News Shotgun 6/6
- Jeremy Renner returning for MI 5: Renner will return as IMF Agent Will Brandt, joining a returning Tom Cruise and Simon Pegg. Christopher McQuarrie is set to direct the movie and it’s hitting Christmas 2015. Renner also has Age of Ultron and the follow up to Bourne Legacy coming next year as well.
- Pedro Pascal starring in upcoming Netflix series Narcos: The Red Viper will be starring in the upcoming Netflix series, which follows the hunt for drug kingpin, Pablo Escobar. Wagner Moura will portray Escobar and Pascal will play DEA agent Javier Pena. Robocop reboot director Jose Padilha is running the show and it’s set to hit in early 2015.
- Marvel trademarks may hint at future movies: Marvel Studios trademarks came to light this week from last December, one of which was Age of Ultron. Possibly revealing upcoming movies, there are trademarks for Black Panther, Alpha Flight, New Warriors, Joureny into Mystery and a solo Rocket Raccoon.
- Nicolas Winding Refn’s next project is all female horror film “I Walk With the Dead”: The Drive and Only God Forgives director is tackling a horror movie for his next project. There’s not really any plot details but Carey Mulligan, who co-starred in Drive, was supposedly in talks to star.
- Game of Thrones officially the most popular show in HBO history: Going off the ratings for the current season, Game of Thrones has usurped the title from The Sopranos, as each episode of GoT gets 18.4 million viewers on average, compared to 18.2 at the height of Sopranos popularity.
- Details on The Stand: Josh Boone, whose The Fault in Our Stars is out right now, is being tasked with directing the film version of Stephen King’s epic classic, The Stand. Boone revealed the movie will be a 3 hour, R rated epic with a cast of A list actors and Stephen King seems confident with the choice as well.
- Bill Condon directing live action Beauty and the Beast: With Maleficent making millions last weekend, Disney is moving full speed into other live action adaptations of their fairy tales and Breaking Dawn and Dreamgirls director Bill Condon has signed on to direct a live action Beauty and the Beast. There’s Cinderella, Alice: Through the Looking Glass and The Jungle Book coming in the next year or two.
- Snow White and the Huntsman 2 coming, director short list revealed: Weirdly a moderate hit when it came out in 2012 and there’s sequel being prepped by Universal. Possible directors in talks or being considered are Gavin O’Connor, who directed Warrior, Andy Muschietti, who directed Mama and Frank Darabont, who should need no introduction.
- Ant-Mangate continues: Marvel is still seemingly scrambling for a new comedic director for Ant-Man after Edgar Wright abruptly left. Adam McKay and Rawson Thurber are both apparently out, leaving Ruben Fleischer from the immediate short list. Two new directors in possible contention or Nicholas Stoller, who most recently directed Neighbors, and Michael Dowse, who directed Goon.
- Batman Arkham Knight, Jupiter Ascending both delayed until 2015: The highly anticipated video game was delayed until 2015 according to developer Rocksteady while Jupiter Ascending was pushed out of it’s Summer slot in July of this year to February of next year, apparently because there are over 2,000 special effects shots that need to be completed.
- Scott Derrickson signs on to direct Dr. Strange: The director of Sinister stays in the realm of the supernatural as he takes on the Sorcerer Supereme, Dr. Strange, for Marvel. A rumor going around is that Jared Leto may be in talks to play the good doctor. The movie is part of Phase 3 and will most likely be a 2016 or 2017 release.
- Two new cast members added to Star Wars Episode VII: Best Supporting Actress for 12 Years A Slave, Lupita Nyong’o and Brienne of Tarth, Gwendoline Christie both joined JJ Abrams’ Episode VII, shooting right now in Abu Dhabi, in undisclosed roles.
- Josh Trank directing second Star Wars spin-off: Godzilla director Gareth Edwards got the first Star Wars spin-off last week and now Chronicle and current Fantastic Four director Josh Trank will be getting a second spin-off but there’s still no word on which character will be featured in either film.
- Penny Dreadful renewed for second season: Showtime’s monster mash Penny Dreadful will return next year with a 10 episode second season, up two episodes from this current season. This weekend’s episode is supposed to be a game changer involving Eva Green and there’s a mini marathon of the prior four episodes beforehand.