News Shotgun 2/26
- A Deparated TV show is in the works: Producer Roy Lee, who produced the film The Departed, is looking to transfer the Boston crime drama to the small screen “in the vein of FX’s Fargo”. It’s extremely early so no word on plot, stars or network are available.
- Bill Paxton starring in Training Day series: CBS is developing a new series based on Training Day and Bill Paxton will take over for Denzel in the “morally compromised, older cop” role, who will be taking on a younger rookie cop, who producers are looking for currently.
- RIP Tony Burton: Actor Tony Burton passed away this week at age 78. Burton was best known for playing Duke in the Rocky series, serving as Apollo Creed’s trainer before helping Rocky in Rocky IV after Apollo’s death.
- Resident Evil 4, 5 and 6 are coming to current gen consoles: PS4 and Xbox One are getting high res ports of Resident Evil 4, 5 and 6 this year, starting with 6 on March 29th and then going in reverse order for 5 and 4.
- Iron Fist cast for Netflix series: Finn Jones has been cast as Danny Rand, Marvel’s resident martial arts expert for his upcoming solo series on Netflix. Finn is probably best known right now for playing Loras Tyrell on Game of Thrones.
- The Mist TV series coming to Spike: Stephen King’s The Mist is getting adapted again with a new series coming to Spike. The network has ordered a pilot and Dimension Television is behind the series with executive producer Christian Thorpe.
- Lord & Miller developing a time travel comedy for Fox: The comedic directing duo already have Last Man on Earth and the upcoming animation/live action hybrid Son of Zorn and now they are working on a third show called Making History, which will be a time travel comedy about three friends who stumble across a way to go back in time but they end up making things much more complicated for themselves in the present. Adam Pally of Happy Endings will star.
- More casting for Riverdale: The CW’s take on Archie has cast it’s main character along with some more supporting roles. KJ Apa will star as Archie Andrews, Ashleigh Murray will play Josie, lead singer of Josie and the Pussycats, Madelaine Petsch will play Cheryl Blossom and Luke Perry will play Archie’s dad, Fred. Greg Berlanti is producing the show.
- Tye Sheridan starring in Ready Player One: Sheridan will play Wade Watts, who is one of the many players trying to track down the easter eggs left in the massive online VR world Oasis by it’s creator, James Halliday, and the first person to find all the clues will be given control of Oasis and Halliday’s fortune. Steven Spielberg is directing and Olivia Cooke and Ben Mendelsohn are also cast currently.
- Michael B. Jordan starring in a new Thomas Crown Affair: The Creed star will star in the third version of the Thomas Crown Affair after the Steve McQueen original and the Pierce Brosnan remake. Jordan will play the main character, who is a millionaire who pulls elaborate heists for fun and meets a beautiful insurance adjustor that is investigating his crimes.
- Teddy Sears joins 24: Legacy: The Flash’s Jay Garrick will head from Star Labs to CTU as Teddy Sears joins Corey Hawkins and Miranda Otto on the upcoming reboot of 24. Sears will play the new head of CTU, who was replaced Miranda Otto’s character.
- Steven S. DeKnight is directing Pacific Rim 2: Possibly because he has a dozen other things on his plate, Guillermo Del Toro has stepped away from directing Pacific Rim 2 and Legendary has hired Daredevil and Spartacus showrunner Steven S. DeKnight to direct the sequel. GDT will still be producing the movie and it will be DeKnight’s feature film debut directing.
- NBC’s Powerless series gets it’s cast: Set in an insurance office in the DC comics universe, NBC’s upcoming comedy has cast Danny Pudi, Alan Tudyk, Vanessa Hudgens and Christina Kirk as it’s main cast. NBC is developing the pilot right now.
- JCVD starring in Amazon pilot Jean Claude Van Johnson: Van Damme will star in a comedy/action pilot on Amazon called Jean Claude Van Johnson, which on the show is Van Damme’s actual identity as a mercenary/assassin and his movie career has just been a front to allow him to travel the world to complete contracts.
- Ava DuVernay directing A Wrinkle in Time movie: The Selma director will direct the adaptation of Madeline L’Engle’s classic sci-fi/fantasy book for Disney. Jennifer Lee, the co-director and writer of Frozen, wrote the screenplay.
- Robert Eggers directing a Rasputin mini-series: The director of the excellent The Witch will be directing a mini-series following the life of Rasputin. No network has been announced yet but it’s expected the series will be between 6-8 episodes. Eggers is also on board for a remake of Nosferatu.
- New details on Marvel’s Most Wanted: The Agents of SHIELD spin-off featuring Adrianne Palicki and Nick Blood got a more detailed plot synopsis this week and it seems like something will happen on SHIELD that puts Bobbi Morse and Lance Hunter on the run with no help from SHIELD and they make an uneasy alliance with Delroy Lindo’s Dominic Fortune, a rogue adventurer with a vast fortune and resources. It basically sounds like a Marvel version of Burn Notice.
- Clive Standen starring in Taken prequel series: The Vikings co-star will star as the younger Bryan Mills, played in the movie trilogy by Liam Neeson, in the upcoming prequel series to Taken. There’s not a lot of other details about the series and it’s not clear if Standen will leave Vikings for this show but things are definitely being set up on the current Vikings series that would put him potentially on the business end of his brother Ragnar’s axe.