News Shotgun 4/23
- Disney buys a new Jack and the Beanstalk movie from Vince Gilligan: The Breaking Bad and Better Call Saul creator has sold a script called “Beanstalk” to Disney and may possibly direct. It’s a “revionist” take on the story, possibly in the vein of Jack the Giant Slayer.
- Common joins Suicide Squad: Common is the latest addition to the already jam packed Suicide Squad movie. It was not stated who he will be playing but the Squad is pretty much set.
- The Equalizer getting a sequel: A solid hit last fall, Denzel Washington is most likely going to return for another turn as former special forces soldier Robert McCall for a sequel. It’s not clear if Antoine Fuqua will return to direct.
- Tyler Perry cast as Baxter Stockman in TMNT 2: Perry will play the classic TMNT villain in the sequel to last year’s reboot and it was also confirmed that Bebop and Rocksteady will make their film debut as well.
- Sony developing an animated Spider-Man movie with Phil Lord and Chris Miller directing: In 2018, Sony will release an animated version of Spider-Man with Jump St and Lego Movie directors Lord & Miller directing. The first Marvel/Sony Spider-Man live action collaboration will arrive in 2017.
- Ewan McGregor and Stanley Tucci join Beauty and the Beast: Ewan McGregor will play amorous candelabra Lumiere while Tucci will play a new character, Cadenza, who is a grand piano in the Beast’s castle.
- Fred Armisen joins Zoolander 2: The Portlandia star has joined Zoolander 2 in an unspecified role, joining returning cast members Ben Stiller, Owen Wilson, Christine Taylor, Will Ferrell and Billy Zane. Kristen Wiig, Penelope Cruz and Cyrus Arnold are also joining the sequel, set for next spring.
- New Muppets show will be an Office style mockumentary: We learned a week or two ago that a new Muppets show is in the works at ABC and now it’s been revealed the plan is to do a mockumentary style show that follows the personal lives of the characters and the backstage drama behind the scenes at the Muppet Show.
- Daredevil renewed for Season 2: After rave reviews and tons of viewers, the Marvel Netflix show will return next spring for another season, although showrunner Steven S DeKnight will not return and instead Doug Petrie and Marco Ramirez, who wrote a number of episodes and were also producers on the show, will showrun season 2.
- Galaxy Quest returning as a TV show: Paramount is apparently shopping around the idea of rebooting the cult comedy classic Galaxy Quest as a TV series. No word on if any of the original cast members would return for the series.
- James Wan producing a remake of The Entity: A favorite here at Everything Action, The Conjuring director James Wan is producing a remake of The Entity, which came out in the early 80’s and featured Barbara Hershey starring as a woman who is assaulted by a demonic spirit. It was based on true story and features an iconic music score that found it’s way to other movies like Inglorious Basterds.
- John Wick directors directing Bloodshot movie: The first in what is hopefully going to be a Valiant Comics cinematic universe, Bloodshot is going to be directed by David Leitch and Chad Stahelski, who directed last year’s John Wick. Bloodshot is an enhanced assassin whose body is filled with nanobots, which gives him enhanced senses, strength and make him almost invulnerable to damage.
- Hasbro believes Transformers 5 will arrive in 2017: Hasbro CEO Brian Goldner announced during an investors call that he believes Transformers 5 will arrive in 2017. Mark Wahlberg is expected to return but Michael Bay may have had enough and another director may step in to the series. Hasbro also wants to create a Marvel style Tranformers cinematic universe starting with 5.
- Release date news: Pan, starring Hugh Jackman, has been bumped from July to October this year and Lego Batman, The Lego Movie spin-off, will arrive on February 10, 2017, with Will Arnett returning as Batman. Warcraft is coming out in June 2016, Pacific Rim 2 is August 2017, The Mummy is out March 2017 and Furious 8 is April 2017.
- Wes Craven developing a “People Under the Stairs” series for SyFy: Craven is adapting his 90’s horror classic into a new TV series for SyFy that is being described as “Downton Abbey meets The Amityville Horror”
- John Ridley hired for a secret Marvel TV project: The 12 Years a Slave screenwriter is “reinventing an existing Marvel character or property” for Marvel/ABC but no word if it’s for the spin-off of SHIELD or something new. On the spin-off side of things, Adrianne Palicki and Nick Blood will star in that show as Bobbi Morse and Lance Hunter, who were introduced in Season 2 of SHIELD.
- Lucas Till returning as Havok in X-Men: Apocalpyse: He appeared briefly in Days of Future Past in Vietnam but Lucas Till will return as Havok aka Alex Summers in the upcoming X-Men: Apocalypse. With his brother, Scott Summers aka Cyclops in the movie as well, he should have slightly more to do.
- Bill Pullman and Judd Hirsh returning for Independence Day 2: Pullman will return as Thomas Whitmore, the President of the United States in the first movie, and Hirsch will return as Julius Levinson, the father of Jeff Goldblum’s David Levinson.
- Sony rebooting The Invisible Man: Sony is rebooting the HG Wells turned Universal classic, The Invisible Man, with Lucy Fisher and Doug Wick on board to produce, who have previously produced The Great Gatsby and the Divergent series.
- Traveling Avatar exhibit coming in 2016: A 10,000 square foot traveling exhibit for James Cameron’s Avatar will begin traveling around the US in 2016 and feature a number of exhibits around the world of Pandora. Avatar 2 is supposed to hit in 2017.
- Telltale making a Marvel game: The next franchise Telltale will put their patented adventure spin on will be something based on Marvel comics, although it’s not clear if it will be based on the comics or the movies.
- Adventure Time, Rick & Morty and Venture Bros coming to Hulu: Hulu is getting the exclusive streaming rights to various Turner properties, including all past seasons of shows like Aventure Time, Rick & Morty, Venture Bros, NTSF, Tim & Eric, Ben 10, Dexter’s Laboratory and more. The Cartoon Network series will be ad free.