News Shotgun 3/22/25
Here’s all the movie and TV news you need to know from the past week; it’s the News Shotgun.
Robert Patrick and Beau Knapp join Tulsa King: Joining Stallone and Co. for the recently confirmed third season of Tulsa King on Paramount+ are Robert Patrick and Beau Knapp as a father-son duo. Patrick is Jeremiah Dunmire, “a powerful, forceful man with deep pockets in the liquor business,” and Knapp is his son Cole, who is “a trust fund country boy with crazy in his eyes.” The third season is currently in production.
Robbie Amell and Victoria Justice starring in new Josh Trank movie: Robbie Amell and Victoria Justice will star in Send a Scare for director Josh Trank. The movie is a horror thriller that follows a startup that creates interactive horror experiences for customers who want to thrill/scare their friends and family. At an investor meeting, a real killer infiltrates the experience and begins killing people. This will be Trank’s first film since 2020’s Capone, which itself was his first movie after the disaster that was 2015’s Fantastic Four.
Austin Abrams in talks to star in Resident Evil: After the news that Barbarian director Zach Cregger is taking over Resident Evil for a new movie, it seems like casting is starting to get underway with Wolfs co-star Austin Abrams in talks to star. The movie is being sold as going back to the horror roots of the video game franchise, but it’s unclear if it will be another retelling of the original game or something else. Abrams worked with Cregger on his upcoming movie Weapons, which is scheduled for release next year.
Jason Bourne rights up for grabs: The estate of Robert Ludlum and WME have put the rights to the Bourne franchise up for auction as the rights leave Universal. Skydance, Apple, and Netflix are all apparently interested in bidding on the franchise. Universal has had the rights since before 2002’s The Bourne Identity hit theaters, put out five films, and added a stunt show to their theme park in Orland, The Bourne Stuntacular.
Severance renewed for Season 3: After significantly increasing its viewership during the recently wrapped Season 2, Severance will return for a third season on AppleTV+. The series became the most-watched series on the streaming platform during Season 2’s run. Apparently, the reports that Apple loses $1 billion a year on their streaming service aren’t a factor in keeping their popular shows going.
Split Fiction getting a movie adaptation: After only being out for a few weeks, a movie adaptation of Hazelight Studios’ Split Fiction is in the works. A bidding war for the rights is underway, with several major studios in the mix. Story Kitchen, the media company also developing Hazelight’s It Takes Two into a film, is working on getting a package together, including the script and casting, for Split Fiction. The game follows two authors, one who writes fantasy and the other who writes science-fiction, who become trapped in the worlds they created and have to work together to find a way out.
Regé-Jean Page starring and producing a new Count of Monte Cristo: Bridgerton star Regé-Jean Page has signed on to produce and star in a new adaptation of the classic Alexandre Dumas novel, The Count of Monte Cristo. Page will presumably play Edmond Dantès, a merchant sailor who is betrayed and sent to prison, where he plots his escape and revenge. The novel received a large Hollywood adaptation in 2002, and a new French adaptation was released last year to massive critical acclaim.
Sydney Sweeney starring in Reddit-inspired thriller: Sydney Sweeney will star in and produce a new thriller inspired by a story written on Reddit. From the r/nosleep subreddit, I Pretended to Be a Missing Girl is about a girl who impersonates a missing girl to rob her family but quickly realizes she’s made a horrible mistake. Oscar-winning screenwriter Eric Roth is writing the movie.
Coco 2 in development: Disney and Pixar are developing a sequel to Coco, set for release in 2029. No plot details exist, but Coco director Lee Unkrich will return to direct, joined by Adrian Molina. The original Coco received rave reviews from critics and audiences, making over $800 million worldwide and winning two Oscars.
RIP Wings Hauser: Prolific character actor Wings Hauser passed away this week at age 77. Hauser appeared in over 100 films and many genre movies, including horror and action movies. He appeared in movies like The Insider, A Soldier’s Story, Beastmaster 2: Through the Portal of Time, Tales from the Hood, Rubber, Vice Squad, Mutant, Nightmare at Noon, The Wind, Watchers III, Pale Blood, The Carpenter andTough Guys Don’t Dance. He also appeared on TV shows like CSI, Bones, Castle, The A-Team, and House.
Dane DeHaan joins Neuromancer: AppleTV+’s upcoming adaptation of Neuromancer has added Dane DeHaan in a major role. Based on William Gibson’s classic cyberpunk novel, the show follows a hacker and his assassin partner plotting a heist against a massive corporation. Callum Turner and Briana Middleton will star, with DeHaan and Joseph Lee; Mark Strong, Cleménce Poésy, and Peter Sarsgaard were also previously cast.
Coyote vs. Acme saved from obscurity: Coyote vs. Acme may actually see the light of day after being sacrificed by David Zaslav for tax purposes, with Ketchup Entertainment working out a deal to purchase the rights to the film from Warner Bros. Discovery. Ketchup recently released The Day the Earth Blew Up in theaters, which they also bought from WBD. Ketchup reportedly is looking to pay around $50 million for Coyote vs Acme and put it in theaters in 2026. The movie stars Will Forte, John Cena, and Lana Condor and features Wile E. Coyote taking the Acme Corporation to court for years of selling him faulty and dangerous equipment.
School Spirits renewed for a third season: Paramount+ has renewed their supernatural drama series School Spirits for a third season. The show stars Peyton List as a teen girl who gets stuck in the afterlife and must investigate how she got there and if there’s any way to return to the land of the living. The series saw a 94% increase in viewership from the first season’s premiere to the second season’s premiere. The third season will be released sometime next year.
Solar Opposites ending with Season 6: Hulu’s original animated series Solar Opposites will end with the sixth season. The show was initially co-created and starred Justin Roiland, but he was removed from all aspects following his felony domestic abuse charges and replaced by Dan Stevens in the lead role. The show follows a family of aliens who crash land on Earth following the destruction of their home planet.
Percy Jackson renewed for a third season on Disney+: Before the second season debuts in December this year, Disney has renewed Percy Jackson and the Olympians for a third season. The show is based on the book series by Rick Riordan and stars Walker Scobell in the lead role. Percy discovers he’s the son of Poseidon and joins other demi-gods at Camp Half-Blood to train to become legendary heroes. In the first season, he’s accused of stealing Zeus’ lightning bolt and must go on a quest with allies Annabeth (Leah Sava Jeffries) and Grover (Aryan Simhadri) to get the bolt back and stop an all-out war between the gods. The second season is based on the second book, The Sea of Monsters, and season 3 will be based on The Titan’s Curse.
Amazon MGM finds Bond producing team: After the recent news that Amazon MGM acquired complete creative control over the James Bond series, they may have found their producing leadership team in Amy Pascal and David Heyman. The pair are in talks to lead the development of Amazon MGM’s future Bond projects, which will begin with a new film in the franchise. Pascal produced the Daniel Craig movies at Sony and was behind the Spiderverse and the MCU/Sony Tom Holland Spider-Man movies. Heyman was the leading producer behind the Harry Potter film series.
Darren Aronofsky in talks for Cujo: Netflix is seemingly moving fast after it was announced they got the rights to Stephen King’s Cujo as Darren Aronofsky is in talks to direct. Aronofsky is working on his film Caught Stealing, which stars Austin Butler and Zoe Kravitz and opens in August. Roy Lee, who produced Barbarian, is producing this new version of Cujo.
Texas Chainsaw rights up for grabs: After the much-maligned Netflix reboot of Texas Chainsaw, the rights to the horror franchise are up for grabs by rights holder Verve. Verve is taking pitches, one of which may be from Strange Darling director and writer JT Mollner, who has Glen Powell potentially interested in reading the script.
Colin Farrell in talks for Sgt. Rock: After Daniel Craig dropped out, Colin Farrell may be staying in the world of DC and is in talks to star in the upcoming Sgt. Rock movie. The movie is directed by Luca Guadagnino and is based on the DC World War II character Sgt. Rock, who led Easy Company against the Nazis and was one of the greatest soldiers in the war, able to take down German planes with a submachine gun, survive gunshot wounds and other injuries, and be an expert hand-to-hand fighter. There are comic stories where Rock survives into the modern era a la Captain America and interacts with the DC staple of superheroes, but this movie seems to be a standalone “Elseworlds” story and not part of the new universe being overseen by Jame Gunn and Peter Safran.
