News Shotgun 1/27/24
Here’s all the movie and TV news you need to know from the past week, it’s the News Shotgun
David Ayer and Jason Statham reteaming for Levon’s Trade: After the ridiculous fun of The Beekeeper, David Ayer and Jason Statham are reteaming for a new action movie, Levon’s Trade. Amazon has purchased the movie and will do a theatrical release before it arrives on streaming. Sylvester Stallone wrote the screenplay, which is based on the first book in comic writer Chuck Dixon’s “Levon” series. The movie follows “…Levon Cade (Statham) left his ‘profession’ behind him to go ‘straight’ and work in construction. He wants to live a simple life and be a good father to his daughter. But when his boss’s teenage daughter vanishes, he’s called upon to re-employ the skills that made him a legendary figure in the shadowy world of black ops. His hunt for the missing college student takes him deep into the heart of a sinister criminal conspiracy, creating a chain reaction that will threaten his new way of life”. Filming will begin in the spring in London.
Tom Hopper joins The Terminal List: Dark Wolf: The prequel series to Amazon’s The Terminal List has added Black Sails and The Umbrella Academy star Tom Hopper in one of the lead roles, Raife Hastings, a “hunter, protector, guardian, and Navy SEAL”. Chris Pratt, Taylor Kitsch, and Jared Shaw return from the original series and the new show follows how Kitsch’s Ben Edwards went from a SEAL to a CIA operative five years before the events of The Terminal List.
Wolf Pack canceled at Paramount+: Paramount+ has canceled Wolf Pack after one season. The series starred Sarah Michelle Gellar and followed a group of teenagers who encounter a werewolf that is unleashed during wildfires in California and share a mysterious bond. Rodrigo Santoro co-starred with Gellar. The creators were actively working on a season 2, even though no official renewal was confirmed by Paramount+. It doesn’t seem like the series will be shopped to a different streamer.
Season 3 of Reacher book revealed: With the awesome second season of Reacher wrapped up, the source for the upcoming third season was revealed. Season 3 of Reacher will be based on Lee Childs’ Persuader, the 7th book in the Jack Reacher series. Alan Ritchson will, of course, return as Reacher and Maria Sten will also return to co-star as Frances Neagley. In Persuader, Reacher goes undercover to rescue an informant who is captured by a foe from Reacher’s past. Season 3 is currently filming in Toronto.
Bullseye returning for Daredevil: Born Again: A familiar foe is returning to Daredevil: Born Again with Wilson Bethel returning as Benjamin Poindexter aka Bullseye. Bethel was the main adversary of Matt Murdock in Season 3. Bethel will allegedly appear in 3 of the 18 episodes of Daredevil: Born Again, which has had a tumultuous production, completely changing direction and showrunners and getting delayed last year by the dual strikes.
New Jurassic World movie in development: Despite the marketing that Jurassic World: Dominion was going to wrap up the series, a new Jurassic movie is in development at Universal. David Koepp, who wrote the original Jurassic Park, is writing the new movie, which will relaunch the series with a new story and characters that won’t involve any of the legacy characters from the original trilogy or the recent trilogy. Frank Marshall is on board to produce, with Steven Spielberg executive producing.
G20 action movie adds cast members: The Viola Davis starring action movie G20 has added several cast members this week. Anthony Anderson, Marsai Martin, Ramón Rodríguez, Antony Starr, Douglas Hodge, Elizabeth Marvel, Sabrina Impacciatore, and Clark Gregg have all joined the cast and the movie follows Davis as President Danielle Sutton, who must use her past military experience to battle terrorists that have taken over the G20 summit. Amazon is producing the movie.
Book of Eli prequel series in development: A prequel to The Book of Eli is in development with John Boyega taking over the role of Eli from Denzel Washington. The original movie was set in a post-apocalyptic wasteland with Denzel playing Eli, a skilled warrior who is on a mission to deliver a sacred book that holds the secret to humanity’s salvation. The new series is set 30 years before the movie and will be just before or immediately after the nuclear disaster that caused the apocalypse. The series is going to soon be shopped to various platforms. AMC is currently streaming the movie.
