Matt Reeves most likely new Batman director: WB and DC seem to have the new director of The Batman, with Planet of the Apes/Cloverfield director Matt Reeves is in final negotiations to take over the movie from Ben Affleck, who will still star and has writing and producer credits. The script is also apparently done and ready to go, despite some rumors it might go as far as a full rewrite.
Thandie Newton joins Han Solo movie: The Westworld star joins Alden Ehrenreich, Donald Glover, Emilia Clarke, and Woody Harrelson in the upcoming young Han Solo movie in an unspecified role.
Jay and Silent Bob Reboot is Kevin Smith’s new movie: On his Instagram, Kevin Smith announced he’s working on a new script called Jay and Silent Bob Reboot and confirmed Clerks III and Mallrats the Series are both dead. This new movie will follow Jay and Silent Bob as they head back to Hollywood to try and stop a reboot of Bluntman and Chronic from being made.
Plot and cast revealed for Mary Poppins Returns: Emily Blunt will star as the magical nanny, who returns in the 1930’s to help a grown up Michael Banks (Ben Whishaw) who, along with his three children, has suffered a personal loss that Mary Poppins will try to help them through. Emily Mortimer is Michael’s sister Jane, Lin Manuel-Miranda is a streetlamp lighter named Jack, Julie Walters is Michael’s housekeeper Ellen and Meryl Streep is Mary’s cousin, Topsy.
Evil parents cast in The Runaways: The evil supervillain parents of the teenage Marvel superheroes who will appear on Hulu have been cast and among them are James Marsters, Annie Werschling and Kevin Weisman. It starts production this month but there’s no release date yet for Hulu.
New Halloween has director and writer: An unexpected team has been picked by John Carpenter to pick up the story of Michael Myers with David Gordon Green directing and Danny McBride writing the script. The duo is behind Eastbound & Down and Vice Principals and Green also directed McBride in Pineapple Express and Your Highness. McBride said despite their comedic history, this new Halloween is going to be “…dark and vicious horror. Nobody will be laughing”
Channel Zero gets two more seasons: SyFy’s Creepypasta inspired horror show will get two more seasons after the upcoming second season that is based on the short story “No End House” but the stories for seasons 3 and 4 were not revealed in the announcement.
First mutant cast for Fox’s X-Men show: Blair Redford was the first character cast for the Bryan Singer/Matt Nix Fox X-Men show. It seems he’ll be the Native American leader of the underground mutant network that the main family seeks out when the government comes after their mutant children.
South Park: The Fractured But Whole delayed again: Delayed from December last year to the first quarter of this year but now pushed it again to it’s next fiscal year, which runs from April 2017 to March 2018, so anytime between those dates but hopefully closer to April 2017.
Netflix renews shows: Trollhunters, Love and The OA were all renewed for a new season on the streaming site.
Nicholas Winding Refn and Ed Brubaker working on crime show for Amazon: The Drive/Neon Demon director is working with comic legend Ed Brubaker on a new Amazon show called Too Old to Die Young, which is a crime show set in Los Angeles which will be “explor[ing] various characters’ existential journeys from being killers to becoming samurais in the City of Angels”. Amazon has ordered a full season of 10 episodes.
Kate McKinnon is the new Ms. Frizzle: Netflix is rebooting The Magic School Bus as The Magic School Bus Rides Again with Kate McKinnon as the new Ms. Frizzle, who will be Fiona Frizzle, the younger sister of Lily Tomlin’s original Friz.
E3 open to the public this year: The formerly only press and industry video game convention in LA will be open to the public this year as 15,000 tickets will be available to purchase starting on February 13th. The first 1,000 tickets will be $150 and after that they will be $249 and they are good for the entire weekend with full access to the show floor.
Avatar Land gets an opening date: The upcoming major expansion to Disney’s Animal Kingdom based on James Cameron’s Avatar universe will open May 27th this year with two major attractions, the Na’vi River Ride and Avatar: Flight of Passage and there will be shops, restaurants and a walk through bio-luminescent jungle.
RIP Richard Hatch: The OG Battlestar Galactica star passed away at age 71 due to pancreatic cancer. Hatch was a huge supporter of the BSG universe, writing novels to expand the story of the original and came back for Ron Moore’s reboot in a new recurring role.
World War Z 2 and Friday the 13th removed from Paramount’s schedule: The upcoming Brad Pitt sequel and a new Friday the 13th were both removed from Paramount’s schedule, with the latter being completely cancelled by the studio and the former most likely still coming at some point but just on the back burner.
Bad Boys for Life delayed: The third Bad Boys movie was delayed again, pushed from June this year to November 2018. Will Smith and Martin Lawrence are both back and Joe Carnahan will direct with Michael Bay producing.
The Strangers 2 starts shooting this summer: The sequel to 2008’s home invasion horror movie is moving forward and will start production this summer. Original director Bryan Bertino wrote the script and The Other Side of the Door director Johannes Roberts will direct. The sequel follows a family who seeks shelter on a road trip at a seemingly abandoned mobile home park and The Strangers of the original movie arrive to stalk them.
The Terminator board game on Kickstarter: The company behind board games based on Buffy and Galaxy Quest is making a game based on The Terminator. One player controls Skynet and it’s army of machines while the other players are human resistance fighters and the game uses two boards, one set in 1984 and one in 2029 to simulate the movie series signature time travel.
Fast & Furious getting an arena tour: Fast and Furious Live will start touring in 2018 and will feature car stunts and storyline based on the series. It’s coming from the company Brand Events, who did a Top Gear based show for the UK and international markets.
