News Shotgun 7/10
- Ben Affleck will star and direct in a Batman solo movie: Geoff Johns will co-write the script but it’s not clear where it will fit in the DC movie schedule. Affleck is also directing the movie Live By Night.
- Wesley Snipes talked to Marvel about more Blade: During an interview for “The Player”, Wesley Snipes mentioned he’s had a meeting with Marvel discussing possibly returning for more Blade. The rights to Blade reverted back to Marvel in the last year or two but they have not done anything with the Daywalker as of yet.
- RIP Irwin Keyes: Character actor Irwin Keyes died at age 63 this week. Keyes was known for roles in movies like The Warriors and House of 1000 Corpses.
- Iron Giant returning to theaters: Brad Bird’s animated classic is returning to select theaters this fall with a remastered version that will include two new scenes. The screenings will be on Sept 30th and October 4th.
- Back to the Future getting a comic book series: The adventures of Doc Brown and Marty will continue with a new IDW series. Bob Gale will offer suggestions for stories and the first issue will chronicle the first meeting of Doc and Marty in 1982 and the second issue will fill out some backstory for Doc. The series starts in October.
- Marisa Tomei will be Aunt May in new Spider-Man: The Oscar winner will be the aunt to Tom Holland’s Peter Parker in the first standalone Spider-Man movie that is part of the Marvel/Sony collaboration. The movie is set for July 2017.
- South Park renewed for three more seasons: The boys will be on Comedy Central for three more seasons with the new renewal deal between the network and Matt Parker and Trey Stone. The Hulu deal was also renewed as well, so all previous episodes plus the new episodes will be available on the streaming site.
- Star Wars news: Disney dropped some Star Wars news before SDCC this weekend, debuting the official Star Wars app for Android and iOS, revealed that Phil Lord and Chris Miller will direct a spin-off Han Solo movie and that Darth Vader will be featured in Star Wars: Rogue One.
- Happytime Murders back in production: Rumored and teased for years, Brian Henson, son of the legendary Jim, is getting the chance to direct his dark noir Muppet movie, The Happytime Murders. A human and Muppet detective team up when a serial killer starts killing the cast members of the 80’s puppet show, Happytime Greg.
- New James Bond comic series coming from Dynamite: Dynamite Comics have gotten the rights to adapt the 14 original James Bond novels as well as tell prequel stories set before Casino Royale. Warren Ellis will write the new series and it arrives in November.
- Netflix and Amazon have passed on Hannibal: More bad news for Fannibals this week as both Netflix and Amazon have passed on picking up Hannibal for a fourth season. Chances of it getting picked up are extremely slimmed now but we should hopefully get some confirmation one way or another at the Hannibal panel this weekend at Comic Con.
- Ghostbusters cast gets filled out: Paul Feig’s Ghostbusters reboot has added more cast members this week with comedian Neil Casey joining as the main villain and Michael K. Williams, Andy Garcia and Matt Walsh have joined the movie as well.
- Game of Thrones Risk coming soon: You’ll be able to wage war in Westeros soon with the new version of Risk themed to Game of Thrones. The game features both a two player map that features the lands of Essos and the main map features the main continent of Westeros. There are special character cards that give the players special abilities and gold coins are also in play that allow bonus armies to be purchased. The game arrives August.
- Disney developing a live action Prince Charming movie: Disney picked up a script from Matt Fogel that will follow the prince from Sleeping Beauty. It’s not really clear where Disney is going to go with it but it most likely be in the vein of Maleficent but probably slightly more humorous.
- Guardians of the Galaxy animated series gets release date: The Disney XD version of the Marvel team will arrive on September 26th, with Will Friedle starring as Peter Quill.
- The Marvel Experience cancelled: The travelling, interactive exhibit has been cancelled after only hitting a few of the cities on it’s tour. No reason for the cancelling was given and refunds will be given to those who pre-ordered tickets.
- Daredevil casts Elektra for Season 2: Elodie Yung, who played Jinx in GI Joe: Retaliation, will play ninja assassin Elektra in the upcoming second season of Daredevil, which will also feature Jon Bernthal as The Punisher.
- Release dates for Netflix Original Movies revealed: The dates for four of Netflix’s original movies were revealed this week with the Idris Elba starring “Beasts of No Nation” arriving on October 16th, The Ridiculous Six arriving on December 11th, Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon: The Green Legend arrving in Early 2016 and Pee Wee’s Big Holiday arriving in March 2016.
- Harry Shearer returns to The Simpsons: After seemingly ending his time on the show earlier this year, Harry Shearer will return to voice Ned Flanders, Principal Skinner, Mr. Burns and more for the next few seasons. Shearer will receive $300,000 an episode.
- A James Bond musical is in the works: Merry Saltzman, the daughter of James Bond producer Harry Saltzman, is working on developing a musical version of 007 that is hoped to debut in either Las Vegas or on Broadway. The musical will supposedly feature several classic Bond villains, along with a few new ones and also feature an original Bond girl. The goal is to debut it in 2017.
- Chewbacca getting his own comic series: Following Darth Vader, Lando and Princess Leia, Chewbacca is getting his own Marvel series that will find Chewie, shortly after A New Hope, on a strange planet as part of a secret mission for the Rebellion.
- New Transformers series coming to Machinima: Aimed at the older Transformers fan base, a new Machinima series called “Combiner Wars” will debut on the web platform later this year. The plot is based around the various teams of robots who combine into giant robots and there seems to be a team of “Combiner Hunters” that includes Arcee, Chromia and Windblade, who are looking to take them down.