Two weeks after San Diego Comic-Con, Hollywood had one of the busiest weeks of the year with new projects and reports. This cavalcade of news includes Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice (and nine other DC Comics movies), the female Ghostbusters, the female Spider-Man spinoff, the return of the Vampire Chronicles franchise, and a movie spinoff of the original The Office TV series.
Out of context, it might seem silly that so much pressure and anticipation can be spent and exerted on something like movie release dates, but that is surely what has been going on at both Marvel Studios and Warner Bros/DC Comics for months now. The center of it all was the release date of May 6, 2016 (since The Mummy in 1999, that weekend has been associated with the “start of the summer season”). First, Marvel slated a “mystery” project on that date, then Warner Bros moved Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice there after it was clear they would not make a previously scheduled date in the summer of 2015. Things really heated up when Marvel Studios revealed that their 5/6/16 film was actually Captain America 3, soon after Captain America: The Winter Soldier had a huge opening earlier this year. It was at that point that the situation truly became a faceoff, with much electronic text spent on speculating on which studio would “blink” first and move to a different date. This week, Warner Bros announced that Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice has been moved up six weeks to March 25, 2016. In addition to separating from Captain America 3, this move also lands the movie (which also features Wonder Woman, Cyborg, and probably other heroes) to a time of the year which has a strong history with Warner Bros. The month of March is when Warner Bros released such films as The Matrix (1999), V for Vendetta (2006), 300 (2007), and Watchmen (2009). Now, obviously, none of those films had quite the same pre-release hype as the Batman/Superman movie, but there’s still some sort of precendent there. This would also be a good time to point out that the importance of seasonal releases might be gradually lessening. Captain America: The Winter Soldier, for example, was released on April 4, 2014, which is only a week later than the new date for Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice. You can follow this link to ComingSoon.net to read more from WB President Dan Fellman about this move, and there’s more release date fun down below in this column.
One of the continuing memes in Hollywood press in recent years concerns the issue of gender representation in film. Often, it’s about superhero movies (if you were a fictional character, you could ask Gamora, Black Widow, and Wonder Woman about this issue). On the comedy front, there was potentially a huge sea change this week when the online press learned that Sony Pictures is looking at talking to director Paul Feig (Bridesmaids) about rebooting the Ghostbusters franchise. The reason for this is that it’s not just a reboot with the same characters, but a new version that would have female Ghostbusters instead. This soon led to speculation from EW that the “all female” Ghostbusters might be a “stealth Bridesmaids reunion” with actresses like Melissa McCarthy, Kristen Wiig, and Maya Rudolph taking over the characters previously played by Bill Murray, Dan Aykroyd, and Harold Ramis. If it turns out to be correct, which of those actresses do commenters think would be best for which? This writer’s best guess: Melissa McCarthy as Venkman (she’s the biggest star, like Bill Murray was for Ghostbusters), and Kristen Wiig as Egon, which leaves us Maya Rudolph as Ray (admittedly, that role’s the harder one to peg down). Of course, this is all presuming and speculating on… stuff which might completely change.
Sony Pictures was really on a tear this week with the feminizing of popular franchises. The other big news that came out of the studio this week is that Sony Pictures has scheduled a Spider-Man spinoff for 2017 that will feature a female character. The big ??? to that story, however, is which character Sony is talking about. Although there are many, many supporting female characters within Peter Parker’s world, the online consensus seemed to quickly narrow the field down to three: Black Cat, Silver Sable, and “Spider-Woman.” The reason for the quotes on that last one (which might be the most obvious answer) is that it really depends on how one defines that name. Traditionally, Spider-Woman in the comics has been Jessica Drew, who doesn’t really have connections to Peter Parker (so therefore, Sony might not have the rights to her for movies). However, The Amazing Spider-Man and its sequel are much closer to being adaptations to Marvel’s “Ultimate” comics, and that’s where Spider-Woman might become possible, because that version is connected to Peter Parker (though we’re not going to spoil a movie from 2017 by saying how). Other possibilities include Spider-Woman II (AKA Arachne and Madame Web), Spider-Girl, and from out of left field, someone like Gwen Stacy’s clone (news flash: Gwen Stacy in the comics had a clone).
Along with the Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice release date move, this week Warner Bros also announced a total of 13 other release dates (all the way to 2020), and there’s a lot of mystery in these dates to speculate about. First off, the biggest story here is that nine of those release dates are for DC Comics adaptations… but we don’t know what they are. Even if one starts filling in obvious “easy guesses” like Justice League, Shazam!, The Flash, Green Lantern, Batman, Wonder Woman, The Sandman, and a third Man of Steel movie, that still leaves a spot open (maybe for Justice League 2). There’s also two new release dates on November 16, 2018 and November 20, 2020, for “mystery event” movies, which have a very good chance at being the second and third movies in J.K. Rowling’s Fantastic Beasts franchise, since the first movie, Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them, is scheduled for a similar date on November 18, 2016. Finally, Warner Bros also this week announced release dates for LEGO’s Ninjago (9/23/16) and The LEGO Movie sequel (5/26/17). There’s a lot of fodder there for speculation, that’s for sure. It’s also worth noting that the DC Comics dates seem to have very little correlation to the “scoop” in June that set the Internet ablaze with speculation.
In the same week in which the final nail was pretty much hammered on the notion of the original Ghostbusters appearing in the new movie, we learned about something else Bill Murray will be doing with his time. Bill Murray will be providing the voice of Baloo, the iconic bear who was basically the last remaining major animal character not already announced in Walt Disney Picture’s live action reboot of The Jungle Book. Murray joins a voice cast that also includes Idris Elba, Giancarlo Esposito, Sir Ben Kingsley, Lupita Nyong’o, Scarlett Johansson, and Christopher Walken. We also learned this week that Warner Bros is not letting Disney’s October 9, 2015 version stop them from proceeding with their own adaptation of The Jungle Book. That version, which is now called The Jungle Book: Origins is scheduled a year later, on October 21, 2016. Andy Serkis will be directing that movie which, as the title suggests, might be addressing Rudyard Kipling stories set before the adventures normally adapted by Disney. None of the actors for that movie have been announced yet, although it’s likely Andy Serkis will play a role using the motion capture technology he’s sort of become synonymous with (Gollum, King Kong, Caesar, etc).
The American adaptation ran for so long on NBC with Steve Carell starring that it seems easy to forget that the original The Office was actually Ricky Gervais’ BBC comedy creation. This week, BBC News revealed that Gervais is returning to the character of David Brent in a comedy called Life on the Road. The premise is that the comedy will show what David Brent’s life is like fifteen years after he left the Wernham Hogg paper company. Brent will be portrayed as “a travelling salesman financing a UK concert tour in the hopes of fulfilling his dreams of becoming a rock star.” Filming of Life on the Road is expected to start in the UK sometime in 2015. It’s currently unknown if Steve Carell or any of the actors from the NBC version of The Office will also have roles as those characters in this film (Ricky Gervais did reprise his role as David Brent on the NBC show).
This writer doesn’t know if this is true, but back in the day, Madeleine L’Engle’s A Wrinkle in Time and its sequels were novels that seemingly every girl of a certain age could be seen reading at some point. This strange little science fiction book about time travel and mysterious creatures was sort of like The Hunger Games of its time, except without all of the instant buzz and adaptations that come with being a pop culture phenomenon in the 21st century. Well, the opportunity for A Wrinkle in Time to become a 21st century pop culture sensation might be right around the corner now. Walt Disney Pictures has started development on an adaptation of A Wrinkle in Time, to be adapted by Jennifer Lee, who wrote and co-directed the studio’s mega-hit Frozen. There’s currently no director attached to A Wrinkle in Time, and while Jennifer Lee works on that script, she will continue to be active in Walt Disney’s “story trust,” working on movies like this year’s Marvel adaptation Big Hero 6.
Universal Pictures has its corporate hands in a lot of concerns these days (especially since Legendary moved there from Warner Bros last year). On the comedy front, the studio is actively and consistently represented these days by producer Judd Apatow. With Lorne Michaels no longer really producing movies for his Saturday Night Live alumni much anymore, it looks like it’s Apatow who is at least partly representing some of their concerns, as well. With that set up, we bring you the news that Universal Pictures and producer Judd Apatow are now developing a movie for the musical comedy trio The Lonely Island. Andy Samberg, Akiva Schaffer, and Jorma Taccone are the members of The Lonely Island, who in recent years have given us such musical gems as “Dick in a Box,” “Jizz in My Pants,” “I’m On a Boat,” and “I Just Had Sex.” Schaffer and Taccone will co-direct the comedy, set in the “music world,” and all three will have starring roles. It’s not yet known if the movie will have entirely new songs, entirely old songs, or some mix.
When author Anne Rice started publishing her Christ the Lord books in 2005, it looked for a while like she might have totally given up on The Vampire Chronicles, the franchise that not only made her famous, but arguably led to the vampire resurgence we’ve seen happening since the 1990s (Buffy the Vampire Slayer, Twilight, True Blood, all of that). Well, lately, Anne Rice has returned to embracing her undead creations, with Prince Lestat, the first Vampire Chronicles book in over 10 years, scheduled for October 28, 2014. And just like that, Hollywood is returning to her as well. Universal Pictures and Imagine Entertainment producer Brian Grazer have acquired the film rights to Anne Rice’s The Vampire Chronicles, which includes such books as Interview with the Vampire, The Vampire Lestat, and The Queen of the Damned. Alex Kurtzman and Roberto Orci are also on board as producers. The deal includes all existing and future novels, and a screenplay adaptation of Tale of the Body Thief, written by Christopher Rice (Anne’s son). There’s no word yet about which book might be adapted first, but Interview with the Vampire was the first book in the series, so that might be a good place to start. And that suggestion raises the question, what modern actors might wear the fangs formally bitten into by Brad Pitt (Louis), Antonio Banderas (Armand), and Tom Cruise (Lestat)?
In a week when one of the most consistent online complaints/memes was about the continuing proliferation of superhero movies, a movie representing two less successful trends made the news. Occupant Entertainment (The Wackness, Better Living Through Chemistry) is teaming up with Deep Silver, the video game publishing extension of Koch Media, to develop and produce a movie based on the Dead Island franchise. Occupant hopes to recruit a filmmaker in time to start filming in early 2015. It’s worth noting that “Koch Media” is a German company that has no affiliation with “the Koch Brothers” (it’s a pretty common name there). The world is still waiting for the first great video game adaptation to de-ghettoize the field (like movies like X-Men did for superhero movies early last decade), with the March, 2016 release of Warcraft currently a strong contender. The zombie subgenre is also in something of a lull, even with World War Z being a success last year, and The Walking Dead still popular on TV. For the purposes of this column, we’re going to say that Dead Island is a “Rotten Idea” because most of the games since the 2011 start have had mixed-to-negative reviews over at that-other-review-aggregation-website.
For more Weekly Ketchup columns by Greg Dean Schmitz, check out the WK archive, and you can contact GDS via Facebook.
