News Shotgun 5/27/23
Here’s all the movie and TV news you need to know from the past week, it’s the News Shotgun
Alone in the Dark remake casts David Harbour and Jodie Comer: The remake of video game horror classic Alone in the Dark from THQ Nordic revealed this week that Jodie Comer and David Harbour will be starring as the main characters Emily Hartwood and Edward Carnby, who arrive at the mysterious haunted mansion Derceto Manor to find out what happened to Emily’s missing uncle. There is a playable prologue available right now on the major platforms that give a taste of the atmosphere and mood of the new game. The full game will be released this fall on October 25th.
John Wick Chapter 5 in development: With the franchise crossing over $1 billion total grosses worldwide thanks to the success of John Wick Chapter 4, Lionsgate has announced a fifth movie is in development. There are no details but along with the upcoming spin-offs The Continental and Ballerina, Lionsgate said they want to have a “regular cadence” of John Wick media coming out.
MoviePass is officially back: After an invite-only beta in select markets, MoviePass is officially back in time for the summer with its revamped pricing structure. The new MoviePass offers up 4 tiers, ranging from $10 per month up to $40. Members will get a new MoviePass card which is a MasterCard debit card, which will be loaded with the amount for a ticket when you purchase it in the app. The new MoviePass uses a credits system, with different movies and showtimes costing different amounts of credits, which do rollover from month to month for up to 2 months. The more you pay per month, the more credits you get with your plan. 4,000+ theaters around the US are participating in the new MoviePass.
Citadel renewed for season 2: Following the season 1 finale this week, Amazon has renewed their massive budget spy series Citadel for a second season. Executive producer Joe Russo will direct every episode of season 2 and his brother Anthony will continue to executive producer with him. The season finale included a tease for Citadel: Diana, the first of the international spin-off shows that will create the “Spyverse”, with Diana following an Italian Citadel agent, played by Matilda De Angelis, which will debut next year.
Rhea Seehorn joins Bad Boys 4: Multiple Emmy nominee Rhea Seehorn is jumping from Better Call Saul to blockbusters by joining Bad Boys 4. The Martin Lawrence/Will Smith starring sequel is shooting now in Atlanta with Adil El Arbi and Bilall Fallah back to direct after directing the surprisingly good Bad Boys for Life. Paola Núnez, Vanessa Hudgens, Ioan Gruffudd and Alexander Ludwig are back from Bad Boys for Life as Mike and Marcus’ support team but Seehorn’s role has not been revealed.
Amazon buys international rights to The Ice Road 2: One of the biggest deals out of the Cannes Film Festival, Amazon has purchased the international distribution rights to Ice Road 2: Road to Sky. Liam Neeson returns as truck driver Mike McCann, who travels to Nepal to fulfill his brother’s wish of having his ashes scattered on Mt. Everest. On a bus to the Himalayas on the road dubbed “The Road to Sky”, the bus is attacked by Nepalese mercenaries and McCann has to spring into action again to defend the bus full of innocent travelers. Writer/director Jonathan Hensleigh is back to write and direct the sequel. Amazon had the international rights previously on The Ice Road but it was a Netflix original movie domestically but it’s not clear yet if they will still have domestic rights on the sequel.
RIP Tina Turner and Ray Stevenson: We lost two high-profile names in the world of entertainment this past week with Tina Turner and Ray Stevenson. Turner passed away at age 83 following a long illness. She was the “Queen of Rock and Roll” and a legend in the world of music for decades until she retired in 2000. In the world of movies, she co-starred and contributed music to Mad Max: Beyond Thunderdome and provided the Bond theme for Goldeneye. She was also the subject of a biopic starring Angela Bassett, What’s Love Got to Do With It? Stevenson’s death was extremely unexpected, as he passed at age 58. He starred was a regular contributor in the world of genre filmmaking, appearing in Punisher: War Zone as Frank Castle, the HBO series Rome, Paul WS Anderson’s The Three Musketeers, The Book of Eli, the Thor movies as Volstagg, the Divergent series, and recently RRR. His final role will be in the upcoming Ashoka Disney+ Star Wars series.
Matt Berry joins Minecraft: What We Do in the Shadows star Matt Berry will join Jason Momoa in the upcoming movie based around the global phenomenon, Minecraft. Jared Hess, who directed Napoleon Dynamite, is directing the movie and it will be live-action, although plot details and detail about who Momoa and Berry are playing, are being kept under wraps. The movie is scheduled for April 4th, 2025.