News Shotgun 2/15
- New All Quiet on the Western Front adaptation in development: With 1917 racking up awards and box office money, World War I is hot again and a new version of the literary classic All Quiet on the Western Front is in development. Edward Berger, who recently directed episodes of The Terror and Patrick Melrose, will direct and Daniel Bruhl will star.
- Masters of the Universe: Revelation cast revealed: Kevin Smith has assembled an insane cast for his continuation of the iconic 80s cartoon Masters of the Universe with Mark Hamill starring as Skeletor, battling Chris Wood as He-Man. The cast also includes Kevin Conroy, Lena Headey, Liam Cunningham, Diedrich Bader, Sarah Michelle Gellar, Phil LaMarr, Henry Rollins, Stephen Root, Griffin Newman, Alicia Silverstone and somehow even more. The show will pick up where the 80s cartoon left off and continue the story of He-Man and his battle against Skeletor.
- Godzilla Monopoly and Jenga on the way: The King of the Monsters is coming to your tabletop soon with new Monopoly and Jenga games featuring the big G. Monopoly will see you buying iconic properties from Godzilla history, like Monster Island and Goro’s Workshop and the pewter pieces will be monsters like Godzilla, Mothra, Rodan, and Ghidorah. Jenga will feature the same gameplay but with a timer of Godzilla moving closer to the tower with every turn. Both games will be out in the spring.
- Crossfire video game adaptation in the works: Sony is developing a movie based on the extremely popular, free to play FPS Crossfire. Although eclipsed by Call of Duty in the US, Crossfire is massive in countries like China and South Korea with 1 billion players worldwide. Chuck Hogan, the writer of The Strain and 13 Hours, is writing the script and Fast & Furious producer Neal H. Moritz is producing.
- Universal Studios getting Classic Monsters Land: The massive “Epic Universe” park that is coming to Universal Studios Orlando is getting another themed land alongside Fantastic Beasts, How to Train Your Dragon and Nintendo with a Universal Monsters area. The area will be themed like a European village with Castle Frankenstein and the iconic windmill looming over everything. The area will feature at least two attractions, including a dark ride featuring all the Monsters. The park is expected to open in 2023.
- Vertical orientation movie in development: Hollywood seems to be obsessed with appealing to the kids, who apparently all watch videos in vertical orientation on their phones. Quibi is launching soon and this week it was revealed that director Timur Bekmambetov is developing a full-length film in the format. Bekmambetov has been experimenting with film format in recent years, he produced Hardcore Henry and also was a driving force in the “screenlife” genre that brought us movies like Unfriended and Searching. This new vertical movie will be V2: Escape from Hell, which will follow a captured Soviet pilot in World War 2 who leads an escape from a German concentration camp by hijacking an aircraft.
- Emilio Estevez returning of Mighty Ducks Disney+ series: Emilio Estevez is returning as coach Gordon Bombay for a Mighty Ducks sequel series that is coming to Disney+. Lauren Graham was cast to co-star and the new series as the somewhat unusual premise of the Ducks being the villains now, having in the years since the original trilogy, becoming a powerhouse Minnesota youth hockey dynasty. Graham’s son is cut from the team so she gathers a team of misfits and enlists Gordon to build a new team to take down the Ducks.
- Aladdin sequel in the works: Guy Ritchie’s live-action Aladdin remake was a massive hit last year, making over $1 billion worldwide and Disney is developing a sequel. Details are scarce and there is no confirmation if Ritchie, Will Smith, Mena Massoud or Naomi Scott will be back but they will all get offers when the script is complete. The new movie will be an original story, not based on either of the previous Aladdin animated sequels.
- Rick Moranis coming out of retirement for Honey I Shrunk the Kids series: Retired from acting on camera since 1997, the great Rick Moranis is finally coming back for the upcoming Disney+ sequel to Honey I Shrunk the Kids, Shrunk. Moranis will reprise his role as inventor Wayne Szalinski and Josh Gad will play his grown son Nick, who has invented his own shrink ray but accidentally shrinks his own kids. Joe Johnston, the director of the original movie, is back to direct this sequel.
- Mysterious Sony/Marvel movie scheduled for 2021: Sony and Marvel have a mysterious project that is coming October 8th next year. There are no indications of what this could be but Sony has had several non-Spider-Man Spider-Man movies in the works, like a Kraven movie, a Silver Sable movie, a Black Cat movie, and a Silk movie and this could be any of those or something completely out of left field. Venom 2 and Morbius are both this year, with the latter confirmed to be definitively set in the MCU.
- Disney increases ticket prices for Disneyland and Disney World: You’ll have to save even more if you are planning a Disney vacation, as the price of tickets is increasing at both US parks. There is a new five-tiered system with the cheapest ticket being a 1 day, 1 park ticket for $104 going to a five-day Park Hopper ticket that is $415, none of which include the additional cost for a Max Pass and other add-ons. Annual passes also saw a significant price hike.
- Clue remake gets a director: The remake of Clue starring Ryan Reynolds now has a director in Muppets director James Bobin. Jason Bateman was going to direct but the schedule conflicted with Ozark, so he had to drop out. The script was written by Reynolds’ go-to team of Rhett Reese and Paul Wernick but so far Reynolds is the only name attached and it’s not clear how closely or how much it will differ from the 80s comedy classic that it’s following.
- Neopets getting an animated series: The late 90s/early 00s web sensation Neopets could be getting an animated series. Blue Ant Media and Beach House Pictures are developing the series, although it’s not clear what the show would be about. The site is currently still running under JumpStart Games, which was purchased by Chinese company NetDragon.
- Josh Peck starring in Turner & Hooch Disney+ series: Disney+ is turning the Tom Hanks “classic”(?) Turner and Hooch into a rebooted series and Josh Peck will US Marshall Scott Turner who inherits the big, lovable but unruly dog Hooch after the death of a friend. Matt Nix, the creator of Burn Notice, is producing the 12 episode first season.
- CSI revival may be in development: Revival event series are all the rage currently and CBS may be looking to get into the action with a CSI event series that could bring back the cast of the original incarnation. The series is celebrating its 20th anniversary this year and CBS is considering a new event series that would be a sequel to the original version and they may have already approached William Petersen and Jorja Fox. The original series got a finale movie in 2015 that was supposed to have wrapped up the story of the Las Vegas CSI unit.
- Stallone teaming with Michael Bay for a new movie: Sly Stallone is teaming with Michael Bay for an upcoming action movie called Little America. Inspired by Escape from New York, the movie would follow Stallone as a former Army Ranger who is sent into the “Little America” section of Hong Kong, where the survivors of a collapsed and forgotten US have fled to. A billionaire’s daughter goes missing in that area and Stallone has to find her. Bay is just producing the movie, which will be directed and written by Rowan Athale, who has directed movies like Strange but True and Wasteland.
- Cassian Andor series shooting this year: While Obi-Wan is delayed and the wait is on for more Mandalorian, the other Star Wars Disney+ series will start shooting this year according to its star Diego Luna. The Cassian Andor series will start shooting this year and arrive sometime in 2021 and it follows Cassian on his missions before Rogue One for the fledgling Rebellion.