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 Black Panther, Godzilla vs Kong, and March of the Penguins 2: The Call.
In the comics, Black Widow was actually the 15th super hero to join The Avengers (in between #14 Black Knight and #16 Mantis). The Marvel Cinematic Universe has lots and lots of differences from the comics, however, and one of them is that Marvel really “lucked out” when they cast Scarlett Johansson as Black Widow in 2010’s Iron Man 2, making her one of the original team members in The Avengers, right up there with Captain America, Iron Man, Thor, and the Incredible Hulk. (In the comics, the female co-founder of the Avengers was the Wasp; indeed, she was the character who gave the team its name.) Scarlett Johansson has now appeared in five Marvel movies as Black Widow, but she has yet to star in her own solo Black Widow movie. This week, however, as people “did press” to promote Captain America: Civil War, there were two interesting quotes that suggest the Black Widow movie is finally closer to happening. Marvel Studios currently has nine movies scheduled from now until the end of 2019, including four team movies and five solo films (including Doctor Strange, Black Panther, Captain Marvel, and yes, Ant-Man and the Wasp). So, what’s in the works for 2020 and beyond? That question was poised to Marvel Studios president Kevin Feige recently, and he came right out and said what many fans have been asking for. Responding to a list that included Falcon, Hawkeye, and War Machine, Kevin Feige replied, “Of the characters that you’ve just mentioned I would say certainly the one creatively and emotionally that we are most committing to doing is Black Widow.” Feige also clarified that discussions were “ongoing,” so Marvel is not yet ready to confirm Black Widow, but… they’re working on it. Marvel announced their slate extending to 2019 in 2014, so there’s a very good chance that 2016 might be the year that they announce their Phase 4 films for 2020 and beyond. And Black Widow might be in there.
(Photo by Kevork Djansezian / Getty Images)
To date, Kenyan-Mexican actress Lupita Nyong’o has only appeared in four feature films, but three of them were very “big deals.” Nyong’o won an Academy Award for Best Supporting Actress for 12 Years a Slave, which seemingly helped her land major Disney roles in both Star Wars: The Force Awakens (as the alien Maz Kanata) and The Jungle Book (as the wolf mother Raksha). She will also star in Disney’s upcoming chess biopic Queen of Katwe (9/23/16), and will reprise the role of Maz Kanata in Star Wars: Episode VIII (12/15/17). This week, we learned that Lupita Nyong’o will continue working for Disney (and its subsidiaries) for the fifth movie (probably) in a row, as she is now in talks to star in Marvel’s Black Panther as the film’s main romantic interest for King T’Challa of Wakanda (as played by Chadwick Boseman). Nothing else is currently known about the role (though one Black Panther romantic interest we can rule out is his ex-wife, X-Men member Storm, since her movie rights are stuck at Fox). One possibility is that Nyong’o could be playing one of the Dora Milaje, Wakandan women of noble birth who serve as the king’s personal bodyguards (and potential wives). (Florence Kasumba played a “security chief” in Captain America: Civil War who may have been one of the Dora Milaje, but that hasn’t been confirmed by Marvel Studios yet). Marvel has scheduled Black Panther for release on February 16, 2018. [Last minute breaking news: Michael B. Jordan has also joined Black Panther in what might be a villain role (possibly M’Baku, the Man-Ape?). This will be the third time in a row that Jordan has costarred in a movie directed by Ryan Coogler, after starring in both Fruitvale Station and last year’s Rocky spinoff Creed. Jordan also recently costarred in Fox’s poorly received reboot of Marvel’s Fantastic Four.]
This was a pretty big news week for one of the many “cinematic universes” that are in development (that aren’t Marvel, DC, or the Universal Monsters). It started with the announcement from Warner Bros of two new release dates for movies set in the same continuity as their 2014 reboot of Godzilla. The sequel to that movie (which will reportedly introduce reboots of Rodan, Mothra, and King Ghidorah) is now scheduled for March 22, 2019 (which is a delay of over 9 months from June 8, 2018). Warner Bros also confirmed development of Godzilla vs Kong by way of a release date of May 29, 2020. That film will be both a Godzilla sequel and a sequel to next year’s Kong: Skull Island (3/10/17). It’s not yet known if any of the other giant monsters (Rodan, Mothra, etc) will also appear in Godzilla vs Kong, or how it will be a fair fight when one considers how much bigger Godzilla was in 2014 than King Kong usually is (though probably one or the other will somehow change size?). Earlier today, we learned the likely reason for the nine month delay of Godzilla 2, as Godzilla director Gareth Edwards has left the project, reportedly on equitable terms with Warner Bros and Legendary Pictures, due to an interest in focusing on “smaller” projects, after two major films in a row (Godzilla and the upcoming Rogue One: A Star Wars Story).
Nature documentaries have been something of a niche genre for nearly as long as the film industry has been around, but only rarely have they become a major box office phenomenon. The most successful nature documentary ever ($127 million globally) was 2005’s March of the Penguins, which followed the Antarctic migrations of emperor penguins, as narrated by Morgan Freeman. This week at the Cannes Film Festival, it was revealed that a sequel called March of the Penguins 2: The Call has actually already been filmed, without the world knowing such a sequel was even in the works. Documentary director Luc Jacquet returned to Antarctica to tell a story of a young penguin’s journey as observed by a (much) older 45-year-old penguin. It isn’t yet known if Morgan Freeman will also be narrating this sequel, or if another voice actor will be taking over.
Over his prolific career, director Ridley Scott has tackled several genres, from horror (Alien) and science fiction (Blade Runner, The Martian) to historical epics (Gladiator, Kingdom of Heaven), and crime dramas (American Gangster, Matchstick Men). As he nears his 80th birthday (next year, on 11/30/17), the director appears to still have at least one more genre he wants to try out: The Western. We know that because Ridley Scott has signed with his frequent studio partners at Fox to direct an adaptation of the S. Craig Zahler 2013 novel Wraiths of the Broken Land. Set in Mexico around 1900, the film will tell the story of a father and his two sons who set out to rescue their sisters who have been forced into prostitution. S. Craig Zahler is also a film director, having recently adapted his own screenplay, the western horror film Bone Tomahawk. Ridley Scott recently started filming Alien: Covenant, and is committed to directing one more film (to make Prometheus the first of a new Alien trilogy). It’s not yet known when Scott will direct Wraiths of the Broken Land, or who might star in the film.
The weekly film development frequently includes major news stories about movies with similar themes. The latest example of that happened this week as two different film projects were announced about men attempting to save women from prostitution and sex trafficking. Ridley Scott’s western Wraiths of the Broken Land is the first, and the second is a contemporary drama called You Were Never Really Here. Joaquin Phoenix is attached to star in the film, which is scheduled to start production this summer. You Were Never Really Here will be the next film from director Lynne Ramsay, who is possibly best known for the dramas We Need to Talk About Kevin and Morvern Callar (and for almost directing Jane Got a Gun). This Ramsay/Phoenix film is being compared to Drive, but the premise also sounds a little bit like Martin Scorsese’s Taxi Driver. Joaquin Phoenix will play a military veteran (like Robert De Niro’s Travis Bickle) who tries to rescue women “trapped in the world of sex trafficking” (similar to the plight suffered by Jodie Foster’s character). You Were Never Really Here was also one of this year’s major sales at the Cannes Film Festival, with A24 winning the distribution rights in the USA.
Some forms of animated feature films take much longer than others to produce, so we get them less often. Consider, for example, the output of “stop motion” animation studio Aardman Studios. Since their first feature film (Chicken Run) sixteen years ago in 2000, Aardman has only produced six feature films, the most recent being last year’s Shaun the Sheep Movie. There has been talk for a while now that Aardman’s next stop-motion comedy adventure will be a “caveman” movie called Early Man. This week, we learned who will be providing one of the lead voices in Early Man, and it’s someone who isn’t really known for comedies. That’s because he is Eddie Redmayne, the Academy Award nominated (The Danish Girl) and winning (The Theory of Everything) actor. Redmayne will provide the voice of “plucky caveman Dug who, along with his sidekick Hognob, unites his tribe against the mighty Bronze Age in a battle to beat them at their own game.” Early Man will be directed by Aardman founder Nick Park, marking his first feature film as director since 2005’s The Curse of the Were-Rabbit.
Sebastian Silva is a Chilean director who has had a string of festival favorites (Magic Magic, Crystal Fairy, Nasty Baby), but thus far, he hasn’t had a crossover hit in the United States, even though he’s worked with Hollywood name actors like Michael Cera (who starred in both Magic Magic and Crystal Fairy). One of the films announced this week at Cannes was a family thriller called Captain Dad, which will unite Sebastian Silva with stars Will Ferrell, Catherine Keener, and for the third time, Michael Cera. Ferrell will play a middle aged father who celebrates his wife’s birthday (Keener) by piloting a Caribbean vacation along with all six of their kids and their various partners. Except he’s also not a very good sailor, so his incompetence leads to the vacation going very badly. Will Ferrell also made the news this week as one of the producers of a project called The Hustlers at Scores, about a group of strip club employees who plot a scheme to rip off their wealthy Wall Street clientele.
News about film development projects comes to us through a few different avenues. Some sources are “official” (mostly) venues for material that comes directly from press and publicity releases, while others break big news stories via information provided to them “unofficially.” Devin Faraci’s movie site Birth.Movies.Death broke two major stories this week about Warner Bros’ plans for future DC Comics adaptations, and if they both turn out to be accurate, they are both fairly major “gets.” One is a story we’d call Fresh, and the second less so, but let’s start with the news that we really quite like: Screenwriter Zack Stentz (Thor, X-Men: First Class) is reportedly adapting the DC Comics character Booster Gold into a movie — which has been rumored for months — for Warner Bros. This may be very welcome news for people who feel that some of WB’s other DC films (like Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice) are not “fun” enough, since Booster Gold (and his frequent crimefighting partner Blue Beetle) is one of DC’s most comedic “fun” characters. The other potentially big story that Birth.Movies.Death may have broken this week is the identity of the main villain in WB’s Justice League Part One (11/17/17). We won’t come right out and say who it is, but if you’re expecting one of DC Comics’ most iconic and most popular super villains (and they have tons!), you’re probably going to be disappointed.
The video game industry is now into its fifth decade (figuring a rough start sometime in the early 1970s), but the marriage of video games and major Hollywood movies is a collective enterprise that has not yet fully taken off (at least compared to, say, comic book movies). That doesn’t mean, however, that producers aren’t developing potential projects for the day when a new audience might embrace more video game adaptations. 2016 is seen by many pundits as a potential breakthrough year, with such high profile game adaptations as Angry Birds, Warcraft, and Assassin’s Creed coming out. Video games do potentially have a lot of potential as feature film source material, but the argument can also be made that the simplest games don’t really fill “narrative” structure. That’s especially true of classic video games from the late 1970s and early 1980s, and that’s why we’re calling this story the week’s Rotten Idea. Unfortunately, development has started on two movie adaptations of the classic Atari arcade games Missile Command and Centipede. Both games involved “track ball” controls, as the players moved a cursor across the screen to prevent the horizontal advance of either a) approaching missiles attacking the player’s cities, or b) a centipede crawling through a bed of mushrooms (seriously!). Centipede was also recently one of the games prominently featured in Pixels, which received a Rotten Tomatometer score of just 17 percent.
