News Shotgun 4/13
- Robert Rodriguez looking to cast Michelle Williams and Mel Gibson for “Machete Kills”: Rodriguez is gearing up for the sequel to Machete and he revealed that he is looking to possibly cast Michelle Williams and Mel Gibson for “Machete Kills”. Mel Gibson seems like a good choice for the batshit insanity that goes on in the Machete universe but Michelle Williams is a really weird choice. The story of Machete Kills finds Danny Trejo’s Machete getting recruited by the US Government to head into Mexico and stop the deadly pairing of a cartel leader and arms dealer who want to use a space weapon to start a new world war.
- Sin City 2 “A Dame to Kill For” on the way: Shooting will begin this Summer for the sequel to Robert Rodriguez’s Sin City, which will be co-directed by Frank Miller and Rodriguez. The movie will be based on the “A Dame to Kill For” storyline, which focuses mainly on Dwight McCarthy, played by Clive Owen in the first Sin City. Miller said that much of the original cast will be returning and additional casting is starting next week.
- AMC developing “Thief of Thieves” comic into a series: The Walking Dead was a massive success for AMC so it’s logical that they would probably see what else Robert Kirkman has up his sleeve. One of his other series, Thief of Thieves, is now being developed for a future AMC series. The comic follows a veteran thief who only steals what has already been stolen by other thieves.
- Sabrina the Teenage Witch turning into a superhero movie: Most of us probably have varying degrees of fondness for the Sabrina TGIF show with Melissa Joan Hart but there’s a apparently a new movie version in the works from Sony. The movie will be slightly more serious and more in line with a superhero movie, with Sabrina discovering her powers and learning how to use them for the greater good. The basic premise of her living with her aunts and wise cracking cat Salem are still intact. Mark Waters, director of Mean Girls, could direct this new Sabrina.
- New Short Circuit remake details: A new version of the 80’s classic, Short Circuit, has been in development for a while but new details came out this week, among them, that the new Johnny 5 will befriend a slightly younger girl than in the original, the new Short Circuit will be a family friendly comedy and that it will focus on the Iraq and Afghanistan conflict’s use of robotics by the US military.
- Gary Ross out for Catching Fire: The Hunger Games sequels are definitely on the way as the pile of money it’s making continues to grow larger and larger. It was unclear whether director Gary Ross would be back for the sequel, Catching Fire, but this week it was confirmed that he definitely will not be returning. A possible shortlist for new directors includes Alfonso Cuaron, director of arguably the best Harry Potter movie, and, weirdly, David Cronenberg.
- Another “Die Hard in the White House” movie on the way: Last week we reported that Roland Emmerich was directing a “Die Hard in the White House” style movie called “White House Down”. Now there’s a similar movie on the way from Training Day director Antoine Fuqua called “Olympus has Fallen”. There’s slightly more details for the plot with a Secret Service agent being the only hope after a group of terrorists take over the White House. Gerard Butler is the possible lead.
- Jaws coming to Blu Ray in August: Following on the heels of Jurassic Park and preceding the Indiana Jones quadrilogy, another Spielberg classic is making it’s blu ray debut in August. Jaws will arrive in a two disc Blu Ray/DVD combo pack and include a bunch of special features, including one about the conversion process and a new documentary with never before seen interviews with Spielberg, Richard Dreyfuss and Roy Scheider.
- The Dark Knight Rises rated PG-13: Not surprising
- Ben Kingsley most likely going to be the villain of Iron Man 3: The Avengers is out in a few weeks but the next installments in the individual series are getting underway. The next Iron Man will feature Ben Kingsley as the main villain, who that villain is has yet to be announced. It has to be the Mandarin, right?