This week’s Ketchup brings you another ten headlines from the world of film development news (those stories about what movies Hollywood is working on for you next). Included in the mix this time around are stories about such titles as Barbie, Detective Pikachu, the female spinoff of 21 Jump Street, and new roles for Sacha Baron Cohen, Jodie Foster, and Joachin Phoenix.
We’ve known since 2014 since one of the new franchises that is a top priority for Sony Pictures is one based on Mattel’s Barbie, but what wasn’t clear was exactly what that meant. Specifically, what would a live-action Barbie movie be about? With today’s early casting news, we now have an answer, and it starts with the news that Amy Schumer (Trainwreck) is in talks to star in the Barbie movie. In a story described as being in the vein of Enchanted, Splash, and Big, Amy Schumer will play a character who gets kicked out of “Barbieland” for not being perfect enough, landing her in the real world (which makes it sound the most like Enchanted). The original Barbie screenplay was written by TV’s Hilary Winston (several episodes each of Community, My Name is Earl), but it will now be rewritten by Amy Schumer’s sister, Kim Caramele, to match it best to Schumer’s strengths. Caramele also wrote much of Inside Amy Schumer, and cowrote Schumer’s untitled comedy with Goldie Hawn (due out May 12, 2017). This first Barbie movie doesn’t have a director yet, it is expected to start filming sometime in 2017, aiming for a release date in the summer of 2018.
The presidential election was less than a month ago, but it appears that we’re already seeing the results being reflected in the choices that various creative types are making. The most obvious example this week involves satirical comedian Sacha Baron Cohen (Borat, The Dictator), who is best known for his improvisational comedies that blend in encounters with unsuspecting “real” people. Fox Searchlight is now considering picking up Cohen’s next film, called Greed, in which he will play a “cut-throat retail billionaire… inspired by the lavish lifestyles of the elite, perma-tanned billionaire businessmen who shamelessly invest money into offshore tax havens, a parody of the unacceptable face of capitalism.” Greed will be directed by Michael Winterbottom, whose previous comedies have included The Trip, The Trip to Italy, and 2005’s Tristram Shandy: A Cock & Bull Story.
It’s now been over twenty years since River Phoenix’s nearly-unknown younger brother Joaquin costarred with Nicole Kidman in director Gus Van Sant’s To Die For. Based on this week’s news, however, Phoenix and Van Sant may soon be working together again. No deals are in place yet, but the pair are reportedly teaming up again on the biopic Don’t Worry, He Won’t Get Far on Foot. Gus Van Sant’s last few movies have received Rotten scores, but before 2011, his record included several Certified Fresh movies. This film will be an adaptation of the life of quadriplegic cartoonist John Callahan, who lost the use of his arms and legs in a car accident at the age of 21. As a cartoonist, Callahan taught himself how to hold a pen in his hands, and then move the pen using his mouth. You can browse examples of Callahan’s cartoon art here. John Callahan died in 2010 at the age of 59.
John Goodman might be best known as one of the Coen Brothers’ frequent collaborators (The Big Lebowski, O Brother Where Art Thou?) and as Dan on TV’s Roseanne, but in the last few years, Goodman has also been dabbling more in science fiction. In addition to this year’s 10 Cloverfield Lane, he also voices Hound in the Transformers franchise, has lent his voice to Ratchet & Clank, and is one of the stars of next year’s Kong: Skull Island and (again in a voice role) Valerian and the City of a Thousand Planets. This week, Goodman signed on for yet another science fiction film, though that’s about all we know about the movie, called Captive State. Just about the only other major detail we know about Captive State right now is that it is planned to be the fourth film of director Rupert Wyatt (after The Escapist, Rise of the Planet of the Apes, and 2014’s remake of The Gambler).
Now that the fourth Divergent movie is skipping theaters, and other such franchises have basically come to a stop, it might seem like Hollywood has given up on adaptations of YA novels set in dystopian and/or post-apocalyptic futures. The studio that had the biggest success with is Lionsgate (The Hunger Games), even though they’re also the ones to pull the plug on the fourth Divergent theatrical release. The movie that seems to be their next foray into the genre is called Chaos Walking, based on a novel by author Patrick Ness. We’ve known for a while that Star Wars: The Force Awakens’ Daisy Ridley was going to star in Chaos Walking, and this week, we learned that she will be joined by Spider-Man: Homecoming star Tom Holland. Chaos Walking will be set in a dystopian future where a germ/virus has killed all of the women. Holland will play a young man on the run with his dog who is surprised to find a girl (played by Daisy Ridley). The film will be directed by Doug Liman, whose previous science fiction films have included Jumper and Edge of Tomorrow.
Earlier this summer, while the nation and the world in general was temporarily obsessed with the mobile game Pokemon Go, Legendary Pictures jumped at the opportunity to produce a live action Pokemon movie about the character Detective Pikachu. The popularity of Pokemon Go has settled down a bit, but Legendary Pictures is still very serious about fast tracking the Detective Pikachu movie. To that end, the company has hired director Rob Letterman to work on the film. Although he hit a speed bump with the Jack Black comedy Gulliver’s Travels in 2010, reteaming with Black again last year for Goosebumps led to something of a surprise success, with earning Certified Fresh score of 76 percent. The Detective Pikachu screenplay is being worked on by Alex Hirsch (TV’s Gravity Falls) and Nicole Perlman (Guardians of the Galaxy).
Sometimes, film projects are kept shrouded in such mystery that we don’t really have much to tell you except the skimpiest of details, and maybe the star or director. That’s pretty much what’s going on this week with Hotel Artemis, which is described as a near-future crime thriller. That’s it as far as knowing “what” it is. The other two most interesting details is that Jodie Foster will star in the film, and that it will mark the feature film directorial debut of screenwriter Drew Pearce. Pearce’s work as screenwriter has included cowriting duties on (possibly coincidentally) both Iron Man 3 and the future sequel Sherlock Holmes 3 (starring Robert Downey Jr and Jude Law).
Some movie development news may seem fairly obvious, but it’s often difficult to tell what’s true and what isn’t until it’s clearly stated or debunked. One such example of that could be this month’s Rogue One: A Star Wars Story (12/16/16), and the question about whether this first Star Wars spinoff might receive its own sequel. (The obvious answer in this case? No.) This week producer Kathleen Kennedy (when she wasn’t “spoiling” certain story beats) confirmed that there are no plans for Rogue One: A Star Wars Story to ever receive its own sequel. Indeed, since Rogue One is a prequel set just before the original 1977 Star Wars, if you’ve seen that movie, then you’ve already seen the closest Rogue One will ever have to a “direct sequel.”
It’s probably all a huge coincidence, but in 2017, the year after the building of a wall dominated political news, there are going to be two major new movies with Wall in the title, and this week brought news of another one, probably for 2018. Next year, Matt Damon will star in the Chinese action-fantasy The Great Wall (2/17/17), and Aaron Taylor-Johnson (Avengers: Age of Ultron) and John Cena (Trainwreck) will star in the Iraq War sniper drama The Wall (3/10/17). The third movie is a World War II drama called Atlantic Wall, and this week, we learned that Bradley Cooper is attached to star. Cooper will play “a lone American paratrooper stranded behind enemy lines hours before D-Day… [whose] assignment is to deliver intelligence critical to the outcome of the war, and he is compelled to fulfill a promise to protect the young son of a murdered ally.” Atlantic Wall will be the next film for director Gavin O’Connor, who has delivered three Rotten films (Pride and Glory, Jane Got a Gun, The Accountant) in his last four efforts (to be fair, 2011’s Warrior was Certified Fresh).
The subject of career prospects for female directors has been a popular subject this year — at least on social media — from the #52FilmsByWomen project, to columns like this and much of what is covered by sites like The Mary Sue. A common point of discussion has been about the disparity that some see between the ability of new male directors to land hot assignments in Hollywood versus what their female counterparts seem to be able to land (the gist of this column). With all that said, when there was talk this year that Sony Pictures was interested in doing a female spinoff of 21 Jump Street (ie, female stars instead of Jonah Hill and Channing Tatum), it probably looked like an obvious opportunity for a female screenwriter or director. Well, no, not so much, because Sony Pictures has decided to hire screenwriter Rodney Rothman to make his directorial debut with the female spinoff of 21 Jump Street (which he will also write). Previously, Rothman co-wrote the boxing comedy Grudge Match and the sequel 22 Jump Street.
