News Shotgun 12/12
- Andy Serkis’ Jungle Book delayed till 2017: Serkis’ directorial debut, Jungle Book: Origins, will now debut in October 2017 as opposed to October 2016. The movie stars Benedict Cumberbatch, Cate Blanchett and Christian Bale.
- Rebel Wilson and Jennifer Lawrence met with Paul Feig about new Ghostbusters: The all-female Ghostbusters reboot helmed by Bridesmaids director Paul Feig has met with Rebel Wilson and Jennifer Lawrence about possibly joining the cast but things are still far from official.
- Sega putting multiple franchises in development for film and TV: Sega is putting some of their franchises on the track to become films or TV shows, as they’ve hire a company that specializes in doing just that. Some of the titles we may see in the near future are Altered Beast, Streets of Rage, Rise of Nightmares, Golden Axe, Virtual Fighter and Crazy Taxi.
- Gina Carano joins Kickboxer reboot: Carano has joined the cast of the reboot being directed by John Stockwell, who Carano worked with on the direct to DVD action movie, In the Blood. Van Damme, Dave Bautista and Georges St. Pierre will co-star.
- Rick Springfield is in True Detective Season 2: The creator of possibly the greatest song in existence tweeted that he is a part of season 2 of HBO’s True Detective and shot a scene with Colin Farrell and Rachel McAdams, although it’s not clear who he’s playing and how he fits into the plot.
- McDonald’s founder getting “Social Network” style biopic: John Lee Hancock, who previously directed based on true stories Saving Mr. Banks and The Blind Side, will be directing a movie called The Founder, which tells the story of McDonald’s founder Ray Kroc as built a single burger joint in the 50’s into the billion dollar empire it is now. Tom Hanks and Michael Keaton are apparently interested in starring.
- Spectre’s budget apparently tops out over $300 million: One of the many things leaked from Sony’s e-mails is that Spectre’s budget might be topping out close to $300 million but execs want to try to get that cut down by at least $50 million. Skyfall made over a $1 billion on a $200+ million budget.
- Star Wars: The Force Awakens character names revealed: JJ Abrams revealed the names of some of the new characters from The Force Awakens in a set of old school Topps trading cards. Daisy Ridley is Rey, John Boyeaga is Finn, the mysterious Sith is named Kylo Ren, Oscar Issac is Poe Dameron and the soccer ball droid is BB-8.
- Jonathan Frakes wants to direct Star Trek 3: With Roberto Orci recently bailing on the third Star Trek film, the once and future Commander Riker, Jonathan Frakes, wants to step in. Frakes has directed tons of episodes of TV recently, including Burn Notice, Falling Skies and Levarage, and directed First Contact and Insurrection as far as previous Trek movies go.
- More Fargo Season 2 casting: Casting Jeffrey Donovan last week, Fargo season 2 just added Breaking Bad’s Jesse Plemmons and Kirsten Dunst to it’s prequel cast.
- Sony might be considering a 21 Jump St/Men in Black crossover: One of the most insane things revealed from the Sony e-mail apocalypse is that there the idea apparently floating around about bringing new life to the Men in Black series by crossing it over with the wildly popular 21 Jump St series but no solid ideas about how that would possibly work.
- Jason Momoa has four picture deal with WB: Momoa revealed at a recent Brazillian comic con that he has a four picture deal with Warner Bros to play Aquaman in the DC Cinematic Universe. Momoa also revealed that he would want Zack Snyder to direct a solo Aquaman movie.
- SyFy getting a Superman origin show, Krypton: Probably based on the success of Gotham, SyFy is getting a prequel series for Superman called Krypton, set on the titular planet and following Clark’s family, the House of El, years before he was born and the planet died. David S. Goyer is producing.
- Toho developing a new Godzilla movie: Probably seeing the success of Godzilla this past summer, the OG Kaiju studio, Toho, is producing their first Godzilla movie in 12 years and the 29th Godzilla overall for the studio.
- Mark Hamill returning as Trickster on Flash: Originally playing the prankster supervillain on the 90’s Flash series, Mark Hamill will play the character again on The CW, who is locked up in Iron Heights prison but helps Barry catch a copycat Trickster.
- Marvel/Sony had Spider-Man talks: Sony and Marvel did apparently have talks about bringing Spider-Man to the MCU, according to more leaked Sony e-mails. The negotiations apparently stalled for the time being but the increased fan pressure and interest may get them back on track. One of the details is apparently that if Spider-Man does return “home” to Marvel, Andrew Garfield would not be playing him, as Sony would demand a clean break from their established Spider-Man series.