News Shotgun 5/17
- Arnold Schwarzenegger in talks to co-star in Toxic Avenger remake: Our patron saint is apparently in talks to play The Exterminator, a mentor/trainer that Toxie turns to his horrific transformation and together they work to take down evil polluters.
- Will Smith in talks to star and produce modern remake of The Wild Bunch: Smith is apparently in talks with Warner Bros. to star and produce a remake of the classic Sam Peckinpah western. This new version would be set in modern day and would find the titular Wild Bunch facing off against the Mexican cartels instead of a warlord and the main character would be a disgraced DEA agent.
- Robert Rodriguez developing From Dusk till Dawn TV show: Rodriguez is actually working on launching an entire network, called the El Ray Network. One of the flagship shows looks to be a continuation of the From Dusk Till Dawn franchise. The original film already has two direct to video sequels and there’s no word on whether this new show would be a reboot or just set in the Dusk till Dawn universe.
- Neil Degrasse Tyson hosting the new Cosmos: Everyone’s favorite astrophysicist, Neil Degrasse Tyson, will be hosting an updated version of the classic Carl Sagan science show, Cosmos. The show will air for 13 episodes on Fox and is being produced by Seth MacFarlane.
- John Slattery making film directorial debut with God’s Pocket: John Slattery aka Roger Sterling, has directed some of the best episodes of Mad Men and will finally bring his directing chops to the big screen with God’s Pocket. The movie is murder thriller about a construction worker trying to cover up the death of his stepson and dodging the investigation of a local reporter. Phillip Seymour Hoffman, Richard Jenkins, Christina Hendricks and John Turturro will star.
- Karl Urban says Dredd is not completely dead: Urban was talking to Collider earlier this week and mentioned that, despite comments by producer Adi Shankar, another producer, Alex Garland, says there is still the possibilty of a sequel to the most bad ass movie of 2012. Lionsgate is aware of the movie selling gangbusters on home video and Urban said if the fans are vocal enough about a sequel, it can definitely happen.
- CW’s Amazon still being worked on: The CW gave an update on their Wonder Woman show, Amazon, at their upfront presentation and said the show is “definitely still on” and that a new script for the pilot is currently being written by Heroes writer, Aron Eli Coliete.
- Outside interest in Hannibal could save it if it is cancelled: The fate of one of the best new shows, NBC’s Hannibal, is still in the air but if NBC decides to cancel it, there is lots of interest from both other networks and online. There is at least one cable network interestd, according to Deadline, and Amazon is interested as well.
- Zombieland show passed on by Amazon: The cheap and unfunny looking Zombieland pilot put up by Amazon as one of the dozen or so shows they were considering getting full orders of has been passed on by the site. Fan reviews were not kind and that was the major factor in Amazon’s decision. Rhett Reese, the co-creator of the show, went on Twitter with some very pissy comments, saying that the fans “…successfully hated it out of existence” and that, “I’ll never understand the vehement hate the pilot received from die-hard Zombieland fans”.
- Friedberg and Seltzer developing Fast and Furious parody movie called Superfast!: Some of cinema’s greatest villains, the ___ Movie directors Friedberg and Seltzer are supposedly going to be doing a parody of the Fast and Furious series called Superfast! Expect lots of idiotic references to any flash in the pan movies and pop culture in place of actual jokes.
- Game of Thrones may wrap up in 7 seasons: The people behind Game of Thrones are currently in talks with HBO to discuss an end date for the show. George RR Martin’s epic series is currently set for seven books and the current season is the first half of the third book, the most dense in the series. Next season will be the 2nd half of book 3 and the last 3 seasons would each cover their respective book, ending in it’s seventh season.