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News Shotgun 6/29

  • Hellraiser TV series may be on the way: Producers Roy Lee and Dan Farah, who have worked on IT and Ready Player One respectively, have made a deal to secure the TV rights to the Hellraiser franchise.  They’ll work with the current rights holders and are looking to bring Pinhead and the rest of the gang to the small screen, possibly as an anthology series or as a narrative continuation of the films, with elements of Clive Barker’s The Hellbound Heart as well.
  • Melissa McCarthy in talks for Ursula in live action Little Mermaid: With the continued massive success of the Disney live-action reboots, The Little Mermaid is one of the many coming in the near future and Melissa McCarthy is in talks to play the evil sea witch Ursula.  Rob Marshall, who recently directed Mary Poppins Returns, is directing and Al Menken and Lin-Manuel Miranda are creating new songs to go along with all the songs from the original animated movie.
  • USA developing a pilot based on Masters of Doom: USA is developing a pilot based on the book Masters of Doom, which detailed the development of Doom and Quake by John Carmack and John Romero and how they eventually went their separate ways.  USA is hoping this would be the first in an anthology series detailing other stories from the history of games.
  • Millie Bobby Brown and Henry Cavill starring in Enola Holmes movie: Stranger Things star is starring in Enola Holmes, a new spin on the Sherlock Holmes mythology based on a series of books.  Enola is Sherlock’s younger sister, who is equally great at solving crimes.  Brown will play Enola and Henry Cavill will play Sherlock while Helena Bonham Carter will play Enola’s mother.
  • More Bill and Ted 3 casting: The cast keeps expanding for the upcoming Bill and Ted sequel as Beck Bennett from SNL has been cast as Ted’s younger brother Deacon while Amy Stoch and Hal Landon Jr will return as Missy and Chet Logan from the first two films.
  • Seinfeld Experience coming to NYC: To celebrate the show’s 30th anniversary, the immersive Seinfeld Experience will be opening in NYC this fall.  The exhibit will feature behind the scenes photos, props and meticulously recreated sets, like Jerry’s apartment.  There’s no date yet but it will be in the Gramercy neighborhood of Manhattan.
  • Final Fantasy XIV live-action TV series in development: The MMO Final Fantasy XIV is coming to a TV near you as a live-action TV series is in development.  The same production company behind The Expanse and The Witcher, Hivemind, is behind the series along with Sony Television and will tell an original story in the game’s world of Eorzea with “iconic hallmarks” of the Final Fantasy series, like Cid and Chocobos, appearing in the show.
  • Castle Freak remake in development: Full Moon and Fangoria are teaming up to remake Stuart Gordon’s 90s Lovecraftian horror movie, Castle Freak.  Full Moon’s Charles Band had made a fake poster for a movie called Castle Freak and Stuart Gordon was interested in making it and Band let him do whatever he wanted as long it had both a castle and a freak.  Gordon continued his Lovecraftian adaptations by loosely adapting The Outsider.  The remake will follow a group of friends who travel to Albania to help their blind friend Rebecca take possession of a castle she inherited but they discover dark and cosmic secrets within.
  • RIP Billy Drago: Villain character actor Billy Drago passed away this week at age 73.  Drago appeared in movies like The Untouchables, Delta Force 2, The Hills Have Eyes remake and on shows like Charmed, usually playing some sort of villain.
  • Salma Hayek may join The Eternals: The mysterious and cosmic new MCU movie The Eternals continues to build, or at least is looking at casting, an insane cast and Salma Hayek may be the latest to join.  Angelina Jolie, Kumail Nanjiani and Richard Madden were previously cast and Marvel is apparently looking to cast Hayek as well.  This may also be the movie that brings Keanu into the MCU. Chloe Zhao, who directed The Rider, is directing the movie, which follows the Eternals, a group of ancient humans that were enhanced by the Celestials millions of years ago.
  • The Beach prequel series is in the works: Making the rounds promoting Yesterday, Danny Boyle said he’s developing a prequel to his 2000 movie The Beach.  The movie starred Leonardo DiCaprio as a backpacker who uncovers a seemingly utopian society living on a gorgeous beach in Thailand and the TV show would be set in modern times but follow the same character Leo played.
  • Myst getting a movie and TV series: Iconic 90s PC game Myst has both a movie and TV show in development.  Village Roadshow Entertainment Group has gotten both the film and TV rights to the game and is looking to develop multiple projects, including possibly some sort of reality show/competition, as they said both “scripted and unscripted” projects.  A reality show where people have to travel around an island solving puzzles might actually be kind of cool.
  • Deadly Class officially dead: After being canceled by SyFy, Deadly Class has failed to find a new home and is 100% dead.  The show was based on the Rick Remender comic series about a secret school that trains future criminals and assassins.  The comic is still going, so if you’re curious about what happens following the show’s finale cliffhanger, you can head to your local comic shop.
  • The Office leaving Netflix in 2021: Netflix suffered a major blow in the streaming wars as NBC is pulling The Office from the service in 2021 for their NBCUniversal streaming app.  NBC bought the streaming rights for $500 million, or $100 million per year for 5 years, outbidding Netflix’s attempt to keep the rights by $10 million a year.  The Office is one of the, if not the most, watched content on Netflix.
  • American Horror Story 1984 gets a premiere date: The newest season of American Horror Story is coming on September 18th this fall.  The new series is subtitled 1984 and is a parody/homage to 80s slasher movies.
  • Zachary Levi starring in new spy action/comedy movie: Zachary Levi is returning to the world of comedic espionage in a new movie called Spy Guys that is being produced by The Lonely Island.  John Tomsic, who directed Tag, is directing the movie and follows a Levi as a Jason Bourne/James Bond style spy who has to get help while on a mission from his idiotic college friends.
  • Good Morning, Midnight coming to Netflix from George Clooney: Netflix is getting a new sci-fi movie directed by and starring George Clooney called Good Morning, Midnight.  The movie is based on a novel by Lily Brooks-Dalton and is set in a post-apocalyptic Earth where a lonely scientist in the Arctic is trying to contact the crew of astronauts who are returning from a mission in deep space.
  • Taika Waititi developing an animated Flash Gordon movie for Disney: Taika Waititi is putting his spin on the classic pulp sci-fi hero Flash Gordon for Disney in a new animated movie.  It seems like right now Taika is just trying to figure out a good take on the character but it’s not clear if he will get involved any deeper, like writing or directing.  It’s not clear if it will be a serious return to the 30s comics or if it will be more in line with the beloved camp classic 80s movie version.
  • Third 28 *blank* Later movie still in development: Along with the aforementioned news about The Beach prequel, Danny Boyle also confirmed they are still working on a third film in the 28 Days/Weeks later series.  Boyle has been working with Alex Garland, who wrote 28 Days Later and has since directed Ex Machina and Annihilation.  The duo worked on the first film but neither were involved with the sequel, 28 Weeks Later.
  • New Scooby Doo series has the team joining literally everyone: A new Scooby-Doo cartoon is in the works called Scooby-Doo and Guess Who and it will find the Mystery Incorporated gang literally teaming up with anyone and everyone.  Sherlock Holmes, Batman, Ricky Gervais, Houston Rockets point guard Chris Paul and mother effing Steve Urkel are some of the real and fictional characters the gang will team with to solve mysteries.  The new series will air on Boomerang’s streaming service.
  • Paul Rudd joins Ghostbusters 2020: Paul Rudd announced in a video this week that he is joining the cast of Ghostbusters 2020, next summer’s sequel to the first two Ghostbusters films.  It’s not clear who Rudd will play but the movie is following a younger group of teens that become the Ghostbusters with some help from the previous team.  Finn Wolfhard, McKenna Grace and Carrie Coon are co-starring and Sigourney Weaver confirmed she will return as Dana Barrett with Bill Murray, Ernie Hudson and Dan Aykroyd expected to appear as well.

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