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 Blade Runner 2, Rose Red, Backyard Sports, and a remake of John Carpenter’s Starman.
If this week’s top news is true, Warner Bros is apparently responding to the criticism of how grimdark Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice is (and the 29 percent Tomatometer score that came with that approach). That’s because there have been reports that WB is now implementing a new film that effectively spoofs themselves with some colorfully retro FUN, spelled with capital F-U-N. The film in question will be called Plastic Man v Elongated Man: Morning Stretches, as the two stretchy superheroes take on the goofy challenges of Superman villains Mr. Mxyzptlk and Bizarro, neither of whom you’re likely see in a movie starring Henry Cavill. Just as Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice introduced us to the dark and serious members of Zack Snyder’s Justice League films, it’s expected that the Plastic Man team-up movie will not only introduce Elongated Man, but also other goofy/fun classic DC heroes like B’wana Beast, Ambush Bug, The Inferior Five, and the Legion of Super Pets, all of whom may then spin off into their own brightly lit and lightly humored big screen adventures, suitable for the whole family. Or maybe this is an April Fool’s Day joke (which it totally is). In related actual news, the idea that DC Comics movies should have more jokes and “fun” did make headlines this week. According to Devin Faraci of Birth.Movies.Death, this summer’s Suicide Squad is preparing for major reshoots that will add “more humor and lightness into the film.” Ben Affleck has also apparently written a Batman solo script, as reported this week, and while it’s unclear how jokey it will be, one can always hope!
One of the biggest mysteries of 2011’s global box office numbers for many people was likely the success of Intouchables, a French comedy hit that ended up with north of $420 million. Francois Cluzet and Omar Sy (Bishop from X-Men: Days of Future Past) starred in that film as a wealthy disabled man and the ex-con who takes care of him, respectively. We’ve known for a while that The Weinstein Company was developing an English-language remake of The Intouchables, but what wasn’t known was who would play the two main characters. The answer is that Bryan Cranston (Breaking Bad) and Kevin Hart (Ride Along) are now both in talks for the remake. At one point, Colin Firth had been a possibility to star as the wheelchair-bound man, apparently when the character might have been British.
In addition to his work directing the rebooted entries in both the Star Trek and Star Wars franchises, J.J. Abrams also keeps quite busy as a producer with his Bad Robot production company. The latest hit for Bad Robot was 10 Cloverfield Lane, which was heavily billed crediting Abrams, even though he didn’t write or direct the film. Another science fiction thriller that Abrams and Bad Robot will be producing soon is called God Particle, and we now know two of the film’s stars. Gugu Mbatha-Raw (Belle, Concussion) and David Oyelowo (Selma, Interstellar) have signed on to play two of the members of a team of astronauts who “make a terrifying discovery that challenges all they know about the fabric of reality, as they desperately fight for their survival.” Production is expected to start soon, and Paramount Pictures has already scheduled God Particle for release on February 24, 2017.
If you’re interested in next year’s Wonder Woman, you may already know that Robin Wright will costar in that film as an Amazon military leader (and you may have also seen this image, and these images), and as of this week, she’s also attached to another highly-anticipated genre film. Although we don’t know the nature of her character, Robin Wright is now in final talks to join Harrison Ford and Ryan Gosling in the long-in-development sequel to Blade Runner. Warner Bros has already scheduled the film for release on January 12, 2018 (although some speculate that the film could open in limited release in late 2017 for awards consideration).
You really do have to wonder sometimes about the timing of casting announcements (and many times, you’re curiosity is well founded). Take, for example, the news this week (which ended on April Fool’s Day) that Julia Roberts is now attached to star in a thriller called Fool Me Once. Roberts will also produce the film, which will be an adaptation of a novel recently published by author Harlan Coben. In Fool Me Once, Roberts will play a “Special Ops pilot just home from war” who sees her dead husband on her young daughter’s nannycam.
Thirty years in, the video game industry is now worth billions of dollars every year, and there are hundreds of games released in various formats. That might be why this writer has never heard of Backyard Sports (which Wikipedia informs us will celebrate its 20th anniversary in 2017). The premise of the games, which have covered such sports as baseball, basketball, football, soccer, hockey, and skateboarding, is that major professional athletes are re-imagined as young kids. That’s also going to be the approach taken by the newly announced feature film adaptation of Backyard Sports, which will be produced by the same company, Cross Creek Pictures, as such recent films as A Walk Among the Tombstones, Aftershock, Everest, and this summer’s horror film, Clown. We’re calling this one a borderline “Rotten Idea” just because it seems sort of corny that there’s going to be a movie about kid-sized versions of sports stars (ala that time NBA stars costarred in Space Jam?).
We can probably credit the success of both Gravity and The Martian, but there definitely are a lot more “astronaut movies” in development and production than you would have seen in the news just a few years ago. One screenwriter who is benefitting from this new trend is Max Landis (American Ultra, Victor Frankenstein), who currently has a screenplay called Deeper up for auction between several major studios. That film also already has Bradley Cooper attached to star. Cooper will play a “disgraced astronaut who embarks on a mission to reach the bottom of a newly-discovered oceanic trench, which some speculate may be the lowest point on Earth. Facing great danger, he quickly finds himself in a physical and psychological fight against mysterious forces.” We’re calling this one of the week’s Rotten Ideas, because since making his debut with Chronicle, Max Landis’ three subsequent films have all received Rotten Tomatometer scores.
For whatever reason, the Brothers Grimm’s fairy tale character Rose Red has never become as famous in the USA as her sister, Snow White. An obvious answer might be that Walt Disney didn’t use her in Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs, and that’s the story that has since been adapted the most, and not the one actually featuring Rose Red. It appears, however, that Walt Disney Pictures is now moving towards correcting the last 70 years of oversight, because the studio is now developing a live-action feature film about Rose Red. There has actually been talk about such a film before, but the other big news this week is that the Rose Red feature film will also incorporate elements of her sister Snow White’s more famous story (the one with the apple, the dwarves, etc). Curiously, the screenwriter that Disney has hired to do this is Evan Daugherty, who previously cowrote another film about one of the same characters, 2012’s Snow White and the Huntsman. We’re calling this one of the week’s “Rotten Ideas” because none of Evan Daugherty’s four films to date have yet earned a Fresh Tomatometer score.
In a week where people tend to be naturally suspicious about big casting news (especially in a superhero movie), one story squeaked through Thursday night and seemed credible enough that a lot of people still believed it (including this writer, honestly). Perhaps you already saw this one, too. The (now debunked) news story claimed that director Josh Boone (The Fault in Our Stars) had already cast two of the New Mutants, and that it would be Maisie Williams (Game of Thrones) and Anya Taylor-Joy (The Witch) as Wolfsbane and Magik, respectively. The same story had the teen version of Storm (Alexandra Shipp) cast in the film (which is scheduled for release in 2018). Unfortunately, the blog The Nerdist was able to quickly confirm with 20th Century Fox that basically none of that was true. And that’s why we’re calling this a “Rotten Idea:” 1) because we were all “fooled” so easily, and most of all, 2) Maisie Williams and Anya-Taylor-Joy might have both been great choices for those characters!
Midnight Special is a Certified Fresh science fiction drama currently platforming from limited release to wide release, which many critics have noted pays loving homage to the films of the 1980s like E.T. the Extra-Terrestrial and John Carpenter’s Starman. Carpenter’s film also seemed to be paid homage by James Gunn in his 2014 Marvel film, Guardians of the Galaxy. Any or all of that might be the reason for this week’s arguably “Most Rotten News,” which is that Starman is going to be remade. The remake will be directed by Shawn Levy, whose Tomatometer as director has a lot of Rotten green splotches, including all three Night at the Museum movies, the 2013 comedy The Internship, and the 2006 remake of The Pink Panther. The Starman remake will also be adapted by screenwriter Arash Amel, who previously worked on the Princess Grace biopic, Grace of Monaco, which received a Tomatometer score of just 10 percent.
