News Shotgun 7/17/21
- The Continental will be a three-episode limited event: The upcoming John Wick spin-off series, The Continental, will be a three-episode limited series, with each episode having a 90-minute feature-length runtime. Albert Hughes, who co-directed The Book of Eli and Menace II Society, is directing two of three episodes and the series is set 40 years before the events of the first John Wick and follows a young Winston in the 70s as he is just starting at The Continental.
- Another Last of Us voice actor joins the HBO series: The upcoming HBO Last of Us series has added another familiar voice as Tommy voice actor Jeffrey Pierce has joined the series. Gabriel Luna is already playing Tommy, so Pierce is playing a different character named Perry. The show also cast their Frank and Bill with Murray Bartlett and Con O’Neil.
- HBO developing two more Game of Thrones animated series: Despite the massive fall from grace that the series received for its final season, Game of Thrones is continuing at HBO with the upcoming prequel series and now two more animated series are in development. One animated series was already announced but details about all three are scarce except one of the newly announced ones will focus on the kingdom of Yi Ti, a region far from Westeros that is inspired by Imperial China.
- Antonio Banderas joins Indiana Jones 5: Another cast member was added to Indiana Jones 5 with Antonio Banderas joining the cast this week. The movie is set for a July 29, 2022 release and sees Harrison Ford returning as Dr. Henry Jones Jr. and Phoebe Waller-Bridge, Mads Mikkelsen, Boyd Holbrook, and Shaunette Renée Wilson were all previously cast. James Mangold is directing the movie after Steven Spielberg was unable to, but Spielberg is still very involved and is an executive producer.
- Uncut Gems joins the Criterion Collection: The Safdie Brothers’ brilliant exercise in tension and anxiety, Uncut Gems, will join the Criterion Collection in October. The movie will arrive in 4K on October 26th and include commentary from the Safdie Brothers, two shorts the directors made with Adam Sandler before the movie, new interviews with the crew, deleted and extended scenes, and more.
- Two more Halloween Horror Nights mazes revealed: Universal revealed two more Halloween Horror Nights mazes for the upcoming event. The Texas Chainsaw Massacre and Bride of Frankenstein are both getting mazes. The Texas Chainsaw maze is inspired by the 1974 original film and the Bride maze is based on the iconic Universal Monster movie. Beetlejuice and The Haunting of Hill House were previously announced as mazes and the events begin in September at both Universal Orlando and Universal Hollywood.
- Necroscope series getting transmedia franchise: The Necroscope horror novel series by Brian Lumley is getting developed for “episodic TV, animated features, video games, graphic novels, and emerging formats”. The books are famous for their covers and the series started in 1980 and spawned 18 entries. The storyline follows Harry Keogh, a vampire hunter who can travel through time and space and talk to the dead. He uncovers that the UK and the Soviet Union both have a secret, paranormal spy agencies and Harry has to convince the UK group, E-Branch, to help him defeat an ancient vampire and his insane offspring.
- Marko Zaror joins John Wick 4: Marko Zaror has followed his frequent co-star Scott Adkins to the John Wick universe, as the Chilean martial artist was cast this week in the upcoming fourth entry in the franchise. Zaror will be one of the main villains try to hunt down and take out John Wick.
- Thomas Crown Affair remake finds a writer: Midway writer Wes Tooke has signed on to write the script for the upcoming remake of The Thomas Crown Affair. Michael B. Jordan is starring and producing the movie and the Russo Brothers are producing as well. The movie will be the third take on the story of a millionaire who decides to become a thief out of boredom following the Steve McQueen/Faye Dunaway original and the Pierce Brosnan/Rene Russo 90s version.
- Netflix adding games to its service: Netflix will be adding games to its service “within the next year” according to a report from Bloomberg. Netflix has been dabbling in interactive TV shows, like Black Mirror: Bandersnatch and You vs Wild with Bear Grylls where you make choices and the story progresses based on those choices. It’s not clear if this new gaming initiative would be more of those types of experiences or full games that you could somehow play with a controller. The company added a slew of game dev executives to the company and they also have a very tight relationship with Ubisoft, developing multiple series and movies based on Ubi IP like Splinter Cell and Assassin’s Creed.
- Loki renewed for season 2: As you probably saw in the credits of this past week’s big finale, Loki is getting a second season on Disney+. It’s the first of the MCU shows released to get a second season as Wandavision and The Falcon and The Winter Soldier were both limited series. Kate Herron, who directed every episode of the first season, will not be returning for the second season. Tom Hiddleston is reportedly going to appear in Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness, which should be a major continuation of what happened in the first season of Loki.
- Amazon shelves Tiger King series: Amazon has decided to not move forward with its dramatized version of the Joe Exotic story. Nicolas Cage was set to play Joe Exotic and he said during a recent interview that the series was taking longer to come together than expected and the cultural relevance of Tiger King had passed. Peacock/NBC are still developing a Tiger King adaptation with Kate McKinnon starring as Carole Baskin and John Cameron Mitchell playing Joe Exotic.