News Shotgun 1/20
- The Dark Knight returning to theaters for 10th anniversary: The Dark Knight turns 10 this summer and the chain Showcase Cinemas is celebrating early with screenings of the movie on February 8th and 11th. They are an east coast chain and you can see what theaters are showing it here: https://www.showcasecinemas.com/movie/dark-knight
- Chad Stahelski back for John Wick Chapter 3: Director Chad Stahelski is back to direct Keanu Reeves for the third John Wick movie. Laurence Fishburne, Common and Ruby Rose are all back as well and the new villain of the movie will be played by Hiroyuki Sanada, who previously co-starred with Keanu in 47 Ronin.
- Simon Pegg and Nick Frost developing new TV series: The comedic duo are reteaming for a new TV series called Truth Seekers, which follows a three person team investigating paranormal incidents. Frost and Pegg are producing the show under their new production company Stolen Picture but it’s not clear if they will star or even appear on the show.
- The Wizard cast for Shazam movie: The person who gives young Billy Batson his powers has been cast with Ron Cephas Jones, from Luke Cage and This is Us, play The Wizard. Asher Angel is Billy and Zachary Levi is his superpowered alter ego while Mark Strong is the main villain.
- NBC orders pilot for Bad Boys spin-off: NBC has officially ordered a pilot for a Bad Boys spin-off series starring Gabrielle Union. Union will return as Syd Burnett, last seen in Bad Boys II, who leaves the DEA for the LAPD and gets paired up with a character named Nancy McKenna, a detective and working mom, so it seems like they are trying to replicate the Marcus/Mike buddy cop dynamic.
- Gemini Man casting: Ang Lee’s next movie, Gemini Man, has gotten a bunch of casting over the last week or so with Will Smith taking the lead as an assassin named Henry who is being hunted by a younger clone of himself. Clive Owen was cast as the main villain and Mary Elizabeth Winstead was also cast as an operative named Danny who joins forces with Henry.
- TV Cancellations and Renewals: Amazon renewed The Tick but cancelled I Love Dick and Jean Claude Van Johnson, AMC renewed The Walking Dead for season 9, MTV cancelled The Shannara Chronicles, Netflix cancelled Lady Dynamite and Fox/Nat Geo ordered a new season of Neil DeGrasse Tyson’s reboot of Cosmos.
- True Detective adds Scoot McNairy: True Detective Season 3 continues to move forward with Halt and Catch Fire’s Scoot McNairy joining the cast as Tom, “a father who suffers a terrible loss that ties his fate to that of two state police detectives over 10 years.” The show is debuting sometime next year.
- Flashpoint movie gets new directors: After a revolving door of directors coming in and out of the solo Flash movie that seems to be based on the Flashpoint storyline but now John Francis Daley and Jonathan Goldstein have signed on. The duo directed the pretty mediocre Vacation rebootquel and co-wrote Spider-Man: Homecoming.
- Creed 2 casts Ivan Drago’s Son: After a ton of rumors and Stallone Instagram teasing, Creed 2 has finally cast the son of Ivan Drago, with Romanian boxer Florian Munteanu getting the role. Dolph Lundgren is back as Drago and will seemingly be about Adonis getting justice for his father Apollo by beating the son of the man who killed him.
- Monsters TV series in the works: 2010’s Monsters, directed by Godzilla and Rogue One director Gareth Edwards, is being developed into a TV series for the UK’s Channel 4. The movie starred the aforementioned Scoot McNairy and Whitney Able and set in a Mexico that was contaminated and had bizarre creatures growing and evolving within. A sequel came out that no one saw that focused on a military unit dealing with the creatures.