News Shotgun 2/17/24
Here’s all the movie and TV news you need to know from the past week, it’s the News Shotgun
Luc Besson directing a Dracula movie: French action director Luc Besson is putting his spin on Dracula with a new adaptation of Bram Stoker’s classic. Caleb Landry Jones, who just recently starred in Besson’s revenge thriller Dogman, is starring along with Christoph Waltz. Europacorp is producing the movie.
New Nicolas Cage thriller acquired: A new Nicolas Cage starring thriller, Arcadia, has been acquired by RLJE. The movie stars Cage, along with Jaeden Martell, Maxwell Jenkins, and Sadie Soverall, and is set on an Earth where normal life has been decimated by a mysterious and violent evil force that comes out at night. Cage plays a father named Paul with two sons, played by Jenkins and Martell. When Thomas (Jenkins) goes missing before sundown, Paul has to journey into the nightmarish world of the night to save him. Ben Brewer, the lead visual effects artist for Everything, Everywhere, All at Once is directing the movie. The movie will hit theaters in April and then debut on Shudder/AMC+ later in the year.
Jon Hamm joins new Taylor Sheridan show: After his brilliant villainous turn in the latest season of Fargo, Jon Hamm is heading to Paramount+ to join one of the upcoming Taylor Sheridan shows. Landman already cast Billy Bob Thornton and is based on the podcast Boomtown. It follows the oil rig “roughnecks” and the billionaire oil company owners in Texas.
Greenland sequel to begin production: The sequel to the extremely solid disaster movie Greenland is going into production in the UK in April. Gerard Butler and Morena Baccarin are set to reprise their roles for Greenland: Migration, which follows the Garrity family after they emerge from the Greenland bunker after a massive comet decimated the Earth. The family sets out across the wasteland of Europe to find a new home. Ric Roman Waugh is returning to direct.
Evil ending with Season 4: Former CBS turned Paramount+ original series Evil is ending with the upcoming fourth season. The show stars Mike Colter, Katja Herbers, and Aasif Mandvi as a trio who investigates reports of demonic possession and other supernatural phenomena for the Catholic Church. The final season will start streaming in May on Paramount+.
Repo Man sequel in development: Cult classic Repo Man is getting a sequel from original director Alex Cox. The original film starred Emilio Estevez as a repo man who is tasked to track down a 1967 Chevy Malibu that has something incredibly odd stashed in the trunk. Kiowa Gordon is taking over for Estevez and the logline for the sequel is, “after Otto has boarded his trusty 1967 Chevy Malibu to journey across the infinities of time and space. In that time, he has aged exactly 90 minutes”. Gordon currently co-stars on Dark Winds on AMC.
New Stallone thriller movie in development: Sly Stallone is returning to Philly for a new thriller movie, The Ephinany. Stallone is playing a Philadelphia cop on the brink of retirement who has to team up with a young rookie and a former priest to stop a serial killer who is terrorizing the city. Will Eubank, who directed Paranormal Activity: Next of Kin, is directing the movie. The movie is being sold at the European Film Market aka EFM.
Peacock orders three new series: Peacock has given a series order to three new series, including one from James Wan. Wan’s show is untitled but is a techno-thriller that will star Simu Liu as an intelligence analyst who discovers his brain has been hacked, giving the hackers access to everything he sees and hears. He has to figure out who is monitoring him while keeping it a secret from his agency. The other shows are the true crime scripted series Devil in Disguise: John Wayne Gacy, which explores the life of the notorious serial killer and his victims, and All Her Fault, a drama thriller that follows a mother who arrives to pick up her son from a playdate only to find another woman at the address and no sign of her son.
Will Smith starring in a new action movie: Will Smith is starring in a new action movie, Sugar Bandits, that is being shopped at EFM. The movie is about a former Special Forces soldier who joins a vigilante task force trying to eliminate the drug trade in Boston but soon learns things are not what they seem. The movie was formerly going to be a Universal movie directed by Joe Carnahan but that version fell through. The movie is based on the book Devils in Exile by Chuck Hogan, who also wrote The Town.
Michelle Yeoh starring in the action thriller The Mother: Despite her Oscar win, Michelle Yeoh is going to continue to kick ass and she’s starring in a new action movie, The Mother. Yeoh will play an immigrant mother and businesswoman whose sons get in trouble with a Boston crime ring. Yeoh’s character will have to unleash another side of her past to get them out. Melanie Laurent is directing the movie and Thunder Road, one of the production companies behind the John Wick series is producing.
The MCU’s Fantastic Four revealed: After tons of rumor and speculation, Marvel finally revealed who will be the MCU’s Fantastic Four this week. Pedro Pascal is playing Reed Richards, Vanessa Kirby is playing Sue Storm, Joseph Quinn is playing Johnny Storm and Ebon Moss-Bachrach is playing Ben Grimm. The movie will be set in the 1960s of the MCU and Matt Shackman, who showran Wandavision and Monarch: Legacy of Monsters is directing the movie. It currently has a release date of July 25th, 2025.
Stephen Amell starring in Suits spin-off: After last year’s insane Netflix viewership, Suits is getting a spin-off series with Suits: L.A. with Oliver Queen himself, Stephen Amell, starring. Amell will play Ted Black, a former federal prosecutor from New York who moved to Los Angeles and built a new firm that represents rich and powerful clients. Suits creator Aaron Korsh is showrunning this “extension” of the Suits universe.
New Karate Kid cast: While we wait for the final season of Cobra Kai, there is another Karate Kid film in development that has cast Ben Wang in the lead role. Wang was the star of American Born Chinese on Disney+. The new movie seemingly unites all of Karate Kid, as Jackie Chan from the Jaden Smith movie is joining Ralph Macchio to co-star in the new movie. It’s unclear if it will connect to Cobra Kai in any way.
Respawn developing a Mandalorian video game: After two excellent Star Wars games in Jedi: Fallen Order and Jedi: Survivor, Respawn is developing a game based on the bounty hunting world of the Mandalorians. The untitled new game will put you in the Beskar armor of a Mandalorian during the Galactic Civil War i.e. Original Trilogy era of Star Wars and will have you hunting down bounties in first person, returning to their Titanfall roots. The jet pack will apparently factor in greatly in gameplay, allowing you a wide range of maneuverability. Unlike the Jedi games, the new Mandalorian game will feature discrete levels instead of an open-world structure.