News Shotgun 8/31
- Andy Muschietti the new Flash director: The Flash movie has been one of several projects over at DC/WB that has been languishing but the latest director to try and get things on track is IT director Andy Muschietti. The news out of the studio about some of the things causing the delays is that star Ezra Miller wants a “darker” take on the story, which most recently clashed with writers John Francis Daley and Johnathan Goldstein, who were specifically hired to add levity. Muschietti will apparently be using a script by Bumblebee writer Christina Hodson.
- Castle Rock Season 2 gets a release date: Return to the world of Stephen King on Hulu on October 23rd when Season 2 of Castle Rock begins. Lizzy Caplan is starring as a version of Misery antagonist Annie Wilkes, who is a “nurse dealing with mental issues who becomes trapped in Castle Rock” and Tim Robbins is co-starring as Reginal “Pop” Merrill, a character from the short story The Sun Dog and is the “dying head of the Merrill crime family”. Paul Sparks and Elsie Fisher also co-star.
- Youtube drops premium paywall: Youtube has dropped their premium paywall for a number of their original shows, including Cobra Kai. The first season of Cobra Kai is available for free (with ads) for a limited time and Season 2 will be available on September 11th. Anything new after September 24th will be available for free with ads as well, with users who pay for premium getting ad-free experiences as well as being able to binge entire seasons. Non-premium members will have to wait for each episode of shows to be added weekly.
- Ghostbusters returning to theaters with never before seen footage: Ghostbusters is coming back to theaters for its 35th anniversary for a special Fathom on October 6th and 10th. There will be newly unearthed and never before seen footage shown during the screening, including bloopers and alternate takes.
- Metro 2033 getting a movie adaptation: The novel series turned video game series Metro 2033 is getting a movie adaptation with the rights acquired by Russia’s Gazprom Media. The movie is based on the original trilogy of books, which is set in Moscow following a nuclear war. The survivors live underground in the old subway system and new societies form in the tunnels, battling each other and strange creatures for survival.
- 16-bit Aladdin and Lion King games getting remastered: The 16-bit Disney classics Aladdin and The Lion King are coming back in a newly remastered collection. The collection is coming to PS4, Switch, Xbox One, and PC and includes the Genesis version of both games along with Game Boy versions of both games, the original trade show demo of Aladdin and a “final cut” version and the SNES version of The Lion King. The SNES version of Aladdin is notably missing and was a completely different game from the Genesis version, created by Capcom. The games will let you rewind and there will also be a full playthrough video that you can scroll through and jump into to control at any point. The game will be released on October 29th.
- Mortal Kombat casting: The new Mortal Kombat movie continues to build up its roster of characters with more additions announced this week. The amazing Hiroyuki Sanada is playing Scorpion with Chin Han playing the villainous Shang Tsung. Australian actress Jessica McNamee was cast as Sonya Blade and Josh Lawson was cast as Kano. Lewis Tan was also cast but his role is currently unknown. The movie is looking at a March 2021 release.
- Michael Bay signs on to a new movie: Bayhem propagator Michael Bay has signed on to a new movie called Black 5 over at Sony. There is basically no information besides the fact that, shockingly, it will be a mega action movie like most of his catalog. Bay is currently wrapping up Six Underground, an action-heist movie for Netflix that stars Ryan Reynolds.
- Taika Waititi in talks to join The Suicide Squad: Thor director Taika Waititi may be joining his fellow MCU director in crossing company lines, as he’s in talks for a role in James Gunn’s The Suicide Squad. It’s not clear who he would be playing or how big a role it would be.
- The Irishman gets a release date: Arguably the biggest and most anticipated Netflix movie ever so far, Martin Scorsese’s The Irishman is arriving on the service on November 27th after a run in select theaters starting on November 1st. The word on the street is also that the movie is also going to be 3 1/2 hours long.
- New Spider-Man cartoon coming to Disney Junior: Spidey is coming to Disney Junior to turn preschoolers into Marvel Zombies with a new cartoon called Spidey and His Amazing Friends. Although obviously a homage to the classic cartoon from the 80s, the new show will feature Spider-Man, Spider-Gwen and Miles Morales teaming up to fight various villains and give lessons on teamwork. The series will debut in 2021.
- Halloween Kills casts Tommy Doyle: Another character from Halloweens past is coming back to the rebooted series as Anthony Michael Hall has been cast as Tommy Doyle. Tommy was the kid Laurie babysat in the first Halloween and then proceeded to face off against Michael Myers in later entries, like Curse of Michael Myers, and was notably played by Paul Rudd. Curse was wiped out along with all of the other movies besides the first with last year’s rebootquel, so it’s not clear what Tommy has been up to since the first Halloween. Halloween Kills is coming next year with David Gordon Green back to direct and co-wrote again with Danny McBride and Jamie Lee Curtis, Judy Greer, and Andi Matichak are coming back as well.
- Disney+ offering 4K and Dolby Atmos for free: In another stab into the gut of Netflix, Disney+ was announced this week to include features like HDR 4K video and Dolby Atmos included with the normal subscription price. Netflix requires their highest plan, which is $15.99 a month, for 4K streaming. Disney+ is going to be $6.99 a month or you can bundle with Hulu and ESPN+ for $12.99 a month.
- EPCOT getting completely overhauled: The EPCOT you have known and loved is going to be gone, as the park is getting a massive overhaul that was revealed at D23 last weekend. The World Showcase is staying relatively the same, although the UK pavilion is getting a Mary Poppins ride. The front part of the park is being divided into three new sections called World Discovery, World Celebration and World Nature and there are massive changes coming in the form of new attractions or revamps of old ones. The symbol of the park, Spaceship Earth, is getting completely redone, with a new ride inside and there will be a three-tiered park/event space located in front of it. A Guardians of the Galaxy roller coaster and a Moana nature walk are also coming to the park.