News Shotgun 12/19
- Sony cancels all screenings of The Interview: In the wake of their massive e-mail leak and threats of terror acts against theaters that were planning on showing the movie next week, Sony has cancelled all screenings of the Seth Rogen/James Franco comedy and there are no current plans for it to be released any time in the near future.
- The Fly getting a comic sequel: In what seems to be the trend recently, David Cronenberg’s The Fly is getting a sequel in comic form from IDW called The Fly: Outbreak. The series will begin in 2015 and follow the son of Jeff Goldblum and Geena Davis, who tries to continue his father’s work.
- David Fincher directing an 80’s music video show for HBO: Fincher will direct the pilot for a new half hour HBO show called Living on Noise, which will be set in the 80’s in the world of music videos and follow the directors and crews who created them.
- Telltale teaming with Mojang for a new game series: Telltale’s next project is a collaboration with Mojang, the company behind Minecraft, for a new game series called Minecraft: Story Mode, which will debut sometime next year.
- Mark Wahlberg returning for Transformers 5: Cade Yaeger, the world’s greatest jock/nerd inventor, will return in the next Transformers movie, most likely coming in 2016. Michael Bay will not be returning to the series so there’s a chance it will actually not be three hour assault on good taste and logic like the last few movies in the series.
- Viola Davis close to signing onto Suicide Squad: Latino Review reported this week that Viola Davis is apparently finalizing a deal with Warner Bros to appear as handler of the Suicide Squad, Amanda Waller, in the movie hitting in 2016.
- Walking Dead spin-off set in LA: The Walking Dead spin-off, Cobalt, will be set in LA according to AMC. The Walking Dead also set new ratings records and defeated Sunday Night Football on NBC in 5 out of the 8 weeks it was on this past half season. The NFL has been the dominant program on Sundays for the last 27 years and The Walking Dead is the first series to defeat it.
- Jeff Nichols may direct Aquaman: Although star Jason Momoa was thinking Zack Snyder as the director of a solo Aquaman movie, it seems Jeff Nichols, the director of indie films like Take Shelter and Mud, may be in talks to direct the film. A solo Aquaman movie is set for 2018
- Universal rebooting Miami Vice: Universal is apparently taking pitches from screenwriters for a new movie version of the classic 80’s show, Miami Vice. The most recent take on the show was Michael Mann’s gritty reboot starring Colin Farrell and Jamie Foxx.
- Skull Island now called “Kong: Skull Island”: JK Simmons has also joined Tom Hiddleston in the cast of the King Kong prequel movie coming from Legendary in 2017.
- Robert Rodriguez directing live action remake of Fire & Ice: Rodriguez will reboot the Ralph Bakshi fantasty film for Bold films. The original and new version features a war between two kingdoms that each have power over one of the titular elements.