News Shotgun 3/15
- Veronica Mars movie Kickstarted: Rob Thomas, creator of the cult show Veronica Mars, put up a Kickstarter project asking for $2 million to fund a movie based on the show. The amount was raised in less than 11 hours and still has around 30 days left in the project. The movie will film this summer for a release next year. Other creators of cult shows, like Shawn Ryan of Terriers, are seriously thinking about projects of their own.
- Colin Trevorrow chosen to direct Jurassic Park 4: Fresh off the indie comedy, Safety Not Guaranteed, director Colin Trevorrow has been selected to direct the next Jurassic Park film. There are still no story details yet but Steven Spielberg will produce.
- Dave Bautista playing Drax the Destroyer: Joining Chris Pratt’s Star Lord in the Guardians of the Galaxy movie is WWE wrestler, Dave Bautista. Bautista has had little roles here and there and his most significant thus far was in last year’s Man with the Iron Fists.
- AMC launches Yeah! streaming service: AMC launched a new online venture this past weekend at SXSW with Yeah!, a movie streaming service that features trivia, games and pop up trivia during the movies. It’s $4.99 to rent the enhanced movies, with a solid initial lineup including Blade Runner, Clerks, The Terminator and The Crow being just a couple of the offerings and they also have non-enhanced films for around $1.99 to rent.
- Sherlock Series 3 filming next week, Series 4 confirmed: Despite their busy schedules, Benedict Cumberbatch and Martin Freeman will be shooting the third season of critically acclaimed series Sherlock next week, with the episodes hopefully debuting late this year. A fourth season of the show was confirmed this week as well.
- Karl Urban set to star in JJ Abrams’ future cop show on Fox: The recent Judge Dredd will be starring in a, still untitled, JJ Abrams show on Fox that follows a pair of cops, one human, one a robot, in a futuristic Los Angeles. Urban will be the human partner while Michael Ealy will play the robot.
- 24 movie not happening: Director Antoine Fuqua, director of Training Day and the upcoming Olympus has Fallen, was long attached to direct the 24 movie but now he says that it is probably “not happening”. Fuqua says that star Keifer Sutherland’s schedule is tied up with Touch and that he and Fox could not get together on salary negotiations. A script has also not really been cemented as of yet, so the project seems less and less likely to happen.
- David Strathairn joins Godzilla: The excellent David Strathairn has joined the already impressive cast of Legendary Pictures’ Godzilla remake. Strathairn, most recently seen in Lincoln and on Alphas, joins Bryan Cranston, Aaron Johnson and Elizabeth Olsen and Monsters director Gareth Edwards is directing.
- Horrible Bosses trio set to return for sequel: Jason Bateman, Charlie Day and Jason Sudeikis are set to return for Horrible Bosses 2, where the trio has a set of new bosses that are making their lives a living hell. Jennifer Anniston and Kevin Spacey might return as well in cameos. Jamie Foxx might also come back.
- Evil Dead 2, Army of Darkness 2 possibly on the way: The new Evil Dead debuted at SXSW to rave reviews this past weekend and it seems like a sequel is already in development. In the original continuity, Sam Raimi may be writing the script for Evil Dead 4 with his brother this summer, which would be considered Army of Darkness 2 and bring back Bruce Campbell.