News Shotgun 6/17
- RIP John G. Avildsen: The director of Rocky and the original three Karate Kid movies has passed away at age 81 this past week.
- Billy Zane guest starring on Legend of Tomorrow: Zane will play PT Barnum in an upcoming third season episode of The CW’s Legends of Tomorrow.
- Kurt Russell is the person who first reported the Phoenix Lights: The infamous 1997 UFO incident was apparently first reported by none other than Kurt Russell, who was flying his son Oliver into Phoenix to visit his girlfriend and spotted the 6 lights in a perfect V formation and reported them to ground control.
- Danny Elfman scoring Justice League: Danny Elfman is returning to the DC universe in the wake of Junkie XL leaving Justice League to score the film. Elfman, of course, scored both of the Tim Burton Batman films and created one of the most iconic movie themes in movie history.
- New Big Trouble in Little China comic mini-series: Co-written by John Carpenter, Old Man Jack follows a 60 year old Jack Burton in 2020, where evil demon Ching Dai has unleashed hell on Earth and Jack needs to leave his safe haven in Florida to find someone who might be able to stop him.
- Simon Kinberg directing X-Men: Dark Phoenix: A writer on the series since The Last Stand and a producer since First Class, Simon Kinberg is going behind the camera for the next entry in the X-Men series, Dark Phoenix. Jennifer Lawrence, James McAvoy, Michael Fassbender, Nicholas Hoult, Sophie Turner, Tye Sheridan, Alexandra Shipp and Kodi Smit-McPhee are all back from Apocalypse and Jessica Chastain is joining the cast as Lilandra, Queen of the Shi’ar, which seemingly confirms that the series is finally going to go cosmic.
- John Wick prequel show details: The potential prequel TV show to John Wick is called The Continental and will focus on the in and outs of the mysterious hitman exclusive hotel chain. Keanu Reeves may appear but only as a guest star and the show would instead focus on the various workers and what they do.
- Crooked Man getting Conjuring spin-off: The Conjuring cinematic universe continues to expand as Conjuring 2’s Crooked Man is getting his own movie, following in the footsteps of The Nun. Annabelle: Creation is coming this summer and The Nun is next year.
- Ducktales premiere dates revealed: Disney XD’s excellent looking Ducktales reboot is premiering as a movie on August 12th and will repeat for 24 hours while the show’s regular premiere date is September 23rd. They also revealed the intro sequence and new theme song:
- Bumblebee spin-off taking place in the 80’s: The first spin-off from the Bayformers series, Bumblebee will star in an 80’s set story that will be lighter and more family friendly than the main series (so hopefully no statutory rape jokes) and it will be directed by Travis Knight, who directed Laika’s excellent Kubo and the Two Strings. It’s hitting in June of next year.
- Fifth season of Luther on the way: The BBC has ordered a fifth season of Luther, which will be four new episodes starring Idris Elba as DCI John Luther. The last season aired in 2015 and was only two episodes.
- Little Nightmares TV show in development: A recent, well received, creepy indie game, Little Nightmares is becoming a TV show with The Russo Brothers producing and Nightmare Before Christmas director Henry Sellick directing. The game, and presumably the show, follows a small girl who must escape for a horrific ship called The Maw that is full of hideous creatures.