News Shotgun 1/18
- FX may split into two networks: The network is toying with the idea of breaking up into two different networks. Original FX will be the home of their dramas, like Justified and Sons of Anarchy, while the new network, tentatively titled FXX will focus more on their comedies, like It’s Always Sunny in Philadelphia and The League.
- SyFy cancels Alphas: After leaving off a fantastic cliffhanger, SyFy has cancelled the superhero show Alphas, citing budget disputes that could not be resolved.
- Hercules, starring The Rock, coming in 2014: Dwayne Johnson will be starring as the Greek hero, Hercules, in Brett Ratner’s adaptation of the graphic novel, Hercules: The Thracian Wars, coming in 2014.
- Dominic Cooper playing Ian Fleming in a new biopic: Howard Stark will be playing the creator of James Bond in an upcoming biopic based on his life. Fleming was basically the inspiration of Bond, being an intelligence agent in World War II and supposedly enjoying both drinks and women as much as the spy he created.
- Writers hired for Terminator 5: Laeta Kalogridis, one of the writers of Shutter Island and Avatar, and Patrick Lussier, one of the writers of Drive Angry, have been hired to writer the script for Terminator 5. The rights to the Terminator franchise were bought by smaller distributor, Annapurna Pictures, who most recently put out Zero Dark Thirty.
- Warner Bros. trying to reboot Gremlins: The studio is apparently trying to negotiate for the rights to the Gremlins series from Spielberg’s Amblin Entertainment.
- Ron Moore developing new series for SyFy: The creator of Battlestar Galactica is developing a new thriller series for SyFy called Helix. The show will follow a group of scientists who head to an Arctic research station to investigate a possible disease outbreak and stop it before it escapes into the world.
- MGM developing Hot Tub Time Machine sequel: The sequel is early talks and the studio is looking to bring back most of the original cast, minus Cusack currently, and Rob Corddry may help write the script as well as co-star.
- The Phantom Menace score getting a vinyl release: Easily the best thing about Episode 1 was the score by John Williams, which gave us one of the best Star Wars tracks of all time, Duel of the Fates. The score album is coming to vinyl on March 4th.
- Machete Kills gets a release date: The sequel will be out on September 13th of this year.
- Disney Infinity game announced: Coming off the heels of the highly successful Skylanders game, where you can swap toy figures in and out using a special accessory, Disney announced that they are creating a similar game called Disney Infinity. Unlike Skylanders, it looks like you can have up to three figures on the “portal” at a time and they will all be in the game. There will be figures from a number of Disney franchises like The Incredibles, Pirates of the Carribean and Monsters Inc, and there will be movie specific game packs released.
- Predators director directing Metallica movie: Coming this August from Predators director, Nimrod Antal, will be directing a 3D Metallica movie, called Through the Never. Chronicle star, and future Harry Osborn, Dane Dehaan will co-star with band as one of the band’s roadies who is “sent out on an urgent mission” during a sold out concert.
- Marvel developing animated Punisher movie: According to Jeph Loeb, Marvel has 15 animated features coming up and one of them will be starring Frank Castle, with Black Widow co-starring.
- Adult Swim and Cartoon Network shows coming to Netflix: Netflix will be getting a bunch of great content in March with Cartoon Network and Adult Swim coming. The first shows available will be Adventure Time, Regular Show, Johnny Bravo, Ben 10, Children’s Hospital, The Boondocks, Aqua Teen Hunger Force and Robot Chicken.
- Trey Parker and Matt Stone launching independent film company: The South Park creators are creating their own film company called Important Studios and one of their first projects will be a film adaptation of their insanely popular and successful Broadway musical, Book of Mormon.
- Tron: Uprising on the verge of being cancelled: The fantastic but criminally under-watched Tron: Uprising is on the verge of being cancelled, according to one of it’s producers. It’s currently in an absolutely horrible timeslot, 12 AM on Mondays and the producer said if it doesn’t increase it’s viewership, it will most likely be cancelled.
- MGM remaking Ben Hur: MGM has bought a spec script for a remake of Ben Hur, with this new version being closer to the original book, Ben-Hur: A Tale of Christ. Rights surrounding the Charlton Heston classic are apparently not an issue as the book both films are based on is public domain.