News Shotgun 11/6
- Luther returning in a 3 hour special in December: Idris Elba will return as John Luther for a final time on the BBC this December with a three hour special. Luther will be on a leave of absence when a cannibalistic killler strike London and he has to return to try and stop him.
- Mark Dacascos guest starring on Agents of SHIELD: Dacascos will play head of SHIELD security Giyera in a recurring role.
- Z Nation renewed for third season: SyFy and The Asylum’s lower budget alternative to The Walking Dead has been renewed for a third season on SyFy, which will debut in 2016.
- Battlebots returning for a second season: ABC will hold another robot fighting tournament next summer as they renewed Battlebots for a second season. Next summer the tournament will be double the size of this past summer’s and be a single elimination tournament.
- The Witcher getting turned into a movie: The hit video game series (based on popular Polish fantasy novels) is getting a movie set for 2017. Sean Daniels, producer on the Mummy series and The Scorpion King series, will produce the film with Polish film studio Platige Films.
- RIP George Barris: Custom car king George Barris passed away this week at age 89. Barris created the 66 Batmobile, The Munsters car, vehicles for North by Northwest and The Beverly Hillbillies.
- Ken Marino joins Agent Carter: Marino will play a Maggia mafia leader named Joseph Manfredi, who will help facilitate the plan of Peggy’s season two adversaries.
- The Crow reboot seemingly back on: Director Corin Hardy was doing an interview with Entertainment Weekly about his upcoming horror film, The Hallow, and said that The Crow reboot he was supposed to be directing is still on. Relativity has had a lot of outside issues but apparently if they can get things worked out, The Crow reboot will be back on track. There currently is no lead actor to portray the new Eric Draven.
- Twin Peaks reboot delayed to 2017: David Lynch’s continuation of his cult show will debut in 2017, not next year as was originally hoped. The show will air on Showtime and pick up with FBI agent Dale Cooper (Kyle MacLachlan) and his bizarre investigations. Original cast member Miguel Ferrer was announced this week to be returning as well.
- SyFy making theatrical films: SyFy is expanding it’s original movies into theaters, starting next year when they release the sci-fi thriller 400 Days into theaters. The movie, starring Brandon Routh and Tom Cavanaugh, and is about four astronauts who are undergoing experiments dealing with extended isolation.
- Liam Neeson starring in spy thriller Felt: Neeson will star as FBI agent Mark Felt, who revealed himself as the infamous Deep Throat and he leaked vital intel to Woodward and Bernstein during Watergate.
- CBS developing zombie show Dead Man Walking: CBS is jumping into the zombie craze with a show based on the zombie novel Dead Man Walking, about a man who is wrongfully executed but brought back by future technology as a zombie and given a chance to find his wife’s real killer.
- The Muppets getting a new showrunner: Bob Kushell is being replaced by Galavant producer Kristen Newman for the rest of The Muppets season. The last six episodes will apparently be a sort of “reboot” of the show as Newman takes over.
- First looks at Kickboxer: Vengeance and Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them
- Key & Peele developing a stop motion comedy: Key & Peele are teaming with stop motion master Henry Selick for a stop motion comedy called Wendell & Wild, which is about two demon brothers who try to find a way to stop their nemesis, a demon hunting nun.
- BBC creating a “His Dark Materials” series: BBC One is working on a new adaptation of the His Dark Materials trilogy, which kicks off with The Golden Compass. The Golden Compass was, of course, adapted into a film with Nicole Kidman and Daniel Craig but it was a disappointment at the box office and the two other books in the trilogy, The Subtle Knife and The Amber Spyglass, where never put into productions.
- Hugh Jackman returning for reshoots on X-Men: Apocalypse: Jackman will join Bryan Singer in Quebec as the production team does a number of reshoots but it’s not clear if this means we’ll be getting more Wolverine in the movie or if what was shot originally did not work.
- SyFy developing a female Van Helsing show: The show will follow Vanessa Van Helsing, the famous vampire hunter’s daughter, who is in a world where vampires have taken over but she seems to have some sort of power over them. Neil Labute, director of the Nicolas Cage The Wicker Man, is producing the show.
- Star Trek TV series coming in 2017: CBS announced they are bringing Star Trek back to the small screen in 2017 with a brand new series. It won’t be tied to the JJ Abrams movies and the first episode will air on CBS and then the rest of the episodes will only be available on CBS’ streaming service CBS All Access.
- Six Billion Dollar Man movie coming in 2017: Mark Wahlberg’s reboot of The Six Million Dollar Man is officially confirmed to be coming in December 22, 2017. Wahlberg is starring as Steve Austin, who suffers an accident and is given a number of cybernetic implants.
- Greatest American Hero reboot moves forward: Fox is rebooting the classic 80’s show Greatest American Show with Phil Lord and Chris Miller behind it. The show got a new writer, Rick Famuyiwa, who is working on the pilot script.
- Ralph Fiennes is Alfred in Lego Batman Movie: Ralph Fiennes will be the butler to Will Arnett’s Batman and Michael Cera’s Robin in the upcoming spin-off of The Lego Movie.
- Paul Rudd and Alexander Skarsgard starring in next Duncan Jones movie: After Warcraft, Duncan Jones is going back to lower budget sci-fi with Mute. Skarsgard will play a mute bartender who is looking for a woman who disappeared and Rudd will play one of a pair of surgeons who seem to might have a clue about what is going on.
- Activision developing Call of Duty movie and Skylanders show: Activision announced at Blizzcon today that they are creating a film studio called Activision Blizzard Studios. One of the first projects is an animated series based on Skylanders called Skylanders Academy and they also hope to create a Call of Duty cinematic universe.
