News Shotgun 1/23
- Beetlejuice 2 might start shooting by end of 2015: Writer Seth Grahame-Smith said in an interview with Entertainment Weekly this week that Beetlejuice 2 is pretty much ready to go, Michael Keaton is on board, Tim Burton is good and it might start shooting by the end of this year, after Burton films Mrs Peregrine Home for Peculiar Children.
- Ronald Reagan factoring into Fargo Season 2: In FX’s upcoming prequel, Ronald Reagan and his first presidential run in 1979 will be a major factor and Patrick Wilson’s Lou Solverson will be assigned to his protection detail while the future president is in South Dakota.
- 24 might continue without Kiefer? Fox wants to try and get more 24 on the air but it could move forward without Jack Bauer. Fox is apparently in constant talks with Kiefer Sutherland but if he decides to not come back, they are working on a contingency plan for a season with a new main character.
- Fox thinking about bringing back The X-Files: Mulder and Scully may return to the small screen as Fox is apparently considering a reboot of the cult sci-fi show. There was talk of a third movie but now it seems like they would be bringing back the show for a new season, similar to how 24 came back last year but X-Files has been off the air for far longer, the final season ended in 2002.
- Louie Season 5 gets premiere date: The fifth season of Louis CK’s critically acclaimed series will arrive on April 5 for an 8 episode season that will be “lighter in tone” than the fourth season.
- Powers arrives on PSN in March: With a little bit of a delay, Sony’s first original PSN series, Powers, will arrive on March 10th with the first three episodes and then new episodes will go up every Tuesday. The show stars Sharlto Copley and Susan Heyward.
- Testing for female lead of next Star Wars movie has started: The next Star Wars movie, which will be one of the character focused stand alone films, has begun testing potential female leads and some of the names in the running include Rooney Mara, Felicity Jones and Tatiana Maslany.
- Marvel ending Ultimate and 616 universes with Secret War: The upcoming massive event from Marvel is apparently going to end the Ultimate and regular 616 Marvel universes as we know them and a new universe will emerge at the end of the event, seemingly similar to what DC did coming out of Flashpoint with the New 52. The new Secret War event is going to feature various versions of characters battling it out in Battleworld.
- Nic Cage starring in Osama Bin Laden commentary: Cage will apparently star as Gary Faulkner, who is a Colorado construction worker who took it upon himself to find and capture Osama Bin Laden and was arrested multiple times for trying to sneak into both Pakistan and Afghanistan. Borat director Larry Charles is directing.
- The Raid 3 is probably at least 3 years away: The next brutal chapter of The Raid series is apparently at least 3 years away, according to a tweet by director Gareth Evans. The main trio of the movies are currently working on The Force Awakens.
- Cookie Monster getting his own special: After killing it with his various movie parody segments, Cookie Monster is getting his own special on PBS called “The Cookie Thief”. The special find Cookie on the run as the main suspect of a massive art theft and Rachel Dratch will co-star. It’s airing the week of February 16th.
- Simon West directing The Blob remake: The Con Air and Expendables 2 director will be directing a new version of the horror classic, The Blob. Filming will start this summer.
- Project Almanac forced to cut controversial scene: One week before release, Project Almanac was forced to remove a scene where there’s brief use of real footage of a B-52 crash from 1994. The families of the pilots killed voiced concerns and Platinum Dunes is editing the scene out of the film.
- Supergirl cast for CBS show: Melissa Benoist, of Glee and most recently Whiplash, has been cast as Kara Zor-El in CBS entry into the comic book TV series arena. Arrow/Flash producer Greg Berlanti will be behind Supergirl as well and there’s been rumors of a crossover between the shows.
- Simon Pegg is co-writing Star Trek 3: Pegg is working with screenwriter Doug Jung to either get a new draft or a completely new script for the third film in the new Star Trek series. The Fast & Furious’ Justin Lin signed on to direct after Roberto Orci left, so hopefully that combo will result in an action packed and funny third entry.
- Suicide Squad rumors: With Tom Hardy out, the latest rumor is that Joel Edgerton may replace him as Rick Flagg and True Blood’s Joe Manganiello may be playing Slade Wilson aka Deathstroke. There’s a rumor that Gary Sinise may join the cast as well as a military higher up.
- Hateful Eight gets more cast members: Zoe Bell and James Parks have joined Tarantino’s next Western, along with a bunch of supporting actors from Django.
- Ronan won’t be back for Guardians 2: Getting asked numerous times on Twitter and Facebook, director James Gunn hasn’t ruled out Lee Pace returning as Ronan the Accuser but he definitely will not be in Guardians 2.
- Dreamworks closes PDI animation studio: Dreamworks closed their animation studio in Northern California this week and laid off 500 employees. Some of the artists may move to the remaining Glendale studio and the output from Dreamworks has dropped from a planned 3 movies a year to 2 with some like B.O.O (Bureau of Otherwordly Operations) seemingly cancelled.