News Shotgun 11/4
- Starcraft 2 going free to play: At Blizzcon 2017, Blizzard announced Starcraft 2: Wings of Liberty, will be going free to play on November 14th, with the campaign and multiplayer being completely open to everyone. The later games Heart of the Swarm, Legacy of the Void and Nova Corps Ops will still need to be purchased for $14.99 each.
- Lord of the Rings series coming to Amazon: Most of us would consider the Peter Jackson trilogy the definitive cinematic version of Lord of the Rings for all time but Amazon is rebooting the trilogy into a TV series for Amazon Video. It’s most likely trying to get a Game of Thrones style series for Amazon Video and they could add in some things that were cut from the novels, like Tom Bombadil or bring in material from things like the Silmarillion. Jeff Bezos, the Amazon CEO, is personally involved with the project and Amazon is currently in talks with Warner Bros, who still have the rights to the franchise.
- Twilight Zone reboot coming to CBS All Access: Jordan Peele’s Monkeypaw Productions will be developing a new version of the classic anthology show for CBS’ streaming service and Marco Ramirez, a writer/producer on Daredevil and The Defenders, will write and serve showrunner.
- The Orville renewed for Season 2: The Seth McFarlane Star Trek homage/parody/rip-off will be coming back for a second season, as Fox renewed the show after 8 episodes into Season 1. Reviews were not great but it’s apparently been steady in the ratings on it’s Thursday time slot.
- Zachary Levi, Mark Strong join Shazam: Zachary Levi will play Shazam for the upcoming DCEU movie directed by Lights Out/Annabelle: Creation director David F. Sandberg. Mark Strong was cast as the villain, Dr. Sivana, a mad scientist who was an early villain for Captain Marvel/Shazam starting in the 40s.
- Cast revealed for Rise for the TMNT: Nickelodeon’s new 2D TMNT cartoon has found it’s voice cast with Ballers’ Omar Miller voicing Raphael, who is the new leader of the group, Ben Schwartz will be Leonardo, Josh Brener from Silicon Valley voicing Donatello and You’re The Worst’s Brandon Mychal Smith will be voicing Michelangelo. Eric Bauza will be voicing Splinter and Kat Graham of The Vampire Diaries will be April, who will be African-American for the first time in the franchise. The show will start sometime next year.
- Beyonce confirmed as Nala for The Lion King: The full cast for The Lion King reboot directed by Jon Favreau was revealed and confirmed everyone who was already announced but the big announcement was that Beyonce will be voicing Nala opposite Donald Glover’s Simba. The hyenas were also revealed with Eric Andre as Azizi, Florence Karumba as Shenzi, and Keegan-Michael Key as Kamari.
- Telltale Walking Dead collection coming in December: With the final season coming next year, Telltale is releasing every season and miniseries released so far with enhanced graphics as The Walking Dead Collection, which will come out on December 5th this year.
- Some theaters refusing to show The Last Jedi: Disney apparently has demanded an absurd 65% of ticket sales from The Last Jedi and that it play in the theater’s biggest theater(s) for at least five weeks and if theaters fail to do either of those stipulations, they will be charged an additional 5% penalty. The Force Awakens and Rogue One had 64% of ticket sales and a four week large theater stipulation but most theaters give about 50-60% of ticket sales, at least for the first few weeks, to the distributor for most films, with no theater restriction.
- Fox may be rebooting 24 into legal thriller: Fox announced 24 would be becoming an anthology series, with a new plot and characters every season but the new season of the show sounds the furthest you could get from 24. Fox is saying the new 24 anthology season would be a legal thriller where a female prosecutor races the clock to save a possibly innocent man she convicted from being executed, so no terrorists or over the top action that we expect from the franchise. 24: Legacy wasn’t the greatest but it still kind of felt like classic 24 but a legal thriller?
- American Crime Story Season 2 gets a release date: The follow-up to The People vs OJ Simpson finally has a release date. The Assassination of Gianni Versace will start on January 17th next year and stars Edgar Ramirez as the legendary fashion designer who was murdered on the steps of his Miami mansion in 1997. Penelope Cruz, Ricky Martin and Darren Criss are co-starring.
- New Warriors looking for new network: Marvel’s announced comedy show following the younger superhero team the New Warriors is no longer going to be airing on Freeform and is currently looking for a new network. Milana Vayntrub is starring as Squirrel Girl, who is the leader of the team.
- Tower of Terror in Disney Hollywood Studios getting Christmas makeover: Disney is putting a Christmas spin on the Tower of Terror in Florida, turning it into Hollywood Toy Hotel that looks like from concept art like it’s going to be an insane, gaudy eyesore:
- New DC show in development for The CW: The Arrowverse keeps getting bigger, with Black Lightning starting in 2018 and now another new DC show in development. Project 13 features Traci Thirteen, a forensic scientist who also believes in the paranormal and she discovers extrasensory powers and she teams with her skeptical, estranged father to investigate paranormal and unexplained phenomenon. Elizabeth Banks will be an executive producer on the show.
- Pet Sematary reboot on the way: The Stephen King renaissance will continue with a new version of Pet Sematary getting made by the directors behind the cult horror movie Starry Eyes, Kevin Kolsch and Dennis Widmyer. There’s been a new Pet Sematary in the works since at least 2010.