The Weekly Ketchup is back after two special yearly editions, which means that this time around, we’re recapping 21 days of news from the world of film development. Most of Hollywood takes those weeks off from making big announcements, but ten big stories did generate headlines, starting in mid-December. Included in the mix this time around are news stories involving such film titles as Baywatch, Creed 2, Cruella, Fantastic Voyage, Ready Player One, and Christopher Nolan’s Dunkirk.
While most of Hollywood was taking its annual 3-week holiday vacation, most of the news either involved Star Wars: The Force Awakens, or the obligatory annual wrap-up pieces (and their companion pieces). That sort of instituionalized news vacancy left a big hole for someone of an appropriate stature to make an announcement that would ensure it would be the big project people would be talking about. This year, that acclaimed personage was director Christopher Nolan, whose future has been a big question mark following the late 2014 release of Interstellar. Would Christopher Nolan deliver another science fiction film, perhaps, or maybe return to DC Comics for another superhero film (after directing three Batman/Dark Knight movies)? Warner Bros had already announced a July 21, 2017 release date for Nolan’s next film, but that only made the mystery more alluring. On December 28th, the news started to break. The answer ended up being pretty much the opposite of the predictable: Christopher Nolan’s next film as director will be called Dunkirk, and it will be a World War II action adventure movie about the 1940 Battle of Dunkirk. In that military action, British, Belgian, and French forces attempted to rescue and evacuate over 300,000 troops who were surrounded by German forces in the French city of Dunkirk. Nolan is expected to cast several unknowns (or near-unknowns) in the lead roles, with known actors taking supporting roles. Right now, three such actors who are in talks with Nolan are Tom Hardy (his Bane from The Dark Knight Rises), Kenneth Branagh, and Mark Rylance. Composer Hans Zimmer will also be working again with Nolan on Dunkirk when it invades theaters on July 21, 2017.
This is not really a spoiler for anyone who’s been following the Rocky franchise (since he died in Rocky 4, in 1985), but Rocky’s original opponent, Apollo Creed, has been gone for a really, really long time. The absence of Apollo Creed, as played in the earlier films by Carl Weathers, was obviously a key element in the drama of last year’s hit franchise spinoff, Creed. Now, as attention is turning towards a Creed sequel, Sylvester Stallone is revealing that he has an idea of how to bring Carl Weathers back. Stallone is comparing Creed 2 to The Godfather Part II, saying that the plan may be to have the story set partially in the past, so that Carl Weathers can return as Apollo Creed for one more movie. And Stallone himself will also be returning for at least that part of the film, as well. Right now, the biggest question is whether Creed 2 will be directed by Ryan Coogler, who is next expected to direct Marvel’s Black Panther.
Much of the last 15 months or so of film development news has been dominated by Walt Disney Pictures’ continuing efforts to return to their classic films via live action adaptations and prequels. This has mostly involved new films being added to their lengthy list (which is now over 15 film projects), but what happens less frequently is any news about actual actors and actresses. That’s because that is a much more advanced level of film development. This week, the 101 Dalmatians prequel involving the young Cruella de Vil hit upon exactly that landmark en route to actual production. Walt Disney Pictures hopes to start filming Cruella later this year, and to get that started, the studio is now in early talks with Emma Stone to star as Cruella. There’s no director yet for Cruella, but the film is being written by Kelly Marcel, who worked with Disney on their Mary Poppins drama, Saving Mr. Banks.
In 1966, when the original Fantastic Voyage was released, the idea of microscopic vehicles performing surgery inside living people was strictly science fiction. We may not yet be able to shrink actual people and ships like in Fantastic Voyage, but modern medicine does now utilize tiny devices that are just on the verge of that sort of medical “adventure.” All of that is probably why 20th Century Fox has been trying to remake Fantastic Voyage for well over a decade now. The filmmakers who have tackled Fantastic Voyage during that time have included James Cameron (who did Avatar instead), Rolan Emmerich (who did 2012 instead), Paul Greengrass (who did Captain Phillips instead), and Shawn Levy (who directed The Internship instead). What 20th Century Fox needed to find was a director who is currently in the opposite situation; someone actively between projects. Enter Guillermo Del Toro, who until a few months ago had been expected to be filming his (now shelved) Pacific Rim sequel right around now. Although Del Toro has in his career been attached to many high-concept genre movies, Fantastic Voyage has the advantage of a long development cycle. It’s also something of a nice transition for a director formerly known for working with giant monsters in Pacific Rim and the Hellboy movies.
Though the Australian actor is in his late 40s, he has only in recent years begun to attract more prominent roles. Mendelsohn’s profile is definitely on the upswing, however, especially after this year landing one of the lead roles in the next Star Wars movie, Rogue One: A Star Wars Story (12/16/16). Now, Ben Mendelsohn is in early talks to take one of the central roles in Steven Spielberg’s adaptation of the Ernest Cline novel Ready Player One. Set in a near future where a virtual reality world has become the focus of most people’s lives, the main story involves a VR treasure hunt with the prize being the inheritance of the entire corporate empire, ala Charlie and the Chocolate Factory. Based on how the villain role is described, it appears that Ben Mendelsohn would be playing Nolan Sorrento, an executive who is seeking to cheat the competition to retain his power. The lead role of Wade hasn’t been cast yet, but we do know that the female lead, Art3mis, will be played by Olivia Cooke (Bates Motel). Warner Bros has scheduled Ready Player One for release on December 15, 2017.
After a scouting trip conducted by director F. Gary Gray (The Italian Job, Straight Outta Compton), Universal Pictures is now moving forward with the paperwork to make film production history. If all goes according to plan, Universal’s Furious 8 will become the first major Hollywood production to film scenes in Cuba since President Barack Obama announced in 2014 his intentions to lift decades-long restrictions against the Marxist nation. Most of the filming of Furious 8 will be focused in the Atlanta, Georgia, area, but Cuba may also be joined by filming in Iceland and Russia. If Furious 8 does film in Cuba, it’s likely to result in a drastic automotive contrast, as most of the nation’s cars date back to the 1950s, and few new cars were imported into Cuba after the Cuban Revolution began in 1959. Universal Pictures has scheduled Furious 8 for release on April 14, 2017.
Aaron Sorkin first became famous for his run of successful TV dramas like Sports Night, The West Wing, and The Newsroom. Since 2007, however, Sorkin has also been turning in a series of critically hailed film screenplays, including Charlie Wilson’s War, The Social Network, Moneyball, and most recently, Steve Jobs. Aaron Sorkin is now poised to make another transition, as he is now signed to make his feature directorial debut. That film will be called Molly’s Game, and it will be based upon Molly Bloom’s memoir, which details how she went from being a former Olympic skiier to organizing a series of underground poker games for the Hollywood elite, including the likes of Ben Affleck, Tobey Maguire, and Leonardo DiCaprio. Aaron Sorkin is expected to start meeting with actresses about starring in Molly’s Game soon.
(Photo by Jason Merritt / Getty Images)
Hollywood doesn’t turn TV shows into movies quite as often as they did in the 1990s, but thanks to the success of 21 Jump Street, there are still some in the works. After years of development, Paramount Pictures’ movie reboot of Baywatch is now preparing to start filming soon. We’ve known for a while that the 2017 film will be directed by Seth Gordon (Horrible Bosses, Identity Thief), and three of the leads will be Zac Efron, Dwayne Johnson, and his San Andreas costar Alexandra Daddario. Well, this week, Sports Illustrated swimsuit model Kelly Rohrbach took to her Instagram account to announce that she has also joined the film. Johnson joined in the announcement, confirming that Rohrbach will be playing C.J. Parker, the role played on the original TV show by Pamela Anderson. These announcements included images of Rohrbach in the iconic red bikini associated with both Pamela Anderson’s character and the show in general.
(Photo by Robin Marchant / Getty Images)
We’re now less than a year away from the 11/4/16 release of Trolls, the DreamWorks Animation musical about the dolls made popular in the 1970s and 1980s. We’ve known for a while that the two leads will be voiced by Justin Timberlake and Anna Kendrick, but this week, DreamWorks and Fox announced more of the supporting cast. The various Trolls will also be voiced by No Doubt lead singer Gwen Stefani, James Corden (Into the Woods), Kunal Nayyar (TV’s The Big Bang Theory), comedians Russell Brand and Ron Funches, and the Swedish electropop duo Icona Pop. Trolls will be directed by Mike Mitchell (Shrek Forever After, Alvin and the Chipmunks: Chipwrecked), who has not had great luck with his Tomatometer, which is why this is one of the week’s “Rotten Ideas.”
One of the highest profile news threads running through most of 2015 was talk of where the mega-successful Transformers film franchise would go next, which reportedly included plans for spinoffs and prequels in the future. A lingering question amidst all of that involved director Michael Bay, who remains the only director of any live-action Transformers movie. Would someone else direct the fifth movie? Well, this week, we learned the answer is no, because Michael Bay will indeed direct the fifth Transformers movie, and then after that, he will finally hand the franchise off to someone else. Paramount Pictures is expected to schedule the fifth Transformers movie for sometime in the summer of 2017. Mark Wahlberg is also expected to return for his second outing in the franchise.
