News Shotgun 11/16/24
Here’s all the movie and TV news you need to know from the past week, it’s the News Shotgun.
Friday Night Lights reboot in development: Universal Television is looking to reboot Friday Night Lights with producers Jason Katims, Pete Berg, and Brian Grazer on board. The new series will be set in a new town, still based around high school football, following new characters. The franchise originally began as a book by H.G. Bissinger, which became a 2004 Peter Berg movie, and then the TV series starring Kyle Chandler and Connie Britton.
Forbidden Planet reboot in development: Sci-fi classic Forbidden Planet is getting a reboot from Warner Bros. Discovery with comic book legend Brian K. Vaughn writing the script. The original film came out in 1956 and starred Leslie Nielsen and also introduced the world to Robbie the Robot, one of the most enduring pop culture robots. There were massive issues regarding rights issues to the original film that prevented any remake or reboots from happening previously.
Godzilla Minus One director signs on for next project: While he is working on a follow-up to the Oscar-winning Godzilla Minus One, Takashi Yamazaki will be making his first English-language film for Sony and Bad Robot. Grandgear is the title of the film, but plot details have not been revealed. Yamazaki wrote the script and directed the film.
Zack Snyder directing LAPD action movie for Netflix: Zack Snyder is sticking with Netflix for one of his next projects, an LAPD based action thriller that is currently untitled. Snyder is co-writing the script with Kurt Johnstad, who he worked with previously on 300 and Rebel Moon.
Sophie Turner in talks to play Lara Croft: Game of Thrones star Sophie Turner is in talks to play video game icon Lara Croft in the upcoming Amazon live-action adaptation of Tomb Raider. Phoebe Waller-Bridge is developing the series, which is apparently a passion project for the Fleabag creator. Hayley Atwell most recently played Lara in the Netflix animated series The Legend of Lara Croft, set in the Crystal Dynamics game universe.
Freevee shutting down: Amazon is shutting down its FAST (Free, Ad-supported TV) service, Freevee, which will be gradually phased out over the next several weeks. Most of the content that was on Freevee, like the acclaimed reality series Jury Duty, will be available on Prime Video. Amazon also introduced a different set of live channels built into the Prime Video app that made Freevee redundant.
Poker Face Season 2 adds guest stars: Poker Face Season 2 is keeping up the first season’s run of big-name guest stars, with several announced this week. Awkwafina, Corey Hawkins, Simon Rex, and Method Man will all appear in the second season of the mystery series. It was previously announced that Giancarlo Esposito, Katie Holmes, Gaby Hoffmann, Kumail Nanjiani, Sherry Cola, Kevin Corrigan, Ben Marshall, Kathrine Narducci, Cynthia Erivo, BJ Novak, Margo Martindale, John Mulaney, Ego Nwodim and Sam Richardson would all appear in the second season.
