News Shotgun 12/21
- Blowfish Studios developing Valiant Comics games: Comics publisher Valiant Comics has teamed with indie games developer Blowfish Studios to develop games featuring their comic characters. Valiant was actually owned by Acclaim back in the 90s, which resulted in games like Iron Man and X-O Manowar in Heavy Metal but hopefully, these new games will be better than those.
- Epix developing Jerusalem’s Lot Stephen King prequel: Epix is getting into the Stephen King game with Jerusalem’s Lot, a prequel to the Stephen King novel Salem’s Lot. The fictional town is similar to Castle Rock with a dark history and in the novel, a writer moves to the town and discovers the residents are all turning into vampires. The prequel will star Adrian Brody and it’s set in 1850 when a ship captain relocates with his three children to the town when his wife dies at sea.
- Jackass 4 in the works: Paramount is gathering the Jackass crew back together for a fourth movie on the big screen. The last proper Jackass movie was Jackass 3D in 2010 but there have been Bad Grandpa and Action Point that have featured Johnny Knoxville and had the same style and attitude.
- Star Trek Picard renewed for Season 2: Ahead of its debut on January 23rd, Star Trek Picard has already been renewed for a second season. The series brings back Patrick Stewart at the iconic Jean Luc Picard as he comes out of quiet retirement to help a young girl who is trouble and heads back to space.
- Legends of Hidden Temple reboot in the works: The classic Nickelodeon game show Legends of the Hidden Temple is coming back with on the upcoming mobile streaming service Quibi. The new series will feature adults taking on the iconic challenges, like the moat challenge and the temple run and Olmec will return as well but the whole show will be set in an actual jungle. No word on if host Kirk Fogg will return.
- HBO developing an adaptation of Snow Crash: HBO is getting into the cyberpunk genre with an adaptation of Neal Stephenson’s Snow Crash for the upcoming HBO Max streaming service. Joe Cornish, of Attack the Block and The Kid Who Would Be King, is behind the series, which follows a pizza delivery guy and hacker who lives in a future where most people live in virtual reality. He discovers there is a nefarious plot to fry people’s brains with a visual virus and races to try and stop it.
- Orlando Jones fired from American Gods: American Gods has had a rough time behind the scenes basically since the beginning and the latest drama is that Orlando Jones was unceremoniously fired from the series in September of this year. Jones said that the new showrunner (the show’s third showrunner in three seasons) wasn’t on-board with the fiery and political Mr. Nancy character, although the production company behind the series, Fremantle, has said the reasoning was that they didn’t pick up Jones’ option because the portion of the novel they are adapting for the new season does not have Mr. Nancy in it. Jones also alleged that he had to basically write all the dialogue for the POC on the show for season 2.
- New He-Man series coming to Netflix: Earlier this year, it was announced that Kevin Smith was developing a sequel series to the original Masters of the Universe and now Netflix has announced they are also developing a brand new reboot series called He-Man and the Masters of the Universe. The new show will be CG animated and feature “fresh takes” on the characters.
- Daybreak canceled at Netflix: Speaking of Netflix, they have canceled their post-apocalyptic series Daybreak after one season. The series debuted in October based on a comic by Brian Ralph and followed a group of teens in a post-apocalyptic world trying to survive.
- Blumhouse developing a new Firestarter: Blumhouse is bringing back Stephen King’s pyrokinetic horror story Firestarter for a new movie. Keith Thomas, director of The Vigil, will be directing the new Firestarter, which was originally turned into a film in 1984 with Drew Barrymore and follows a young girl who develops pyrokinesis, the ability to create and control fire, who is taken to a secret government facility to be turned into a weapon.
- David Ayer directing a Dirty Dozen remake: David Ayer is putting his signature gritty and dramatic spin on the classic war movie The Dirty Dozen with a new remake from Warner Bros. The original movie hit in 1967 and featured, among others, Lee Marvin, Ernest Borgnine, Charles Bronson, Jim Brown, and John Cassavetes in the starring roles as Army prisoners in World War II who are tasked with attacking a French compound that is housing German troops. The word on who any of the Dozen will be yet.
- Disney+ is getting a Turner & Hooch series: One of the offerings that were up day one on Disney+ was the Tom Hanks comedy Turner & Hooch where Hanks plays a cop whose partner is murdered. Hanks inherits his partner’s dog Hooch, who seemingly may be a key clue to solve the murder. Burn Notice creator Matt Nix is behind the new series that will be based on the movie and it seems like it will be a reboot of the premise, as opposed to a prequel or sequel to the series.