue the President when a paramilitary group takes over the White House. The other “Die Hard in the White House” movie, Olympus Has Fallen stars Gerard Butler in basically the same role, so, advantage, Olympus Has Fallen.
- The Hulk TV show might air on ABC in 2013: At their upfront presentation, ABC announced that The Hulk is in development but will not be ready for this season and they’re hoping for a 2013 debut for the TV version of the character. It’s not clear whether the Hulk show will tie into the Marvel movie continuity or if it will be it’s own thing but the latter is more likely.
- Rise of the Planet of the Apes sequel gets screenwriter: RotPotA was one of the most welcome surprises of last year and was a pretty big hit for Fox, so a sequel was immediately put in production. Andy Serkis will return as Caesar and Rupert Wyatt will return to direct and now Scott Z. Burns will be writing the screenplay. Burns has previously written The Bourne Ultimatum, Contagion and The Informant!
- First Look at Taken 2: The first photos and the plot summary for Taken 2 debuted in Entertainment Weekly this week and shows Liam Neeson back and kicking even more ass as Bryan Mills. Surprisingly, it seems like Bryan himself is going to the one “taken” as he is captured by associates of the criminal organization he dismantled in the first movie and his daughter, played by Maggie Grace, sets out to try and rescue him. Check out the first look photos below.
