News Shotgun 6/5/21
- Issa Rae voicing Spider-Woman for Spider-Verse sequel: For the upcoming sequel to Into The Spider-Verse, Issa Rae has been cast as Jessica Drew aka Spider-Woman. Shameik Moore and Hailee Steinfeld will be back as Miles Morales and Gwen Stacy but it’s not clear if any of the other Spider-Mans from the first movie will return. The team of Joaquim Dos Santos, Kemp Powers, and Justin K. Thompson are directing with Lord and Miller producing.
- New Master and Commander movie in development: Disney/Fox is going to try again with Master and Commander by developing a new movie based on the novel series. The first Master and Command came out in 2003 and starred Russell Crowe and Paul Bettany and was set in the Napoleonic War era following the crew of a naval warship. There is an entire series of books and the original plan was for Crowe to star in a series of movies based on the novels but that never happened. This new movie is a prequel that follows a younger Captain Jack Aubrey and his friend and ship’s doctor Stephen Maturin as Aubrey takes his first command. There are no directors or actors attached as of right now.
- Cruella sequel movie in development: Disney is apparently happy with the performance so far of Cruella, as they are apparently in early development on a sequel. Craig Gillespie and screenwriter Tony McNamara are returning to work on the new movie and Emma Stone will return as Cruella. There are no details on what a sequel movie would entail but there is the question of how much story is left between the end of Cruella and the start of 101 Dalmatians.
- The Rock producing a new action movie starring Yahya Abdul-Mateen II: Aquaman and Watchmen co-star Yahya Abdul-Mateen II is starring in a new action movie being produced by Dwayne Johnson called Emergency Contact. There are not exact plot details but it’s being described as a “high-concept, high-octane action film set in the underground music scene of Austin, Texas.”. Abdul-Mateen II will also executive produce along with starring in the movie.
- Donnie Yen joins John Wick 4: As if the John Wick series could not get any cooler, the legendary Donnie Yen has joined John Wick Chapter 4 to co-star along with Keanu Reeves. Yen will play an old friend of Wick who shares many of his enemies, which seems to imply the pair may be teaming up to go to war with The High Table. Chad Stahelski is directing the 4th Wick movie, which will begin to shoot this summer.
- FX sets several premiere dates: FX set a return date for a number of their programs this week. What We Do in the Shadows will return on September 2nd, Archer will return on August 25th, Impeachment- An American Crime Story will debut on September 7th, and Y: The Last Man will finally arrive on September 13th. There’s also two separate American Horror Story premieres with the new season “Double Feature” debuting on August 25th and a new show American Horror Stories, a weekly anthology with a new story every week, debuting on July 15th.
- Firestarter reboot casts its Charlie: The Firestarter reboot has found its titular pyrokinetic child with Ryan Kiera Armstrong starring as Charlie. The role was originally played by Drew Barrymore in 1984. Armstrong will star along with Zac Efron and Michael Greyeyes and follows the same basic plot as the King novel and original movie where a young girl with the ability to create and control fire is brought to a secret government facility to be trained as a weapon.
- Jupiter’s Legacy canceled at Netflix: Netflix effectively canceled Jupiter’s Legacy this week as they did not renew the contracts with the cast. The universe of the show will continue however as Netflix is working with creator Mark Millar for a new show called Supercrooks that will follow a group of super-criminals in the Jupiter’s Legacy world forming a crew for a heist. Millar believes at some point in the future they may return to the superhero story of Jupiter’s Legacy.
- HBO Max launches a cheaper option: HBO Max has launched a cheaper, ad-supported version of their streaming service. The new plan is $9.99 a month and features ads on most content on the service except for HBO programming, which will remain ad-free. WarnerMedia is promising one of the lowest ad loads in the world of streaming with a maximum of 4 minutes of ads per hour of content. The big drawback of the cheaper service is that you will not get to watch any of the day and date theatrical releases that WB has been putting out this year with movies like Mortal Kombat, Godzilla vs Kong, or this week’s The Conjuring: The Devil Made Me Do It. Those releases are only on the original, $14.99 plan.
- Fan edit of Super Mario Bros The Movie adds 20 minutes: An extended cut of the 90s Super Mario Bros movie has been released on The Internet Archive. The Super Mario Bros The Movie Archive, the definitive source of all things SMB The Movie content, came into possession of a VHS tape from the estate of one of the movie’s producers, Roland Joffe, that had deleted scenes that were not in the theatrical cut of the movie. After a meticulous restoration, the SMB Movie Archive added these scenes back into the movie. You can watch the extended cut here: http://smbmovie.com/
- Jonathan Majors may box Michael B. Jordan in Creed III: Lovecraft Country star Jonathan Majors is apparently in talks to co-star with Michael B. Jordan for the upcoming Creed III as Adonis Creed’s latest boxing opponent. Jordan is making his directorial debut with Creed III along with starring in it. There’s no word on the plot yet but Stallone will not return as Rocky for this entry but Tessa Thompson and Phylicia Rashad will be back.
- New TMNT movie gets a release date: The upcoming TMNT reboot produced by Seth Rogen has gotten a release date of August 11, 2023. There’s not a lot of details yet on the new movie except it will be a CG animated film not tied to any of the current TMNT properties, like Rise of the TMNT. Jeff Rowe, who co-directed The Mitchells vs The Machines, will direct this new TMNT movie.