News Shotgun 10/19
- Ben Affleck starring in tornado disaster movie: Former Batman Ben Affleck is starring in an upcoming tornado disaster movie called Falling to Earth. The movie is based on the novel of the same name and the novel is inspired by the actual events of March 1925 when the town of Marah, IL was hit by the worst tornado in US history, the Tri-State Twister, that killed 695 people and left $1.6 billion in damage in its wake.
- Sam Raimi directing a new horror movie: Sam Raimi has spent most of his time recently producing TV and movies but he’s finally returning to directing horror for the first time in 10 years since Drag Me to Hell with an untitled movie that he’s describing as “Castaway meets Misery”. The writers behind the Friday the 13th reboot and Freddy vs Jason have written the script.
- Naomie Harris in talks for Shriek in Venom 2: Venom 2 is adding Shriek in addition to Carnage to take on Tom Hardy’s Eddie Brock and Naomie Harris is apparently in talks to play the psychotic, sound-manipulating villain. It kind of feels like Sony is trying to get as close to Maximum Carnage as they can without Spider-Man, we’ll have to wait and see if characters like Doppelganger show up as well.
- Barney the Dinosaur movie in development: Mattel Films and Get Out star Daniel Kaluuya are apparently teaming up to bring Barney the Dinosaur back to the big screen with a reboot of the 90s childhood favorite. Barney got a movie spin-off from the TV series in 1998 but has been mostly dormant since the final new episodes aired in 2009. Kaluuya’s production company 59% is producing the film with Mattel.
- HBO Max getting entire Studio Ghibli catalog: As all the upcoming and current streaming platforms scramble for content, the upcoming HBO Max has gotten a major addition with the entire Studio Ghibli collection of films. This will be the first time Studio Ghibli’s films will be available to stream and includes classics like Princess Mononoke, Howl’s Moving Castle, Kiki’s Delivery Service, My Neighbor Totoro and more.
- The Batman casting news: Matt Reeves’ The Batman is slowly but surely building up it’s cast and this week it added Paul Dano as The Riddler and Zoe Kravitz as Selina Kyle/Catwoman, who join Robert Pattinson as Batman and Jeffrey Wright as Commissioner Gordon. Jonah Hill has passed on appearing in the movie and the rumor is that he wanted The Riddler part but Matt Reeves wanted him for Penguin.
- AMC Theatres has On-Demand rental service now: AMC Theatres has launched its own On-Demand video rental and purchasing app. The app doesn’t seem too different from services like Vudu and Redbox’s digital arm but they have signed deals with most of the major studios and you can earn AMC Stubs points on each rental if you are an AMC member.
- The Matrix 4 casting: The upcoming Matrix sequel (prequel?) has added a couple of new faces this week with Neil Patrick Harris and Jessica Henwick joining the cast. The roles of both actors were not revealed and the only solid piece of info so far is that Keanu Reeves and Carrie Ann-Moss are back reprising their roles of Neo and Trinity.
- Robert Eggers’s next movie is about Vikings: Robert Eggers’ latest movie, The Lighthouse, is in limited release now but he’s already planning his next project. The Northman will star the Skarsgard brothers, Alexander and Bill, along with Nicole Kidman, Anya Taylor-Joy, and Willem Dafoe and is based on an idea from Alexander Skarsgard that is set in 10th century Iceland and follows a Nordic prince seeking revenge for the death of his father.
- Netflix producing a Bone animated series: Jeff Smith’s beloved comic series Bone is coming to Netflix as an animated series with Smith himself overseeing the project. Bone is considered one of the greatest graphic novels of all time and has won Eisner, Harvey and the French Alph Art awards and follows a trio of cartoonish cousins, the Bones, as they are driven out of their home city of Boneville and find themselves in The Valley, a fantasy land where evil rat creatures and their master are looking to conquer the world.
- Deadpool will remain R rated under Disney: Good news this week for fans of the Merc with a Mouth, Deadpool will be keeping his R rating under Disney, according to co-writer Paul Wernick. It’s not clear when we might see Deadpool again and if he will be fully integrated into the MCU but he will apparently still be as profane and violent as he was under Fox.
- Tony Gilroy writing and directing Cassian Andor series: Along with The Mandalorian, Disney+ is also getting a prequel series to Rogue One featuring Diego Luna’s Cassian Andor (and K2SO) and Tony Gilroy, who wrote the Bourne films in addition to Rogue One, is going to be writing and directing the series. The series will follow Cassian as he and K2SO perform espionage missions for the fledgling Rebel Alliance against the Empire.
- Kevin Feige now CCO of Marvel: Kevin Feige was made the Chief Creative Officer of Marvel and will oversee the direction of Marvel films, TV and comics. Feige was President of Marvel Studios but this promotion basically makes him the bottom line for everything Marvel related.
- The Addams Family 2 confirmed: After its stronger than expected opening last weekend, The Addams Family 2 is coming from MGM and United Artists, with an October 22, 2021 release date. The entire voice cast, including Charlize Theron and Oscar Isaac, is expected to return.
- The Bourne Stuntacular is coming to Universal Florida: Jason Bourne is coming to Orlando as Universal Studios Florida is getting a new live-action stunt show called The Bourne Stuntacular. The show will follow Jason Bourne on a globe-trotting adventure that will feature live stunts and a massive LED screen. The show is taking over the space that was previously used for the Terminator 2 3D movie, which closed in 2017.
- Samara Weaving joins Snake Eyes: The Babysitter and Ready or Not star Samara Weaving has joined the upcoming GI Joe spin-off movie Snake Eyes as Scarlett. Henry Golding was cast as Snake Eyes with Andre Koji, Iko Uwais and Takehiro Hira appearing as well. Robert Schwentke, who directed RED, Insurgent and RIPD, is directing the movie.