News Shotgun 9/29
- Captain Power returning: Goddard Film Group and Paramount are bringing back the 80’s sci-fi cult classic, Captain Power and the Soldiers of the Future as a new weekly drama series called Phoenix Rising. In case you don’t know, Captain Power was an 80’s live action kids show that featured surprisingly in depth and mature storylines, which is why it’s still a cult favorite, and it was also famous for having toys that interacted with the show. Kids could use their Captain Power toy ships to fight off the enemies on screen and score points and the enemies could shoot back and the ship would break apart if it was hit too many times.
- Marc Webb returning for Amazing Spider-Man 2: Good?
- Mark Millar overseeing Fox’s Marvel Universe: Fox has a good deal of Marvel properties still under it’s control, most notably Fantastic Four and X-Men, and now, Fox has hired comic writer Mark Millar, of Kick Ass and Wanted fame, to oversee their upcoming crop of films, including The Wolverine, Fantastic Four and X-Men: Days of Future Past.
- Cabin in the Woods: The Game was almost real: Drew Goddard, director of Cabin in the Woods, was on reddit earlier this week for an Ask Me Anything and revealed there were plans for a Cabin themed expansion pack for Left 4 Dead, that would have let you and four friends try to survive around both the cabin and *spoilers* the secret control facility beneath the cabin.
- Dumb and Dumber sequel script almost done, gets title:The Farrelly Bros announced on Twitter that the script for the upcoming Dumb and Dumber sequel is almost done and that the official title is Dumb and Dumber To.
- Ruben Fleischer set to direct Spy Hunter: The director of Zombieland and 30 Minutes or Less, and the delayed Gangster Squad, has signed on to direct an adaptation of the classic video game, Spy Hunter. A Spy Hunter movie has been in the works for years, most notably in 2006 when The Rock was supposed to star and there was even a game made with him starring.
- Tom Hardy scaling Mount Everest: In movie form in the upcoming “Everest, directed by Doug Liman. The movie is based on the novel Paths of Glory by Jeffrey Archer and is a fact based account of 1920’s British mountaineer George Mallory, who tried three times to become the first man to scale Everest.
- ABC developing a show based on A Knight’s Tale: The show is coming from Battlestar Galactica creator Ron Moore and will most likely follow the continuing adventures of William Thatcher, played by Heath Ledger in the movie.
- First Looks, Hugh Jackman in The Wolverine, Jim Carrey in Kick Ass 2:
- Netflix loses A&E/History Channel programming from streaming: Netflix’s deal with both companies expired with no new agreement reached, so all of the shows that were currently on Instant Streaming are now gone, including shows like Pawn Stars, Ice Road Truckers, Storage Wars, Hoarders and Intervention.
- Len Wiseman directing The Mummy remake: Universal announced they were rebooting The Mummy a while ago and now Underworld/Total Recall director Len Wiseman is signed on to direct the new version for 2014. The new Mummy is supposed to be a darker and more serious take than the Brendan Fraser led trilogy, which was fun and goofy, more in the spirit of classic pulp adventures.
- Gina Carano is the first of the “Female Expendables”: The “all female Expendables” movie from producer Adi Shankar took a step to actually being a real thing by casting as Gina Carano as the first member of the group.
- FX making a Fargo TV series: The Coen Brothers will be executive producing the show and it will be “loosely based” on the movie, starring Frances McDormand as the sheriff of sleepy Fargo, North Dakota, that becomes the site of a quirky heist. I think I would be on board if this Fargo show in the vein of Justified, which, like Fargo, focuses on a specific, localized culture and all it’s quirks.