News Shotgun 11/10
- Jonny Quest movie gets a new director: Chris McKay has signed on to direct a live-action Jonny Quest movie for WB. McKay directed The Lego Batman Movie and previously signed on to direct a Nightwing movie at some point. A Jonny Quest movie has been in various forms of development for decades, going back to the 90’s when Richard Donnor was signed on to direct and the last update was a possible version that would have starred Zac Efron and The Rock.
- Rogue One prequel show coming to Disney+: The upcoming Disney+ streaming service is getting a Rogue One prequel series following Diego Luna’s Cassian Andor as he conducts missions for the Rebellion prior to the events of Rogue One. This will join Jon Favreau’s The Mandalorian as one of the many exclusives series and movies coming to the service next year.
- Jeremy Irons’ role revealed on HBO’s Watchmen series: Expected to arrive next year, HBO’s series set in the Watchmen universe has already assembled an impressive cast but all of their roles were being kept secret. This week we got the first big reveal as the news broke that Jeremy Irons is playing an older Adrian Veidt aka Ozymandias. The show is apparently going to be set in the present day in the Watchmen universe where Ozymandias faked an alien invasion that killed millions but united the world and prevented a nuclear holocaust. Jean Smart also joined the cast as FBI Agent Blake, a new character that may have ties to The Comedian, who also had the last name Blake.
- Pacific Rim and Altered Carbon anime shows coming to Netflix: Netflix announced five new anime series coming to the streaming service with one being a Pacific Rim series and another based on Netflix’s live-action series Altered Carbon. The latter will be a “supplemental” side story to the main series while it’s not clear when the Pacific Rim series will take place in that universe or what characters will be featured.
- The 4400 coming back on The CW: The USA mystery series The 4400 is getting rebooted over on The CW with original showrunner Craig Sweeny writing with new showrunner Taylor Elmore, who worked on Justified. The original and the new series are based around a group of 4400 people who disappeared at various times from the mid 50’s to the present day. One day, they all reappear simultaneously at the same point they vanished and the show dives into what happened to them and how they adjust to the present day and all that missing time. The new show will probably arrive on The CW sometime in 2019.
- Taron Egerton not returning for new Kingsman movie: On the Robin Hood press tour, Taron Egerton confirmed he would not be back as Eggsy for the upcoming third entry in the Kingsman series. The new film, which is supposed to hit in November of next year, is following a new character named Conrad and a new older character, possibly a replacement for Colin Firth.
- Breaking Bad movie sequel in the works: News broke this week that Vince Gilligan is working on a sequel movie that will follow Aaron Paul’s Jesse Pinkman following the series finale of Breaking Bad. Gilligan wrote and is executive producing the new movie but it’s not clear if he’ll direct it. The movie will, obviously, shoot in Albuquerque and it’s not clear if it would be in theaters or if it would be some sort of special on AMC.
- Three Walking Dead movies in the works: Although he presumably made his final appearance on the series in the most recent episode of the Walking Dead, Andrew Lincoln’s Rick Grimes will return in three movies set in The Walking Dead movie. The movies will be made for AMC but it’s not clear when the first one would air.
- Survivors’ Club adaptation coming to The CW: Following on the heels of iZombie, another Vertigo title is coming to The CW with Survivors’ Club. Based on the comic by Lauren Beukes, Dale Halverson, and Ryan Kelly, Survivors’ Club follows teen survivors of horror movie villains as they try to deal with their past trauma and team up to fight their respective monsters. Jared Frieder of MTV’s “Sweet/Vicious” is writing and showrunning.
- The Purge renewed for a second season: The Purge will return for another year on USA, as the network ordered a second season of the show. The show was surprisingly solid and a great entry into the franchise, doing some fun worldbuilding and matching the mayhem and blunt social commentary of the films.
- Swamp Thing casting news: The Swamp Thing series that will debut on DC Universe has made some major casting recently with Derek Mears confirmed to appear under the vines, moss and plants as Swamp Thing while Andy Bean, who is co-starring in IT: Chapter 2, will play pre-Swamp Thing Alec Holland (and presumably appear in flashbacks as well). Will Patton and Virginia Madsen have been cast Avery and Maria Sunderland, the main antagonists of the series who are outwardly prominent and respected members of the Louisiana town the show takes place in but are secretly trying to harness the powers of the swamp for profit. Crystal Reed was previously cast as Abby Arcane and James Wan is producing the series.
- New series based on Explorers in the works: A beloved 80s cult classic, Explorers is getting rebooted by Cary Fukunaga and David Lowery. The original movie, directed by Joe Dante, followed a group of friends, one of whom creates a working spaceship, and they set out to explore the universe. Fukanaga, who previously created Maniac for Netflix, and Lowery, who directed the Pete’s Dragon reboot and The Old Man and The Gun, are producing the new series but it’s not clear if Dante will be involved in any capacity.
- Shrek and Puss in Boots remakes coming to Illumination: The franchise that put Dreamworks on the map and created a thousand dank memes is getting rebooted at Illumination, the studio behind Minions and Despicable Me. There was a Shrek 5 in development at Dreamworks that was going to hit next summer but that seems to be dead in favor of these new reboots. Illumination CEO Chris Meledandri seems excited about the prospect and also hopes that possibly the original voice cast can return to voice their characters. No word if there will also be a new version of All-Star.
- Night of the Living Dead Part II coming from original screenwriter: A direct sequel to Night of the Living Dead is apparently on the way from John A. Russo, who co-wrote the original film with the late George Romero. Russo and Romero disagreed on the direction of the franchise and split, with Russo shepherding the Return of the Living Dead franchise while Romero made Dawn, Day and the rest of the “…of the Dead” series. Russo wrote a direct Night of the Living Dead sequel sometime soon after the release of the original and that is presumably the basis for this new movie.
- Deadwood movie goes into production: The long-anticipated Deadwood movie has started shooting with creator David Milch and most of the cast returning. The movie is set 10 years after the end of the original show as the characters are reunited at the celebration of South Dakota’s entry as a state in the United States. Ian McShane, Timothy Olyphant, Molly Parker, Paula Malcomson, John Hawkes, Anna Gunn, Dayton Callie, Brad Dourif, Robin Weigert, William Sanderson, Kim Dickens, and Gerald McRaney are all back and Jade Pettyjohn joins the cast as a new character named Caroline. Unfortunately, the great Powers Boothe passed away, so his character Cy Tolliver will not be involved with the movie. Game of Thrones director Daniel Minahan is directing the movie and it’s expected to hit HBO sometime next year.