Today’s Ketchup brings you another ten headlines from the world of film development news, covering such titles as Charlie’s Angels, Coming to America 2, Men in Black 4, and the biopics Cleopatra and Roosevelt.
(Photo by Jon Kopaloff, Frederick M. Brown/Getty Images)
Nothing is set in stone yet, but we’re starting to get an idea of what the Charlie’s Angels reboot (6/7/2019) will look like. The TV show ran on ABC from 1976 to 1981, and was followed by two movies in 2000 and 2003 headlined by Drew Barrymore, Cameron Diaz, and Lucy Liu. Elizabeth Banks’ first film as a director was Pitch Perfect 2, and this reboot will be her second. Two stars Sony Pictures reportedly hopes will sign on are Kristen Stewart and Lupita Nyong’o. Aside from Snow White and the Huntsman, Stewart has mostly focused on smaller movies since Twilight, while Nyong’o is still best known for her breakout role in 12 Years a Slave and voice work in The Jungle Book and Star Wars: The Force Awakens (and an upcoming Internet-inspired Netflix movie with Rihanna). There’s no word yet about who the third Angel might be, or who might be cast as their male sidekick, Bosley.
(Photo by Warner Bros. Pictures)
Although Leonardo DiCaprio and director Martin Scorsese seem inexorably connected at the hip, it’s actually been four years since their last film together, 2013’s The Wolf of Wall Street. We don’t know for sure yet what their sixth film together will be, but possibilities have included adaptations of the true crime books The Devil in the White City and Killers of the Flower Moon, and recent rumors about the Joker supervillain prequel. As it sometimes happens, the actual answer might be “none of the above,” as the duo has set up a biopic of the 26th POTUS, Theordore “Teddy” Roosevelt, at Paramount for both of them to produce. Roosevelt is likely to cover multiple stages of Roosevelt’s career, including terms as the NYC Police Commissioner, New York’s governor, the leader of the Rough Riders during the Spanish-American War, the youngest President (to date), the founder of the National Parks system, and a key early leader in the Progressive movement.
(Photo by Jan Thijs/Paramount Pictures)
Director Denis Villeneuve already boasts one of the most impressively consistent Certified Fresh filmographies of any director currently working, and the early buzz and first reviews for next week’s Blade Runner 2049 indicate more of the same. Next up, Villeneuve appears to be set to take on an ambitious long-in-development biopic, as the French Canadian director is in discussions with Sony Pictures to tackle their adaptation of Cleopatra (based on the book by Stacy Schiff), about the famous Egyptian ruler. Angelina Jolie was at one time attached to star in Cleopatra, but it’s unclear if that’s still the case. Elizabeth Taylor starred in 1963’s Cleopatra, at one time considered one of the most expensive box office flops ever. Denis Villeneuve is also developing a remake of Frank Herbert’s Dune, which he’s expected to direct before Cleopatra is ready to shoot.
(Photo by Michael Gibson/Magnolia Pictures courtesy Everett Collection)
Ruben Fleischer‘s career Tomatometer is not great, despite an auspicious debut with 2009’s Certified Fresh Zombieland. We get that. But it just so happens that he’s working on two of this week’s biggest stories, and Fleischer’s Tomatometer aside, they’re both pretty interesting. One of them is Sony’s Venom (10/5/18), starring Tom Hardy (Mad Max: Fury Road) as Marvel’s slimy, oozy antihero. Four-time Academy Award nominee Michelle Williams (Brokeback Mountain, Blue Valentine, My Week with Marilyn, Manchester by the Sea) is in talks to co-star in Venom as a district attorney and potential love interest for Hardy’s Eddie Brock. It’s a little bit outside the indie wheelhouse where Williams has carved out a fantastic career, but if she and Hardy bring their A-game to bear on Venom, it could turn out to be something really special.
(Photo by Paramount Pictures)
It’s one thing to hear about a fantasy or science fiction film abstractly through news articles, and a completely different thing to see the dazzling eye candy months or years later. Such was arguably the case for the upcoming adaptation (2/23/18) of Jeff VanderMeer’s 2014 novel Annihilation. The movie stars Natalie Portman, Oscar Isaac, Gina Rodriguez, Tessa Thompson, and Jennifer Jason Leigh, and it was directed by Alex Garland (Ex Machina, Certified Fresh at 92%). As you can see in the trailer, Annihilation is about a team of experts who venture into a mysterious “Area X” and encounter lifeforms that defy description or explanation.
(Photo by Nicole Rivelli/Lionsgate, Mary Cybulski/Universal Pictures courtesy Everett Collection)
The second story involving Ruben Fleischer this week is vastly different than the first. Aside from Venom, Fleischer is also set to produce and direct a buddy cop comedy pairing wrestler-turned-actor John Cena and Silicon Valley star Kumail Nanjiani, whose autobiographical romantic comedy The Big Sick was the best-reviewed film of this summer. To reiterate, Fleischer’s spotty Tomatometer record is worth some consideration, but this idea admittedly has potential, and Cena has proven he’s got comedy chops enough to hang with the likes of Nanjiani. Here’s hoping this movie falls closer to Beverly Hills Cop or Lethal Weapon than, say, 2010’s Cop Out, which also seemed like a decent enough idea at the time.
(Photo by Paramount Pictures courtesy Everett Collection)
There is the argument to be made that when too much time passes, sequels reach their expiration date, but every once in a while, the decades of separation absolutely works to the sequel’s advantage (like, say, T2: Trainspotting or Richard Linklater’s upcoming Last Flag Flying). The Eddie Murphy comedy Coming to America (in which he plays an African prince) celebrates its 30th anniversary next year, and it just so happens that it’s now getting a surprise sequel, which will be written by Black-ish creator Kenya Barris and directed by Jonathan Levine (Warm Bodies, 50/50). The Coming to America 2 premise isn’t yet known, but a good guess might involve a new prince — maybe the son of Murphy’s Akeem?
(Photo by Columbia Pictures courtesy Everett Collection)
Nearly three years ago, we first heard about Sony’s plans to use the third 21 Jump Street movie (starring Jonah Hill and Channing Tatum) as a crossover relaunch for their Men in Black franchise as well. That still has yet to happen, and both Tatum and Hill have since moved on to other projects. The crossover might still happen someday, but in the meantime, Sony announced that the fourth Men in Black movie will be a different spinoff. The new script from screenwriters Matt Holloway and Art Marcum (co-writers of Iron Man, Transformers: The Last Knight) will see the secret police force protecting Earth from alien intruders with a completely new cast of characters. The film is currently scheduled for May 17, 2019 (against John Wick: Chapter 3, and a week before Aladdin and Minecraft).
(Photo by TriStar Pictures courtesy Everett Collection)
Director James Cameron started filming his four Avatar sequels this week (on a combined budget of over $1 billion), aiming for December release dates in 2020, 2021, 2024, and 2025, and showing off images of the franchise’s new kid/teen cast. Cameron also spent the week talking up Terminator 6 (which he is producing), announcing its release date of July 26, 2019 (in between The Lion King and The Spongebob Movie 3). He also confirmed that Terminator 6 will ignore the events of the three movies after Terminator 2: Judgment Day. Other updates address the aging of the T-800 played by Arnold Schwarzenegger (now 70 years old), his warnings that Skynet has already happened, and more shade thrown at Wonder Woman. We’re calling the news of the third Terminator reboot Rotten because the other two were (26% and 33% respectively).
(Photo by Touchstone Pictures courtesy Everett Collection)
Universal Pictures was trying to get a live action/CGI hybrid adaptation of the popular children’s book (and PBS TV series) character Clifford the Big Red Dog going for many years (including a period in which he was used in their promotional materials). In 2016, however, after Universal’s plans to release the film in 2016 failed to work out, Clifford the Big Red Dog galloped his way over to Paramount Pictures. A year later, we now know who Paramount has hired to direct Clifford the Big Red Dog, and it’s Walt Becker. Becker’s Tomatometer is remarkably Rotten, with none of his five feature films earning a score above 16% on the Tomatometer (Alvin and the Chipmunks: The Road Chip), and one of them scoring as low as 5% (2009’s Old Dogs).
