This week’s Ketchup includes several movie development news stories involving sequels, such as “threequels” for both The Best Man and Insidious, and a sequel to… It’s a Wonderful Life? Say it isn’t so, Clarence! There’s also news about a Peter Pan prequel, the Gran Turismo video game adaptation, and a biopic about author J.R.R. Tolkien.
Following the success that Marvel has had with movies like The Avengers and most recently, Thor: The Dark World, one of the hottest trends in Hollywood development is the idea of the “cinematic universe.” There’s been talk recently of such an approach being applied to Universal’s classic monsters, and of course, there’s Marvel’s Distinguished Competition and their movies starting with Man of Steel. And now, we have the news this week that Sony is developing its movies based on the Spider-Man characters it retains the film rights to in films besides just the sequels to The Amazing Spider-Man. No specific examples were given, but two of the more obvious candidates have to got to be Venom and Black Cat. In the comics, “Agent Venom” is now a superhero himself (and has a new host other than Eddie Brock). As for Black Cat, she’s a character that’s been teased as being in upcoming movies since before Spider-Man 2, including recent rumors that Felicity Jones will be playing her in the next movie. Before one feels too sorry for Marvel not being able to include Spider-Man and the various spinoff movies in their own cinematic plans, a related story revealed that Sony is making these plans in close conjunction with Marvel and Disney. After all, Sony may own the movie rights, but Disney and Marvel stand to profit handsomely off the rights to just about everything else related to the movies. The Amazing Spider-Man 2 (which may be getting a new subtitle soon) will feature at least Electro and Rhino (and potentially others) when it’s released in theaters on May 2, 2014.
Although Jack Nicholson has never officially “retired” from acting, in the six years since The Bucket List, he’s only appeared in one film (2010’s poorly received How Do You Know). This week, Tom Cruise and director Doug Liman (Swingers, The Bourne Identity) went to Nicholson’s home in the Hollywood Hills to try to convince Jack to costar with Cruise in the Warner Bros comedy El Presidente. Cruise told Nicholson that if he didn’t agree to do the movie, neither would Cruise. The two actors previously costarred together in the 1992 legal drama A Few Good Men, which earned Nicholson the tenth of his twelve (!) Academy Award nominations. Doug Liman also recently directed Tom Cruise in the upcoming science fiction action movie Edge of Tomorrow. If Tom and Jack do indeed reach an agreement, they would costar as ” a straight-arrow Secret Service agent (Cruise) who is assigned to protect America’s worst former president (Nicholson), an alcoholic and womanizing sleazebag who was elevated from VP when the president died.” The comedy has been in development for a few years at Warner Bros, including a period during which Robert Downey Jr. was expected to possibly play the Secret Service agent.
Back in 20011, one of the stories covered by the Weekly Ketchup involved the movie rights to a fictional book called Mirkwood about author J.R.R. Tolkien possessing “ancient documents that tell of a halfling heroine named Ara and a history that inspired Tolkien’s Middle Earth.” And that was pretty much the last we heard of it (except that Tolkien’s estate was not too wild about Mirkwood existing). This week, we found out that another project is throwing its hat into the doubly proverbial ring. Producer Peter Chernin (Rise of the Planet of the Apes) is now developing a J.R.R. Tolkien biopic for Fox Searchlight. The focus will be on J.R.R. Tolkien’s years fighting for England in World War I, and how the experience of losing many friends in the war inspired him to write The Hobbit and (especially) the Lord of the Rings trilogy. The project is being written by a fan named David Gleeson (who also wrote and directed the 2003 indie film Cowboys and Angels). For now, this project is being planned as a single film, though that could change if Peter Jackson eventually gets involved (zing!).
There were surely doubters out there who were wondering a year ago why Universal Pictures ever agreed to produce a sequel to a 1999 comedy that some people had probably forgotten even existed. Those voices were answered soundly last Friday when The Best Man Holiday actually beat another sequel (Thor: The Dark World) in box office for that day. Marvel’s movie went on to win its second weekend, but the margin was still way, way closer than most people would have expected. And so, writer-director Malcolm D. Lee is now filthy rich a few times over, and Universal Pictures has started negotiations with Lee for a third movie in what could effectively become a Best Man trilogy. None of the ensemble cast are currently signed for a third movie, so new deals would have to be set up with each of them (including Morris Chestnut, Taye Diggs, Terrence Howard, Sanaa Lathan, Nia Long and Harold Perrineau). Speaking of sequel negotiations, Terrence Howard also made the news for something else this week.
Javier Bardem is now in early talks with Warner Bros to take the lead villain role in their Peter Pan origin story titled simply Pan. What’s most surprising about the news is the name of the “lead pirate villain,” because his last name doesn’t rhyme with book, nook, or crook. Instead, Javier Bardem is in talks to play Blackbeard, which was the infamous alias of real life 18th century pirate Edward Teach. It’s not yet known if this is because Pan is an origin story (ie, set before Peter Pan ever even meets Captain Hook), or if Blackbeard becomes Captain Hook, Hook works for Blackbeard, or what. Director Joe Wright (Hanna, Atonement) is also in talks to direct Pan, working from a script by Jason Fuchs, cowriter of Ice Age: Continental Drift.
The classic British horror production company Hammer Film Productions has had a few successes since being revived several years ago, and they did it without doing what some may have expected (ie, remaking their old movies). Instead, Hammer has in recent years produced such movies as the vampire remake Let Me In and the ghost story The Woman in Black. This week, Hammer announced plans to indeed remake one of their older films, but it’s not any film that one might have guessed. Instead, Hammer is developing a remake of the 1957 monster movie The Abominable Snowman, which featured Peter Cushing in one of the lead roles two years before he starred in the movie which arguably began what most people consider the “Hammer era”: The Curse of Frankenstein (1957). This remake will reportedly put a “modern twist” on the concept of the Yeti, as “a scientific expedition?s illegal assent up an unclimbed peak of one of the World?s most formidable mountains accidentally awakens an ancient creature that could spell a certain end for them all.” The script was written by the team of Matthew Read (Pusher) and Jon Croker (The Woman in Black: Angel of Death).
This writer was very ready to “hate on” this story. And then those pesty little things like “facts” got in the way. First, the evidence for the opposition: Columbia Pictures is now developing a feature film based upon the long-running SCE video game series Gran Turismo. After all, the Gran Turismo games are pretty much just driving simulators. There is no story there…. right? Ah, if only panning movies years before they’re even made was quite that easy. The first evidence in favor of the Gran Turismo movie is that the producers are the team of Michael De Luca, Kevin Spacey, and Dana Brunetti, who are coming off their recent box office and critical hit Captain Phillips. They have also procured screenwriter Alex Tse, who (with David Hayter) achieved what many thought was impossible, when he successfully adapted Watchmen into a single movie (most problems people have with that movie are arguably not with the script). Finally, addressing the most obvious reason for doubt, producer Dana Brunetti quickly took to the ‘net this week to fill us in on how and why Gran Turismo will be adapted into a movie. And it actually makes sense. The movie’s premise will be inspired by the GT Academy, which is a real event in which Gran Turismo players compete online for a chance to actually travel to Dubai to see if their skills with the video game translate into real driving skills. Well done, producers of Captain Phillips. You’ve actually managed to make this writer excited about a movie based on a non-narrative video game. I still reserve the right to make Pong jokes though.
Following his role in The Dark Knight Rises, it sometimes feels like we’re running out of upcoming comic book movies for which Joseph Gordon-Levitt hasn’t been rumored (such as both Ant-Man and Doctor Strange). Since that all started with a WB/DC movie, it was probably inevitable that they would join Marvel in the JGL rumor mill. This week, a report emerged online about writer/producer David S. Goyer (Man of Steel; cowriter of Batman Begins) pitching Warner Bros on a new Sandman movie project. For the unfamiliar, Sandman was a DC Comics title by British writer Neil Gaiman for the Vertigo imprint back in the 1980s which reimagined Sandman as being Morpheus, AKA Dream, one of seven siblings which represent various concepts, as long as they start with the letter D (like Death, Destruction, Delirium, Despair, etc). The goth scene of the 1990s just wouldn’t have been the same without Sandman. Anyway, the story claims that Joseph Gordon-Levitt is involved with the project, and also that JGL will deny his involvement (as stars are wont to do). There’s been talk of a Sandman movie off and on for over ten years now, dating back to the height of the character’s popularity. Is this time different? We’re going to give this story a borderline “Rotten” tag just because in the fifteen years since Dark City, there are twelve movies on Davd S. Goyer’s RT Tomatometer, and the only Fresh movies were the three Christopher Nolan Batman movies.
Much has been written in 2013 about all of the high profile movies (especially sequels and franchise entries) that are scheduled for 2015. This week, another addition was made, when Focus Features announced a release date of April 3, 2015 for Insidious Chapter 3. Not much is currently known about this third film, such as whether any of the cast (like Patrick Wilson and Rose Byrne) will return, or whether director James Wan will have time, due to his being busy being Fast and Furious (for #7 and possibly #8). Although the first film was 66% Certified Fresh, the sequel Insidious Chapter 2 wasn’t, and so that’s why the idea of an Insidious Chapter 3 is “Rotten” this week. Universal Pictures (the corporate cousin of Focus Features) also announced this week a release date of June 20, 2014 for the sequel to The Purge, which may be titled The Zone.
When we lazy movie news writers want to make our obligatory April Fool’s Day jokes, there’s a few easy wells to dip into. Sequels to Hollywood classics like Citizen Kane and It’s a Wonderful Life are right on top of that hypothetical list. Our fun was nearly ruined this week when two interests announced plans for a holiday sequel called It’s a Wonderful Life: The Rest of the Story to be released in late 2015. The story included the casting of 73 year old former child actress Karolyn Grimes reprising her role as Zuzu Bailey (she of the petals and the ringing bell), returning to act as a guardian angel to George Bailey III. And… this is the part where Paramount Pictures puts the brakes on all that (or is at least trying to). It seems Paramount did not grant the producers the rights to produce a sequel. Although It’s a Wonderful Life (the movie) is in the “public domain,” Paramount retains the rights to the original 1939 short story “The Greatest Gift” which the movie was based upon. The greater issue here, of course, is that It’s a Wonderful Life is a cherished Hollywood classic that is beloved by millions, and the idea of a sequel, even with the best talent and intentions… not so much.
For more Weekly Ketchup columns by Greg Dean Schmitz, check out the WK archive, and you can contact GDS via Facebook.
