News Shotgun 6/8
- The Good Place ending next season: Michael Schur’s brilliant comedy The Good Place is ending next season. The decision came entirely from Schur and his team and they apparently started mapping out the full trajectory of the show after it got renewed for a second season and determined about 4 seasons and 50 episodes was what they thought would let them tell the story the best without “treading water” becoming complacent. The final season begins in the fall on NBC.
- Jiu-Jitsu adds a bunch of badasses: The already crazy sounding Jiu-Jitsu movie, which had Alain Moussi from the new Kickboxer movies and Nicolas Cage fighting aliens with martial arts, has added a slew of co-stars, including Frank Grillo, Tony Jaa, Rick Yune, JuJu Chan and Marie Avgeropoulos. The movie is based on a comic and is about a secret society of warriors who have to battle an alien race every six years to keep Earth from being invaded.
- From Software’s new game leaks: Bandai Namco had a massive leak due to the security on their website prior to next week’s E3 conference and details about From Software’s new game with George RR Martin has been revealed. The game is called Elden Ring and it’s an RPG that is bigger than any prior From Software game, like Dark Souls or Bloodborne or the recent Sekiro, and it’s coming to PS4, Xbox One, and PC.
- Scrooged getting remade: Kevin Hart is starring in a remake of the Bill Murray Christmas classic Scrooged that’s coming from Paramount. There aren’t a lot of other details but presumably, Hart will play some sort of curmudgeonly TV executive who goes through A Christmas Carol style redemption.
- John Cena officially joins Fast & Furious 9: Rumored back in April courtesy of Vin Diesel’s Instagram account, John Cena has officially signed on to join the franchise, most likely trying to fill the void left by The Rock since Hobbs won’t be in F&F9. Justin Lin, who directed Tokyo Drift, Fast Five, Fast & Furious and Fast & Furious 6 is back to direct the final two entries in the franchise.
- Sigourney Weaver returning for Ghostbusters 2020: It seems like Sigourney Weaver will be back as Dana Barrett for the upcoming Ghostbusters sequel that will arrive next summer from Jason Reitman. An article in Parade Magazine seemingly confirmed Weaver would return alongside Bill Murray and Dan Aykroyd but none of them have officially confirmed they would be back. They all had cameos in Paul Feig’s Ghostbusters but not as their original characters.
- Destroy All Humans getting a remake: The cult classic game from Pandemic Studios, Destroy All Humans, is getting a remake for PS4, Xbox One, and PC. THQ Nordic will be publishing the remake and it will feature a complete graphical overhaul while retaining the 2005 original’s story and humor.
- Uncharted movie gets a release date: It seems like the Uncharted movie, after multiple false starts and iterations, will finally see a release next holiday season. Sony has put a release date of September 18th, 2020 on the movie, which will star Tom Holland as Nathan Drake in a prequel adventure set before the first Uncharted game. 10 Cloverfield Lane director Dan Trachtenberg is signed on to direct.
- Lucifer renewed for a final season: Saved by Netflix after it was canceled by Fox, Lucifer has been renewed by the streaming giant for a fifth and final season. Fan reaction to the fourth season seems to have been solid and the new season will debut sometime next year.
- Da Vinci Code prequel TV show in development: Striking while the iron is hot, NBC is developing a series based on the Robert Langdon movies (Da Vinci Code, Angels & Demons, Inferno) that will be a prequel following a younger Langdon solving historical puzzles and decoding symbols, with The Lost Symbol novel by Dan Brown being loosely used as the inspiration.
- Marvel adapting classic comics to audiobooks: Marvel announced this week that they will be turning some of their iconic comics into audiobook adaptations. Around two-dozen stories, including Daredevil: The Man Without Fear, The Ultimate Spider-Man and Codename Wolverine are some of the stories and they will be available on basically every platform that has audiobooks. Marvel had success with their Stitcher Premium exclusive series based on Wolverine that featured a full voice cast telling an original story.
- Swamp Thing canceled after 1 episode: Despite extremely positive reviews to its pilot episode, Swamp Thing was canceled on DC Universe and will air its remaining episodes, which were already cut down from 13 to 10, and then that will be it. One of the writers claims a fuck-up with the North Carolina tax rebates caused the production to become way too expensive for WB because they were counting on at least half the budget for the show coming from the state and that did not happen as planned.
- Spongebob: Battle for Bikini Bottom getting a remake: The beloved 2003 Spongebob game, Battle for Bikini Bottom, is getting a remake from THQ Nordic. The game is being rebuilt from the ground up with new visuals, better control and will also include a new multiplayer horde mode and content that was cut from the original, like a boss battle against a robot Squidward.
- Gremlins getting a 4K release in October: The Gremlins are coming back in their highest quality ever in October with a 4K Blu-ray from WB. The new edition will have most of the special features that were on previous Blu-ray and DVD releases, including multiple commentary tracks, motion comics and behind the scenes documentaries. The 4K will be available on October 1st.
- Bill and Ted’s daughters cast for Bill & Ted Face the Music: Bill & Ted’s daughters have been cast for the upcoming third movie in the franchise. Samara Weaving will play Thea Preston, Ted’s daughter, while Brigette Lundy-Paine will be Bill’s daughter Billie Logan. The girls join their dads on an adventure to try and create the one song that Wyld Stallions were destined to write that brings harmony to the galaxy.
- TV Cancelations: Sneaky Pete was canceled over at Amazon this week after three seasons while over at SyFy, they canceled both Happy! and Deadly Class. There may be hope for both of the latter shows on other networks, especially Happy! as its first season is apparently an extremely strong performer on Netflix and they may want to pick it up for another season.
- Punky Brewster reboot in the works: Precocious 80s kid Punky Brewster may be returning in a new TV series. Soleil Moon Frye is in talks to return as Punky, now a single mom with three kids, who finds a girl that reminds her a lot of herself in the 80s.
- Jumanji getting a video game: Based around Welcome to the Jungle and its upcoming sequel, a co-op Jumanji video game is in the works from Bandai Namco. The game will feature the characters based on The Rock, Jack Black, Kevin Hart, and Karen Gillan, themselves video game characters, and each of them have their own strengths and skills and players will team up to battle dangerous creatures, traps, and mercenaries to recover the Jewels of Jumanji. The game will be out on November 15th on PS4, Xbox One, PC and Switch on November 15th.
- Jurassic World getting animated series: An animated series based in the Jurassic Park/World universe is coming to Netflix. The series, called Camp Cretaceous, will follow a group of teens who are at an adventure camp on the opposite side of Isla Nublar from the Jurassic World main park during 2015’s Jurassic World and when the Indominus Rex starts rampaging across the main park, the kids at the adventure park are cut off from the mainland and have to figure out how they are going to get home. The series will air sometime in 2020.
- Blumhouse developing a Magic 8 Ball movie: Mattel is trying to get all their iconic toys into movies and they are teaming up with Blumhouse to bring Magic 8 Ball to theaters. Jeff Wadlow, who directed Truth or Dare from Blumhouse and is working on their remake of Fantasy Island, is attached to direct the Magic 8 Ball movie. Presumably, the movie will be a horror movie where the Magic 8 Ball starts predicting specific horrible things that happen to teens messing with it or something like that.
- The Muppets Movie coming back to theaters: The Muppets Movie is celebrating 40 years this year and it’s coming back to theaters courtesy of Fathom Events in July. July 25th and July 30th will both feature two screenings of the film at 700 theaters around the country.
- Django/Zorro movie in the works: Based on the comic team-up by Dynamite Comics, Quentin Tarantino and Jerrod Carmichael are developing a Django/Zorro team-up movie. The comic found Django continuing his work as a bounty hunter following the events of Django Unchained and running into Diego de la Vega in the Southwest. Django learns he’s the vigilante hero Zorro and teams up with the Mexican Fox to help free some local indigenous people from slavery. It’s not clear if Jamie Foxx would return and who would play the older Zorro from the comic.
- Netflix developing a Magic the Gathering series: Netflix, Wizards of the Coast and Joe and Anthony Russo are teaming up to bring Magic the Gathering to life in a new animated series for Netflix. The show will focus on the Planeswalkers, the most powerful beings in the Magic universe and there was an image of Chandra Nalaar used for the announcement of the series.