News Shotgun 2/10/24
Here’s all the movie and TV news you need to know from the past week, it’s the News Shotgun
Dan Trachtenberg directing new Predator movie: Prey director Dan Trachtenberg is returning to the world of Predator for his next movie, Badlands. There aren’t any plot details yet but it will be a standalone entry in the Predator franchise like Prey was. Trachtenberg co-wrote the script with Patrick Aison and casting is underway for the lead role.
Kevin Williamson is developing several reboots: Scream and I Know What You Did Last Summer writer Kevin Williamson is working on several TV reboots of movie IPs and some original content. Williamson is developing a remake of Rear Window as a TV series for Peacock and also a remake of The Game, the David Fincher-directed thriller starring Michael Douglas. Williamson is also developing an original property, The Waterfront, which will be a family crime drama, and an adaptation of the novel The It Girl, a crime thriller about a woman investigating a decade-old murder.
Reacher Season 3 adds cast members: Anthony Michael Hall and Sonya Cassidy will be joining Alan Ritchson and Maria Sten in Season 3 of Reacher. Hall is playing Zachary Beck, “A formidable and successful businessman, Beck is a widower and single father of a 20-year-old son, Richard. He is the owner of a rug import company that Reacher and his cohorts suspect is a cover for a more nefarious operation” while Cassidy is playing Sarah Duffy, “an extremely intelligent and tough DEA agent from Boston with a sharp and sarcastic sense of humor”. The new season is based on the Jack Reacher novel Persuader.
Moana 2 coming this year: During Disney’s investor call this week, Bob Iger revealed that Moana 2 is not only in development, it’s coming out this November. Moana is one of the most watched movies across any streaming service, not just Disney+. Moana 2’s plot is described as, “After receiving an unexpected call from her wayfinding ancestors, Moana must journey to the far seas of Oceania and into dangerous, long-lost waters for an adventure unlike anything she’s ever faced”. It’s not official if the voice cast will return for the sequel, like Dwayne Johnson who voiced Maui. There is a live-action remake of Moana in development that is starring Johnson again but the release date was pushed back to 2025 with this announcement of Moana 2.
Disney buys massive stake in Epic Games: Disney also announced on their earnings call that they bought a $1.5 billion stake in Epic Games and will be working with the video game company to create an expansive universe within the umbrella of Fortnite that will feature all Disney IP, including animation, Marvel and Star Wars, that will include games and other entertainment options.
Dominic Cooper and Haley Bennett join The Last Frontier: The upcoming Apple TV+ drama series The Last Frontier has added Dominic Cooper and Haley Bennett to its cast. Jason Clarke is set to star and the show is set in Alaska where Clarke plays a US Marshall who is forced to hunt down several violent criminals that escape when a prison transport plane crashes in the wilderness.
Percy Jackson renewed for Season 2: Percy Jackson will return on Disney+ for more Greek mythological adventures as Percy Jackson and The Olympians was renewed for Season 2. The new season will adapt the second book in the series The Sea of Monsters, with Walker Scobell, Leah Sava Jeffries, and Aryan Simhadri returning as the main trio of Percy, Annabeth, and Grover.
The Terror returning to AMC for third installment: AMC’s horror anthology series The Terror is returning for a third installment. It’s been five years since the last entry, The Terror: Infamy, which told a tale of horror set in a Japanese internment camp during World War II. The new installment is titled The Terror: Devil in Silver and is based on the 2013 novel The Devil in Silver. It follows, “Pepper, a working-class moving man who, through a combination of bad luck and a bad temper, finds himself wrongfully committed to New Hyde Psychiatric Hospital – an institution filled with the people society would rather forget”. Chris Cantwell, who was the showrunner of Halt and Catch Fire is the showrunner of this new season of The Terror.
Dave Bautista and Samuel L. Jackson co-starring in new action movie Afterburn: Based on a Red5 comic of the same name, Dave Bautista and Samuel L. Jackson are co-starring in a new action movie called Afterburn. Bautista plays Jake an ex-soldier living in a world where solar flares wiped out all technology a decade previously. Jake delves into abandoned areas of the old world to uncover valuable treasures and his latest job is to recover the Mona Lisa for a powerful client. Jackson is playing a freedom fighter named Valentine. J.J. Perry, who directed Netflix’s Day Shift, is directing the movie.
Ratched canceled at Netflix: Ryan Murphy’s prequel series to One Flew over the Cuckoo’s Nest, Ratched, has been canceled after one season. The series did receive an initial 2 season order when it was picked up by Netflix but it’s been four years since the first season debuted and the cancelation was made official this week.