News Shotgun 7/18
- Keanu Reeves writing a comic book: Keanu continues to quest to dominate all media by jumping into the world of comics as he’s writing a comic for Boom! Studios called BRZRKR. Keanu will be co-writing with Matt Kindt and the book follows a character named Bezerker (who has Keanu’s likeness) that is an immortal mercenary who does jobs for the US government in exchange for information about his past and his existence. The title will start in October and will be a 12 issue limited series.
- Falcon and Winter Soldier delayed: The Falcon and The Winter Soldier was supposed to be the first big MCU Disney+ show next month but because of the ongoing pandemic, the final pieces of production were delayed and the series has no current new release date. Anthony Mackie and Sebastian Stan were returning as Sam and Bucky after the events of Endgame as Sam tries to live up to the mantle of Captain America and Baron Zemo (Daniel Bruhl) is somehow back as well along with a new addition to the MCU, Wyatt Russell as US Agent.
- The Russo Brothers coming to Netflix with The Gray Man: Speaking of the MCU, their biggest directors, The Russo Brothers, are heading to Netflix with the biggest Netflix original movie ever, the $200 million budgeted The Gray Man. The movie is an espionage thriller that will star Chris Evans and Ryan Gosling playing a CIA agent and a former CIA agent turned assassin respectively and it’s based on a series of books by Mark Greaney.
- Don Mancini’s Chucky series gets a release date: Although the rebooted Child’s Play was not as terrible as everyone expected it to be, the true Chucky returns next year on both SyFy and USA with the Chucky TV series. Headed up by Chucky mastermind Don Mancini and Channel Zero’s Nick Antosca, the show follows Chucky winding in a garage sale in a small town and causing chaos after he’s unwittingly purchased. Characters from the previous movies, like Jennifer Tilly’s Tiffany, are expected to appear as well.
- Home Alone reboot adds more cast members: Disney+ is getting a reboot of Home Alone as one of its upcoming exclusives with JoJo Rabbit co-star Archie Yates starring and now he’ll be joined by some comedy veterans including Kenan Thompson, Chris Parnell, Ally Maki, and Pete Holmes have joined the cast, although it’s not clear who is going to be the crooks trying to break in and rob the house. Ellie Kemper and Rob Delaney were previously cast as the parents of our new hero, Max. Dan Mazer, who directed Bad Grandpa, is directing.
- Usagi Yojimbo sequel series coming to Netflix: Creator Stan Sakai is coming to Netflix with a futuristic sequel to his long-running and beloved Usagi Yojimbo comic book. The original comic followed rabbit samurai Usagi as he traveled around the world battling evil and helping those in need and the new CGI animated series will follow his descendant, Yuichi, as he tries to live up to his ancestor’s legacy while battling new future threats like metal winged bats and monsters from other dimensions with a team of misfits behind him.
- Iconic Hollywood props going up for auction: If you have Scrooge McDuck levels of spare cash lying around, you can grab some iconic props from Hollywood history in an upcoming auction from The Prop Store. Tom Cruise’s Top Gun helmet, the camera used to film Vertigo, Obi-Wan’s lightsaber from Attack of the Clones, Michael Corleone’s Miami suit, Leonardo DiCaprio and Brad Pitt’s cars from Once Upon a Time in Hollywood and more are up for auction, with most of them at starting prices of multiple thousands up to $500,000. The auction is from August 26th-27th and the website is here: https://usm.propstoreauction.com/m/view-auctions/info/id/267/
- Wishbone movie in development: Everyone’s favorite Jack Russell Terrier is coming to the big screen as a Wishbone movie is in development. Peter Farrelly will produce the new movie, which is a Mattel and Universal production. It will be a “modern take” on the 90s classic but it’s not clear if we’ll be getting a real Wishbone or some sort of CG abomination and it’s also clear what classic story or stories will be included in the movie. Over its five-season run on PBS, Wishbone tackled pretty much every piece of classic literature you can think of, with Wishbone in costume taking over one of the main roles of the story alongside human actors.
- Fletch reboot in development: Just a few weeks after the original turned 35, Fletch is coming back with Jon Hamm taking over the role of roving reporter Irwin M Fletcher. Superbad director Greg Mottola will be directing the reboot, which will be based on the second Fletch novel from author Gregory McDonald Confess, Fletch, where Fletch finds himself investigating a string of murders, one of which points to him as the main suspect. Jon Hamm will take over from Chevy Chase, who was Fletch in two films, and the new movie, while still having comedic elements, will take the slightly more serious tone of the novels and be more of a film noir/mystery.
- Rorschach getting a new comic series: After seeing his horrific legacy in HBO’s Watchmen last year, the disturbed and violent vigilante is back in a new comic series from Batman writer Tom King and artist Jorge Fornés and will be set 35 years after the end of the original Watchmen comic where a police detective is investigating what seems like the return of Rorschach, who appears along with an accomplice in an attempt to kill the first candidate to oppose President Redford in decades, and digs more into Rorschach’s past. The new book will be part of DC’s mature Black Label imprint and the first issue arrives on October 13th this year.
- Dragon’s Dogma series coming to Netflix: Capcom’s cult classic action RPG Dragon’s Dogma is joining Castlevania in the ranks of Netflix’s anime video game adaptations. Sublimation Studios will be behind the animation and the series will be directed by Shinya Sugai with Capcom’s Takashi Kitahara and Hiroyuki Kobayashi producing the series, which will debut worldwide on Netflix on September 17th this year.
- Hanna season 3 ordered by Amazon: Amazon has ordered another season of Hanna, based on the movie by Joe Wright. The second season was released at the beginning of this month and it expanded beyond the plot of the original movie, exploring more of the secret program that created Hanna and expanding the cast with new characters.
- Bird Box sequel coming to Netflix: It was pretty much inevitable since the sequel novel was announced but Netflix officially confirmed they are developing a Bird Box sequel movie based on Josh Malerman’s imminent sequel novel, Malorie, which is coming out on July 21st next week. The book (and movie) are set 12 years after Bird Box and follows Malorie (played by Sandra Bullock in the movie) as she learns the news that someone from her past is somehow, impossibly, alive and she must decide if she wants to risk the outside world again to find them. There’s also news and rumors that a group of people have captured one of the insanity-inducing monsters and have created horrible new things based on what they found and the creatures themselves may have evolved as well.
- The Bad Batch getting a spin-off series: Introduced in the final season of The Clone Wars, the clone troopers known as The Bad Batch are getting their own Disney+ series next year. The Bad Batch is a unit of clones who each have some sort of mutation that gives them enhanced abilities and skills and the new show will be set following The Clone Wars/Revenge of the Sith as the unit becomes mercenaries roaming the galaxy taking on missions. Dave Filoni will, of course, be executive producing.
- RIP Kelly Preston and Grant Imahara: Two tragic deaths occurred this week as Kelly Preston passed away after a two-year private battle with breast cancer and Grant Imahara passed away unexpectedly from a brain aneurysm. Preston was 57 and Imahara was 49. Preston was married to John Travolta for 29 years and starred in movies like Jerry Maguire, Mischief, Sky High and Twins while Imahara was best known as part of the “build team” on Mythbusters and White Rabbit Project and was most recently a judge on Battlebots, on which he had previously competed in.