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 Mission: Impossible 6, Power Rangers, Robin Hood: Origins, and the biopic Warhol.
The HBO sports dramedy series Ballers debuted in 2014, and this weekend, wraps up its second season, with a third already in the works. People who are familiar with that show, and that it’s about football, may not have been confused as this week’s movie news, but it’s at least something that Google searches still find perplexing. That’s because Ballers is also the title of a basketball comedy feature film that’s been in the works since 2013, with LeBron James attached as an NBA superstar. This week, during an appearance on The Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon, Mark Wahlberg revealed that he is now attached to also star alongside LeBron James in Ballers. Previously, Kevin Hart had also been attached to Ballers as Lebron’s less-talented-at-basketball brother, but Hart has since dropped out. Wahlberg will play one of a group of guys who go to a “basketball fantasy camp,” and while there, his and LeBron James’ character “have a situation” (quoting Wahlberg on The Tonight Show). Wahlberg is also bringing with him writer and TV producer Doug Ellin, the showrunner on Entourage (which Wahlberg also produced), to work on the screenplay previously cowritten by Kevin Hart. LeBron James made his acting debut in last summer’s comedy hit Trainwreck, and he is also attached to star in the reboot/sequel Space Jam 2.
Next year (specifically February 22, 2017) will mark the 30th anniversary of the death of 20th century “pop art” icon Andy Warhol, who died soon after normally non-lethal gallbladder surgery. Famous painters are very much a go-to staple in the biopic genre; contemporary examples who have already received their own films include Jackson Pollock, Jean-Michel Basquiat, and Margaret Keane (Big Eyes). Andy Warhol himself has been used a few times to add flavor to other films (such as 54, The Doors, Factory Girl, and I Shot Andy Warhol), but thus far, he hasn’t been the focus of a major film devoted just to him. That will change soon, because Jared Leto is now producing and attached to star in an Andy Warhol biopic titled simply Warhol. There have been dozens of books devoted to Warhol and his peripheral circle and influence, but this film will specifically be based upon Victor Bockris’ 1989 book Warhol: The Biography. Terence Winter, best known as the showrunner of HBO’s Boardwalk Empire (and for writing 19 episodes of The Sopranos) is now working on adapting Bockris’ biography. Winter will have many elements to draw upon, as Andy Warhol’s claims to fame include not just his famous use of pop culture and common objects in his art, but also his time as a magazine publisher (Interview), his musical associations (The Velvet Underground), his work in art films (such as Andy Warhol’s Frankenstein), the Factory and its influence on younger artists, and Warhol’s celebrity status in New York City. And of course (and there is no way this biopic doesn’t address this), Andy Warhol was also one of the most openly gay American celebrities, even before the events at Stonewall and the changes that came in the 1970s and 1980s. Warhol is being produced by former New Line Cinema executive Michael De Luca, whose credits as producer include Captain Phillips, Moneyball, and The Social Network.
The funny thing about “the news” is that an initial news item often gets way, way more coverage than later follow-ups to the same story. Unfortunately, there is also an inherent drive for most sources to be the first to cover a story, which means that it’s difficult to check all factors and get the story absolutely 100% correct the first time out. Sometimes (actually frequently), film development news is just not that easy, since so much rests on scheduling, contracts, conflicting interests, etc. With all that said, a big story that emerged early last month was the news that Paramount was halting pre-production on Mission: Impossible 6 over contract negotiations with Tom Cruise. The angle that received the most attention was the notion that Cruise made more money on Universal Pictures’ reboot of The Mummy (producer fees were also an issue). Well, in what was relatively under-reported this week, Tom Cruise is indeed now signed (or close to signing) to return for Mission: Impossible 6. Production on the spy franchise sequel is expected to start by early 2017 to get the film ready for a release tentatively in the summer of 2018. As of right now, there are no known details about the premise of the sixth film, but generally, the Mission: Impossible franchise is not one that we usually know much about nearly two years before release.
Female pop singers have been making the transition to the big screen for decades (just like their male counterparts); some examples include Diana Ross (Lady Sings the Blues), Madonna (Desperately Seeking Susan), and Mariah Carey (Glitter). More recently, we’ve heard news about films for the likes of Lady Gaga (opposite Bradley Cooper in A Star is Born), Rihanna (Ocean’s Eight), and Sia (as one of the voices in next year’s My Little Pony: The Movie). This week, we have another film credit for Sia, and just like her career as a pop singer, it will be another example where we won’t see her face. Rooney Mara is attached to play a pop star in the independent musical Vox Lux, with Sia providing the music via her own voice and a new batch of original songs. Vox Lux will be directed by independent director Brady Corbet (The Childhood of a Leader), who plans to film it in 65mm for exhibition in 70mm large format (ala Quentin Tarantino’s The Hateful Eight). The story of Vox Lux will follow a pop star named Celeste as she rises “from the ashes of a major national tragedy to pop superstardom. This 15-year odyssey, set between 1999 and the present day, tracks the important cultural evolutions of the 21st Century via her gaze” (thanks, Variety!). That’s what Rooney Mara has going on. As for her sister Kate, she’s preparing to film the independent romantic drama Mercy in Cincinatti, with Ellen Page already cast as her romantic interest.
Actor Paul Dano (There Will Be Blood) remains mostly an indie darling, with last year’s Beach Boys biopic Love & Mercy being followed this summer by the bizarre Swiss Army Man (with Daniel Radcliffe). Like many actors, Paul Dano is now preparing to step behind the camera for his directorial debut, a marriage drama called Wildlife, based upon a novel by Richard Ford. The story is told from a boy’s perspective of his parents’ failing marriage, and this week, we learned that the two adult leads will be Jake Gyllenhaal and Carey Mulligan (Inside Llewyn Davis, Drive). Jake Gyllenhaal’s next film Nocturnal Animals recently debuted in the festival circuit, and is scheduled for release this fall (11/28/16), and currently has a 88 percent Fresh Tomatometer score.
In addition to his dozens of novels (and hundreds of short stories), many of which have inspired film adaptations, Stephen King also periodically publishes novellas as well. These stories are typically in the 100-200 page range, and they are released in compilations like Different Seasons, Four Past Midnight, and Hearts in Atlantis. These books actually have given us some of King’s most famous movies, with Different Seasons alone providing the source material for Apt Pupil, Stand By Me (adapting The Body), and The Shawshank Redemption (adapting Rita Hayworth and the Shawshank Redemption). Something odd, however, happened with the 1999 collection Hearts in Atlantis, when it came time for Anthony Hopkins to star in the movie. Instead of adapting the story called “Hearts in Atlantis,” that movie adapted two other stories in the same book, leaving the titular tale unadapted. Well, that is an oversight that will soon be corrected, with the news that British director Johannes Roberts is now preparing an adaptation to be called Hearts (since Hearts in Atlantis is now already taken). Like King’s novella, Hearts will depict a group of college students in 1966 who play the card game Hearts and struggle with the possibility that they might be drafted if their studies suffer, and they have to leave college. No announcements have been made about possible casting for the college students.
Ever since Marvel’s The Avengers (and related films) popularized the notion of the “cinematic universe”, other studios have been developing their own takes on similarly interconnected films (such as Universal’s rebooting of their monster movies starting with The Mummy). One such concept that has made the news the last few years is the notion of Lionsgate developing a series of swashbuckling adventures focusing on the “Merry Men,” starting with Robin Hood: Origins. Three of the characters most frequently given as examples of spinning off from Robin Hood: Origins are Friar Tuck, Little John, and Will Scarlet. Thus far, three of the major characters have been cast: Robin Hood (Taron Egerton of Kingsman: The Secret Service), Maid Marian (Eve Hewson), and Little John (Jamie Foxx). As of this week, we now know that the potential star of the Will Scarlet spinoff movie is Jamie Dornan (Fifty Shades of Grey), who is now in talks for the role’s first appearance in Robin Hood: Origins. The first Robin Hood: Origins film will be directed for Lionsgate by Otto Bathurst (Peaky Blinders).
Actor Ed Skrein does not yet have a “household name,” but thanks to his nasty role in Deadpool earlier this year, he’s getting closer to having, at least, a “household face.” Playing a villain for 20th Century Fox seemed to work out alright for Skrein in Deadpool, so perhaps that’s the reasoning behind his latest role. 20th Century Fox and producer James Cameron are in talks with Ed Skrein to join the manga adaptation Alita: Battle Angel as one of the film’s villains (possibly a cyborg, but that’s not confirmed yet). Robert Rodriguez (Sin City, Machete, Spy Kids) took over the directing duties from James Cameron (so he could focus on the multiple Avatar sequels). If he signs on, Skrein will be joining a cast which includes Jackie Earle Haley, Christoph Waltz, and title star Rosa Salazar, whose Alita character is a “a 26th century cyborg who’s rescued from a scrapyard and reassembled… as a hunter-warrior who tracks down vicious criminals.” 20th Century Fox has scheduled Alita: Battle Angel for release on July 20, 2018 (the week after The Secret Life of Pets 2, and the week before Aquaman).
We’re now just about six months away from the release of the Power Rangers reboot (March 24, 2017), and we’re still hearing new casting announcements. In this week’s case, it’s mostly because the character that is being cast is a possibly CGI animated supporting character. We’re talking here about the robot Alpha 5, who we now know will be voiced in the new movie by Saturday Night Live alum Bill Hader. The five stars are mostly “near unknowns,” but Bill Hader joins a few other “names” who ostensibly help give Power Rangers the star clout their leads don’t have yet. The other famous costars of Power Rangers are Bryan Cranston (Breaking Bad, Malcolm in the Middle) as Zordon and Elizabeth Banks as the evil villainess Rita Repulsa. In other Power Rangers news, Lionsgate also revealed the first glimpses of the “Dinozords” this week via five preview posters. Although we typically call stories about Power Rangers “rotten ideas,” the addition of Bill Hader might now be tipping this movie into at least a “borderline” Fresh/Rotten status.
Within film journalism and online discussion, there is a whole sub-community devoted to box office and its ramifications on the film industry, both domestically and internationally. What is far less common is a story that unfolds about a film nearly four months before it’s even first released. That, however, is what apparently happened this week as various sources broke the news that Paramount Pictures is taking a write-down (ie, a “programming impairment charge”) of some $115 million on what is officially called an unknown title, but which pretty much every source says is this January’s family adventure Monster Trucks. That aliens-disguised-as-engines sci-fi comedy was originally first scheduled for release on May 29, 2015, until eventually being scheduled in the “dump month” of January, 2017. When it’s released on January 13, 2017, Monster Trucks will be going up against the awards-friendly wide releases of both Hidden Figures and Ben Affleck’s Live by Nights, as well as the (also pushed back) horror film The Bye Bye Man. The budget of Monster Trucks is reportedly in the range of $100 million, and the other $15 million probably comes from budgeted marketing costs, all of which Paramount is apparently expecting will add up to (or subtract down to) a loss higher than the budgets of many of its competitors in January, 2017.
