TAGGED AS: Marvel, Superheroes
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 DC’s Lobo, Ready Player One, the Morrissey biopic, and Han Solo: A Star Wars Story.
When the news broke in 2014 that Harrison Ford had broken his leg while reprising his role as Han Solo in Star Wars: The Force Awakens, it might have seemed like that it was a sign that Ford would be unlikely to ever commit to such an action role again. This week, however, we learned that the actor will indeed be returning as the iconic character who is arguably Ford’s most action-driven. Lucasfilm and Walt Disney Pictures have announced a July 19, 2019 release date for the fifth Indiana Jones movie , to be directed once again by Steven Spielberg. This will likely be Spielberg’s third upcoming film, after The BFG (7/1/16) and Ready Player One (3/30/18). That release date also coincidentally happens to be just 6 days after what will be Harrison Ford’s 77th birthday, on July 13, 2019. We don’t know yet what form the fifth Indiana Jones movie will take, although based on Ford’s age, and Indiana Jones’ fictional birth year (1899), that the movie could be set in the “disco age” of the 1970s. We also learned this week that this fifth Indiana Jones will once again be written by screenwriter David Koepp, who infamously gave the world the scene where Indiana Jones avoids a nuclear blast by hiding in a refrigerator (real life spoiler: that wouldn’t work). In the past, Indiana Jones has had adventures involving the Ark of the Covenant, a death cult, the Holy Grail, and aliens. What do you think is next for Indy?
We’ve known for a while now that Lucasfilm’s second “A Star Wars Story” franchise, after this year’s Rogue One: A Star Wars Story (12/16/16), would be a prequel set much farther back, depicting the adventures of the much younger Han Solo (TBA 2018). In January, the news broke that Disney and Lucasfilm had considered over 2,500 young actors for the role. At that time, the potential actors included Ansel Elgort, Dave Franco, Aaron Taylor-Johnson (from one source), and Scott Eastwood, Blake Jenner, Logan Lerman, and Miles Teller (from another source). This week, the news broke that the two companies are getting closer to narrowing their selection down, with three names being disclosed as being among the handful of actors that might play the new, younger Han Solo. Those three actors are Alden Ehrenreich (the cowboy singing star in Hail, Caesar!), Taron Egerton (of both Eddie the Eagle and Kingsman: The Secret Service), and Jack Reynor (Transformers: Age of Extinction). This final group was reportedly selected from a group of ten actors that also included Emory Cohen, Ansel Elgort, and Miles Teller (it’s unclear if any of them are still in the running or not). Whoever actually does land the very sought-after role as the young Han Solo will be joined by a young Chewbacca and the directing team of Phil Lord and Christopher Miller (21 Jump Street, The LEGO Movie). Some sources list a release date for Han Solo: A Star Wars Story of May 25, 2018, but recent changes suggest Disney/Lucasfilm will move the film to December, 2018.
In between this summer’s children’s fantasy The BFG (7/1/16), and the recently confirmed 5th Indiana Jones (7/19/19), we know of at least one film that Steven Spielberg will be directing. That film will be an adapation of the popular science fiction novel, Ready Player One, by Ernest Cline (cowriter of 2009’s Fanboys). To date, we have heard casting news for two fo the film’s young stars (Tye Sheridan and Olivia Cooke), and the film’s corporate villain (Ben Mendelsohn). We’re still waiting on the third young co-lead (“Aech”), and the Steve Jobs-like character who sets about the Willy-Wonka-style treasure hunt that drives the entire story. This week, however, we did find out who will be playing Ogden Morrow, the story’s analogy to Apple’s Steve Wozniak, and it’s none other than fan favorite Simon Pegg. Steven Spielberg and Warner Bros plan on starting filming of Ready Player One in June, to get the film ready for its release date on March 30, 2018 (moved back recently from late 2017 to avoid direct competition with Star Wars Episode VIII).
For some directors, we only really hear about their films when they’re producing them, and those films are mostly what make up their eventual filmographies (Noah Baumbach, Woody Allen, and Christopher Nolan are good examples of this approach). Other directors, however, become known for their massive development slates, making the news a few times a year for new film possibilities. Guillermo Del Toro is definitely in that camp, with his name attached in recent years to more movies than he’s ever actually directed (Crimson Peak was GDT’s ninth feature film as director). Considering all of the options that have been floated around, it’s surprising therefore to learn this week that Guillermo Del Toro’s next film probably won’t be any of those (such as Frankenstein, Dr. Jekyl & Mr. Hyde, Justice League Dark, or Slaughterhouse-Five), but will instead be an original project. Octavia Spencer was the first actor to be announced for the mystery film, which is described as being a mysterious supernatural (and “otherworldy”) romance set in America during the Cold War period (specifically, 1963). That news was soon followed by the news that Sally Hawkins (Godzilla, Happy-Go-Lucky) has also joined the film, which Fox Searchlight expects to start filming this summer. Octavia Spencer is also attached to star in Fox 2000’s Hidden Figures (about the African American women who helped NASA solve mathematical challenges), along with Taraji P. Henson, Janelle Monae, Kevin Costner, and Kirsten Dunst.
Following the $174 million box office and critical success of Creed, it was probably inevitable that Hollywood would be seeking other similar stories to adapt next. One such true story is that of Claressa “T. Rex” Shields, who in 2012 became the first American woman to win an Olympic Gold Medal as a boxer, at the age of just 17. Shields, who celebrated her 21st birthday (St. Patrick’s Day), received quite a birthday present this week in the form of a biopic deal with Universal Pictures. That project will be shepherded by veteran producer Michael De Luca, whose filmography includes Captain Phillips, Moneyball, The Social Network, and the Fifty Shades of Grey franchise. Claressa Shields’ route to Olympic Gold, from her meager beginnings in Flint, MI was previously depicted in the 2015 documentary T. Rex (the rights to which were included in the life story rights deal). Claressa Shields also qualified, on her birthday, to compete as a Middleweight in this summer’s 2016 Olympics in Rio De Janeiro . It’s not yet known who will write, direct, or star in this Claressa “T. Rex” Shields biopic.
As time goes on, some musicians are able to create legacies and loyal fanbases that betray exactly how popular they were at the time (meanwhile, some bands and artists that actually had more hits at the time fade into obscurity). One singer from the 1980s and 1990s who has been something of a master at developing that sort of lifelong devotion is Steven Patrick Morrissey, AKA Morrissey, the solo act and former frontman of The Smiths. The Smiths didn’t play at Live Aid, and none of their albums (while they were still together) ever charted on the U.S. Billboard Top 200 higher than #55, but to many music fans, they are one of the most iconic 1980s groups. It’s in this environment that the news broke this week that Morrissey is going to finally become the subject of his own biopic. The movie will be called simply Steven, and it will tell the story of Morrissey as a teenager in 1970s and early 1980s Manchester, England, in the years leading to the formation of The Smiths. Morrissey will be portrayed by relative newcomer Jack Lowden, who recently costarred in the BBC mini-series adaptation of War & Peace. Steven will also mark the feature film debut of director Mark Gill (who also cowrote it), and filming is scheduled to start next month, in April, 2016.
In the documentary Waking Sleeping Beauty, about the animation studio’s slump years, there is a scene in which producer Jeffrey Katzenberg is portrayed as reacting to their 1985 animated film The Black Cauldron. Paraphrasing, Katzenberg reportedly said something like, “you’re scaring the children!”, about the film’s dark fantasy sequences (leading in a short time to Disney producing lighter fantasies like The Little Mermaid and Aladdin). Of course, tastes have changed a lot in the last 30 years, and the argument could be made that perhaps some scenes are actually less scary in live action than in traditional animation (less spooky, anyway). In that vein, consider the news this week that Walt Disney Pictures has re-acquired the film rights to the five novel series The Chronicles of Prydain by author Lloyd Alexander. It was the first two books of that series that were adapted in 1985 as The Black Cauldron. Based on Welsh mythology, The Chronicles of Prydain follow a young pigherd as he dreams of becoming an epic hero, through a series of adventures, fighting against the plots of the evil Horned King. It’s not yet known if Disney plans on just a single film, or five individual entries adapting the entire series.
There’s a reason people have been saying about Hollywood and the movie business that “no one knows anything.” Producers and fans alike are regularly surprised by what is (and isn’t) going to become a huge box office hit. Every once in a while, a movie like Deadpool comes along that seems to break several rules of “traditional wisdom,” and that movie does way better than most people expected. Just like what happened with Guardians of the Galaxy (which arguably led to this summer’s Suicide Squad), it immediately seemed obvious that Warner Bros and DC Comics would be “inspired” by the success 20th Century has had with Marvel’s Deadpool. One character that WB and DC have been trying to get on the big screen for several years now is the intergalactic bounty hunter known as Lobo. With a style similar to both Wolverine and “bikers”, Lobo became a popular character in the 1990s, around the same time that Deadpool was also becoming popular (for similar reasons). This week, the news broke that the Lobo film is back in development, with writing duties now being handled by screenwriter Jason Fuchs, who has previously worked on Pan (27% RT Tomatometer), Ice Age: Continental Drift (37%), and next year’s Wonder Woman. Those low scores are what makes this one of the week’s Rotten Ideas.
It was just two weeks ago that we heard that director Zack Snyder (Sucker Punch, Man of Steel) was considering directing a George Washington action movie, in the style of 300. That story came from a lengthier interview which touched on other subjects, and this week, the same thing happened again, but this time, Zack Snyder talked about his ideas for a completely different project. Zack Snyder revealed that he is also developing a new adaptation of Ayn Rand’s The Fountainhead (that’s the one about architect Howard Roark), based on Rand’s screenplay for the 1949 movie starring Gary Cooper. Such a film is most likely at least a few years away from getting made (if it ever does), since most of Snyder’s time in the next few years will be devoted to Justice League Part One (11/17/17) and Justice League Part Two (6/14/19). Zack Snyder’s RT Tomatometer since 2009’s Watchmen has been all “Rotten” scores (though next week’s Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice may change that?).
The success of the Fast and Furious franchise obviously shows that there is an audience for racing movies, but other attempts to replicate that in recent years have mostly not paid off (Need for Speed, Rush, Speed Racer, etc.). One film that did, however, was 2006’s Talladega Nights: The Ballad of Ricky Bobby. It’s possibly in that direction then that executives at Warner Bros are leaning this week with the news of their continued development of this racing comedy remake. That remake is The Cannonball Run, based on the 1981 movie featuring an ensemble cast (including Burt Reynolds, Dom DeLuise, Jackie Chan, Farrah Fawcett, and Roger Moore), which earned $72 million (in 1981 dollarydoos, that’s enough to make it the #6 movie of the year). For this remake, Warner Bros has hired director Etan Cohen, who made his debut last year with the Will Ferrell/Kevin Hart comedy Get Hard. That film received a “Rotten” score of just 29%, but Cohen’s career as a screenwriter earned better scores, such as with Tropic Thunder (Certified Fresh, 83%). Warner Bros hasn’t disclosed which stars they hope will star in this Cannonball Run remake, although given his ties to both Get Hard and Talladega Nights, one could theorize that Warner Bros might hope to recruit Will Ferrell to be… their new Burt Reynolds? Who would be Ferrell’s Dom DeLuise? And will you stay through the credits to see the gag/blooper reel?
