News Shotgun 5/13
(Note: Get the full scoop on TV cancellations and renewals all next week as we cover the Upfronts)
- A Christmas Story Live coming to Fox in December: Along with a live version of Rent, Fox announced they will be airing a live version of A Christmas Story based on the Broadway musical based on the movie. The show will air in December from the team behind Grease Live.
- Christina Hendricks starring in The Strangers 2: The Mad Men star will lead the upcoming horror sequel, which finds a family ending up in a secluded trailer park while on a road trip and being stalked by the trio of killers from the first movie. The Strangers director Bryan Bertino wrote the script while Johannes Roberts, who directed last year’s horror movie The Other Side of the Door, will direct.
- Jackie Chan and Sly Stallone teaming up for new movie: Stallone and Chan will finally team up for the first time in the upcoming Chinese action movie Ex-Baghdad where a Chinese oil refinery is attacked in Iraq and a security officer (Chan) and an ex-Marine (Stallone) team up to stop them. It’s being directed by Scott Waugh, who directed Act of Valor and Need for Speed.
- First two mutants cast for New Mutants: Maisie Williams, aka Arya Stark, was officially cast as Wolfsbane for next year’s New Mutants movie while The Witch/Split’s Anya Taylor-Joy will play Magik. Wolfsbane’s ability is that she can transform into a wolf a la a werewolf but at will while Magik is the sister of Colossus and uses teleportation and other magic abilities.
- Redbox adding more locations: Redbox will add another 1,500 kiosks this year around the US, bringing their total to 41,500, which is more than all Starbucks and McDonalds locations combined.
- Vanquish coming to PC: Teased when Bayonetta came to PC a few weeks ago, cult shooter Vanquish is coming to PC on May 25th. The game is a cover based shooter that came out on PS3 and Xbox 360 where your character has to infiltrate a space station taken over by Russian terrorists and you are equipped with a special DARPA exosuit that allows you to rocket around the levels and slow down time for targeting.
- RIP Michael Parks: Acting legend Michael Park passed away at age 77 this week. He was a frequent collaborator with Robert Rodriguez and Tarantino, appearing as Texas Ranger Earl McGraw in several of their movies, including their team up Grindhouse, and he recently collaborated with Kevin Smith for Red State and Tusk.
- Deadpool animated series coming from FXX: Donald Glover and his brother Stephen will be bringing the Merc with a Mouth to the small screen with a new animated series coming to FXX. It will be an adult oriented show a la FXX’s Archer but no word on who will play Wade or if it will be based on a specific run of the comics or the movies.
- Judge Dredd show in development: Rebellion, the current rights holders of 2000 AD, is developing a new Judge Dredd show called Judge Dredd: Mega City One. Rebellion is teaming with IM Global, who developed Battlestar Galactica, Helix and Defiance for SyFy, and three of the four executive producers were producers on Dredd. There’s no network yet but hopefully it ends up somewhere where it can be as brutal and satirical as the comics, like Netflx.
- Will Ferrell and James Momoa teaming up for a new comedy: Ferrell and Momoa are teaming up for an untitled comedy produced by Nicholas Stoller and written by Andy Mogel & Jarrad Paul, who co-wrote and directed The D-Train. There’s no synopsis but the rumor is that it’s like Galaxy Quest meets Ocean Eleven so possibly Will Ferrell is a movie or TV star that gets drawn into a criminal activity.
- Edge of Tomorrow sequel gets title and confirms stars return: Tom Cruise and Emily Blunt will return for a sequel to Edge of Tomorrow that will take it’s DVD/Blu-Ray title, Live Die Repeat and will now be Live Die Repeat and Repeat. Doug Liman will return to direct and said it will somehow be a sequel and a prequel.
