News Shotgun 4/20
- MGM developing a movie about history’s only African samurai: MGM is developing a movie called Yasuke, about history’s only African samurai. Yasuke was a slave who became a servant and bodyguard for Jesuit missionaries. His arrival in Japan caused a literal riot and he was made a samurai in the court of Oda Nobunaga.
- RIP Lorraine Warren: Famous paranormal investigator Lorraine Warren passed away this week at age 92. Lorraine and her husband Ed investigated hauntings and demonic possessions around the world, including The Amityville Horror house, and their work inspired The Conjuring films and the spin-offs.
- Stephen King story Rest Stop getting a movie: The King short story Rest Stop is being developed into a movie with Christopher Robin and Her Smell director Alex Ross Perry attached. The short is about a timid mystery novelist who pulls off the road to a rest stop and overhears a man threatening a woman. The novelist turns into his tougher and more badass pseudonym Rick Hardin, bashes the man in the face with a tire iron and leaves.
- Glenn Danzig may be directing a vampire western: Heavy metal legend Glenn Danzig may be getting ready to direct a vampire spaghetti-western that he also wrote the script for. An update on his official Facebook page revealed the news that he is putting the finishing touches on the script and then casting will begin soon.
- Disney scaps Mouse Guard movie: In development at Fox before the merger, Disney has canceled the adaptation of David Petersen’s Mouse Guard comic. The movie had Idris Elba and Andy Serkis starring and was going to be directed by The Maze Runner’s Wes Ball. The movie had been set to go into production in two weeks but is now being shopped to other studios.
- 10 more Genesis Mini games revealed: SEGA revealed 10 more games that will be on their upcoming Genesis Mini console. Contra Hard Corp, Earthworm Jim, Sonic 2, Streets of Rage 2 and Shinobi III were some of the Genesis classics revealed but most surprising was easily that the Disney games Castle of Illusion and World of Illusion will be included. Most of the previous mini consoles from Sony and Nintendo have shied away from popular licensed games that were on the console to avoid licensing fees.
- Full lineup of the Castlevania Collection revealed: Speaking of retro games, Konami revealed the full list of games that will be included in their upcoming Castlevania Collection. The original NES trilogy, Super Castlevania, Castlevania The Adventure and Belmont’s Revenge on Game Boy, Castlevania Bloodlines on Genesis and Kid Dracula for Famicom, a game that has never been released in North America until now.
- The Gifted canceled: Fox’s X-Men drama The Gifted was canceled by Disney, who seem to be looking to clean house on any Fox X-Men properties to pave the way for MCU versions of the characters. The show had wrapped up its second season earlier this year and while it was critically well received, it consistently had half or less the ratings of the first season.
- The Crown and The Witcher release dates: Netflix revealed that The Crown Season 3 and The Witcher will arrive in mid to late 2019 respectively. The Witcher will arrive sometime in the last three months of the year while The Crown Season 3 could be anytime after July 1st.
- Gillian Jacobs joins Fear Street movie: Community star Gillian Jacobs has joined the cast of the adaptation of RL Stine’s teen-focused Fear Street books. There is a trilogy set that will explore horrific events in the town of Shadyside in 1994, 1978 and 1966 and Jacobs is playing a character in the first film that survived a horrible mass murder at a summer camp in ’78 and will appear in all three films, possibly as different characters. Sadie Sink, Kiana Madeira, and Olivia Welch are cast as the starring trio of girls and Leigh Janiak is directing all three films back to back.
- Showtime casts it’s Master Chief: Showtime has cast Master Chief aka John 117 for its upcoming series based on Halo. Pablo Schreiber, currently co-starring on American Gods, is donning the Spartan armor for the series, which still currently doesn’t have any sort of premiere date.
- John Cena in talks to join The Suicide Squad: John Cena may be joining James Gunn’s Suicide Squad, as he’s apparently in talks to co-star in the movie. He may be taking on the role that was rumored to be for Dave Bautista, the psychotic Peacekeeper, who is an extreme pacifist who will kill to keep the peace.
- Marvel Comics releasing Blade vs Wolverine one-shot: Two of Marvel’s greatest badasses will face off in July with the Blade vs Wolverine #1 one-shot comic. Marc Guggenheim is writing the story with Dave Wilkins doing the art.
- Mike Myers is developing a Netflix comedy series: Mike Myers is heading to Netflix with a new comedy series. The show is a six-episode half-hour limited series where Myers will play multiple characters but it’s not clear if it will be episodic or more of a sketch show.
- Some sort of KOTR project is in the works at Lucasfilm: Answering a question from MTV News, Kathleen Kennedy confirmed that some sort of project based on Knights of the Old Republic is being developed. The Old Republic era is beloved by Star Wars fans and has spawned comics, novels and some of the most critically acclaimed video games in the Star Wars franchise.
- Six Billion Dollar Man movie gets a director: Coming off Bumblebee, Travis Knight is directing Mark Wahlberg in the long-delayed Six Billion Dollar Man movie. The movie has been in development since 2017 and based on the classic Lee Majors TV series, with Wahlberg playing Col. Steve Austin, who is given several bionic enhancements after he is in a major accident, including bionic legs for super speed and a bionic eye to see great distances.
- Capcom Home Arcade announced: Capcom announced a new plug and play arcade console called the Capcom Home Arcade this week. It features two high-quality arcade stick setups built into a molded Capcom logo box and will feature 16 games that include classics like Street Fighter II Hyper Fighting, Darkstalkers, Final Fight but also, most notably, the arcade game Aliens vs Predator, which has never seen any sort of home port until now. The console will probably be around $250 and it’s out on October 25th.
- Elisabeth Moss joins The Invisible Man movie: The Mad Men and Handmaid’s Tale star has signed on to co-star in Leigh Whannell’s remake of The Invisible Man for Blumhouse, who are attempting again to launch some sort of Universal Monsters cinematic universe. Moss is playing a character named Cecilia Kass and the new Invisible Man is a sociopathic billionaire who has developed an invisibility suit for the DoD. There’s no casting yet for the lead role but Armie Hammer and Alexander Skarsgard were rumored to be in the running.
- Westworld back in 2020: It will be another year before HBO’s trippy sci-fi series Westworld is back, as it has a vague 2020 premiere date for Season 3. The second season wrapped up in June of last year.