This week’s Ketchup recaps for you ten headlines from the world of film development. Among the movies that made the top news this week were titles like John Wick 2, Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 2, and new film projects for directors George Clooney, Edgar Wright, and Martin Scorsese.
If you’ve heard one thing about this week’s new Sandra Bullock movie Our Brand is Crisis, it’s probably that the movie’s lead was originally intended to be male, played by Bullock’s Gravity co-star George Clooney. This week, as the publicity for that film ramped up, we learned of another higher profile project in which Clooney and Bullock will gender swap a character again. In what appears to have been in development for a while now, Sandra Bullock is now reportedly attached to star in the fifth* Ocean’s Eleven movie, in what will be an all-female version of that franchise’s band-of-casino-robbing-rapscallions central motif. (*following the three Clooney/Pitt/Damon films, and the original 1960 Rat Pack movie.) The Bullock-led reboot got its start last year as a collaboration between Clooney and producer Jerry Weintraub. Their first step was to hire screenwriter Olivia Milch, who is also working on a new adaptation of Louisa May Alcott’s Little Women. The new Ocean’s Eleven also already has a director, Gary Ross, who is best known for directing The Hunger Games (but not the sequels), as well as Pleasantville, Seabiscuit, and next year’s Civil War drama The Free State of Jones, starring Matthew McConaughey. The next step, presumably, for Clooney and Weintraub is to start recruiting 10 female costars to join Sandra Bullock’s version of Danny (Danielle?) Ocean. The resulting publicity that will come from such an exhaustive casting process is probably why the secrecy about this reboot finally had to be lifted this week.
As the orchestral form we call “classical music” progressed through the 20th Century, it was probably inevitable that there would emerge composers who also worked in film. The movies became for a new age what opera and stage musicals were in the past, and classical composers contributed to both of those forms. One of the key figures in the marriage between orchestration and film composing was Leonard Bernstein (1918-1990), whose credits included West Side Story, Peter Pan, and On the Waterfront. This week, as part of a larger story about Paramount Pictures wishing to continue their relationship with director Martin Scorsese, the world learned of plans for a Leonard Bernstein biopic. Paramount’s Leonard Bernstein biopic is just one of the films waiting its turn on Martin Scorsese’s slate as director, along with their adaptation of The Devil in the White City (in which Leonardo DiCaprio will play serial killer H.H. Holmes) and the Pacino/De Niro/Pesci hitman drama The Irishman. Earlier this year, Scorsese wrapped his next film, the Christian-missionaries-in-Japan drama, Silence. That film, featuring Liam Neeson, Adam Driver, and Andrew Garfield, is expected to be released by Paramount in the fall of 2016 as one of the studio’s best hopes for next year’s awards season.
When the children’s book Fortunately, the Milk was first published last year, some comic book fans were probably quite excited that the fantastic story about a father’s trip to the grocery store was the result of two popular figures working together. The book was written by Sandman creator Neil Gaiman (who movie fans may know because of 2006’s Stardust), and illustrated by Skottie Young, a frequent Marvel Comics contributor whose artistic style arguably continues what Bill Watterson started with Calvin and Hobbes (but with superheroes). Well, if you thought the book was a creative marriage, wait until you read about the movie! 20th Century Fox is in early negotiations to bring together Johnny Depp, director Edgar Wright (Hot Fuzz, Shaun of the Dead), and screenwriter Brett McKenzie (Flight of the Conchords) for their film adaptation of Fortunately, the Milk. The movie, if it all comes together, will be a live-action/animation hybrid, with the animation being handled by Animal Logic Entertainment, the same company that produced The LEGO Movie. Edgar Wright’s next film as director will be the currently filming crime/racing movie Baby Driver (3/17/17), starring Ansel Elgort (The Fault in Our Stars), Jon Hamm, and Jamie Foxx.
Some comic book superheroes have survived decades of continuity with remarkably unconvoluted back stories, such as Captain America and Superman (examples of the opposite include Batman, Spider-Man, Wolverine, and the X-Men). And it’s not always the very popular characters whose stories are so twisted around over the years (go ask Hawkman!). Sometimes in the interest of revitalizing a character that didn’t immediately take off, creators try to reinvent them, but if those experiments don’t work out, the character isn’t necessarily improved. But, we may be getting ahead of ourselves. Let’s start with the news that the first new cast member for Marvel’s Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 2, and the result of a long casting search, is Canadian actress Pom Klementieff, whose cultural background is Korean and French-Russian. Klementieff landed the role of a “mystery” Asian character, which informed fans were quick to guess (and has now probably been confirmed) to be Marvel’s Mantis. First introduced in Avengers #112 in 1973, Mantis became a short-time member of that team, before migrating to Marvel’s cosmic titles. In the last ten years, Mantis has gone on to become a member of the same reboot of Guardians of the Galaxy that inspired the five initial members as seen in last year’s movie (which was a distillation of a much larger group of characters). Mantis’ extended story also has connections to other figures that are expected to be part of Marvel’s cosmic future, including Adam Warlock, the Kree Empire, and Thanos. Pom Klementieff may become a much better known actress after this sequel, but right now, she’s best known for playing the woman with the yellow umbrella in Spike Lee’s remake of Oldboy. In other related news, Variety‘s reporting of Klementieff’s casting also snuck in the little nugget that Matthew McConaughey had been wanted for the (still mystery) role of the film’s villain, but McConaughey passed. (And we’ll just make our prediction now that the role McConaughey turned down may have been the aforementioned Adam Warlock, who was one of the first movie’s “Easter Eggs.”) Marvel Studios has scheduled Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 2 for May 5, 2017.
Not a whole lot of the bad guys survived last year’s John Wick, so when a sequel was announced, it was somewhat inevitable that a new batch of villains would need to be cast. We now know that the role of the main villain in John Wick 2, described as “the head of security for a female crime lord,” will be played by rapper-turned-actor Common. Keanu Reeves will (obviously) be returning for the sequel, along with Ian McShane as Winston, the proprietor at the hotel that caters to assassins. The first John Wick was codirected by stunt coordinators Chad Stahelski and David Leitch, in their directorial debuts, but this time, Stahelski will be going solo.
Writer-directors Joel and Ethan Coen frequently cast from the same group of recurring cast members, and one of their biggest stars has been George Clooney. As of next year, Clooney will have appeared in four of the Coens’ films: O Brother, Where Art Thou?, Intolerable Cruelty, Burn After Reading, and 2016’s Hail, Caesar! If this week’s deal goes through, however, Clooney and the Coens will do a bit of a switcheroo. That’s because George Clooney is now in talks with TriStar Pictures to direct a film noir called Suburbicon, which was written several years ago by the Coen Brothers. Not much is known about Suburbicon, except that it is a crime drama set in the 1950s, and that it has been compared to the Coens’ first film, Blood Simple. It’s also unknown if George Clooney will also star in the movie, or if he will just direct. (George Clooney has indeed at least costarred in the five movies to date that he has directed).
With just five months remaining until the March 4, 2016 release of Walt Disney Animation’s next film, Zootopia, the studio is now starting to gear up its formidable publicity resources in getting word out about what appears to be an ambitious comedy fantasy. Zootopia is set in a world where animals of all types live together, without the apparent involvement of humans. We’ve already known that some of the key voices would be provided by Jason Bateman (Arrested Development), Ginnifer Goodwin (Once Upon a Time), Alan Tudyk (Serenity), and pop star Shakira. This week, the list expanded considerably. Idris Elba will play a cape buffalo chief of police, J.K. Simmons will voice the lion mayor of Zootopia, and Jenny Slate will voice his sheep assistant mayor. Tommy Chung will voice a yak, Octavia Spencer will voice an otter, and other roles will be voiced by Jesse Corti, John DiMaggio, Bonnie Hunt, Don Lake, Katie Lowes, Raymond Persi, Tommy “Tiny” Lister, and Nate Torrence. Zootopia is being co-directed by Rich Moore (Wreck-It Ralph) and Byron Howard (co-director of Bolt and Tangled).
2015 has been a big year for both Nicholas Hoult and Rooney Mara, and this week’s story will reunite both in a science fiction romance. Nicholas Hoult has appeared in four movies, including Mad Max: Fury Road, and he has spent the year filming another four, including next summer’s X-Men: Apocalypse. Rooney Mara costarred as Tiger Lily in Pan, costars in the awards contender Carol, and has five other movies in the works for 2016. The movie that will be bringing Hoult and Mara together on screen is called The Discovery, and the title subject is scientific confirmation that the afterlife does in fact exist. Hoult will play the son of the man who makes the discovery (that role isn’t cast yet), and Rooney Mara will play Hoult’s romantic interest, who is herself dealing with a tragic past (best guess: her former romantic interest is one of the aforementioned inhabitants of the Great Hereafter). The Discovery will be the second film for director Charlie McDowell, who made his debut with the “Certified Fresh” film, The One I Love.
It has now been twelve years since Pirates of the Caribbean became one of Walt Disney Pictures’ most successful live action movie franchises. In that time, Disney has put several other movies based on their theme park attractions into development, including such possible movies as Jungle Cruise, The Magic Kingdom, Space Mountain, a remake of 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea, and a remake of The Haunted Mansion. The only such movie to actually get released in the last 10 years, however, was this year’s Tomorrowland. Earning just $208 million globally from a budget of $190 million, Tomorrowland is perceived as a box office disappointment, but that isn’t stopping Disney from continuing to develop other movies based on their theme park attractions. The latest example comes to us just in time for Halloween, because Disney is now working on a new feature film based on the Tower of Terror attraction. Also called The Twilight Zone Tower of Terror, the ride is basically a fancy version of a classic “drop ride,” which stimulates the danger of falling from a great height. Screenwriter John August, best known for his frequent collaborations with director Tim Burton (such as Frankenweenie, Big Fish, and Charlie and the Chocolate Factory) is working on the new Tower of Terror screenplay. Tower of Terror was previously adapted as a 1997 TV movie starring Steve Guttenberg and Kirsten Dunst.
Early this year, Neill Blomkamp (District 9, Elysium) thrilled his fans with the news that he was working on a fifth entry in the Alien franchise, which would continue Ellen Ripley’s story, bringing Sigourney Weaver back to the science fiction/horror franchise. That, however, was also before Blomkamp’s next film Chappie was released to disappointing box office and reviews. That was also before the world knew that 20th Century Fox would be calling Ridley Scott’s Prometheus sequel Alien: Paradise Lost, officially connecting the prequels with the Alien franchise (though the appearance of a certain xenomorph in the final moments of Prometheus sort of already did that). Through these past months, Neill Blomkamp has been stoking the flames for his movie, effectively Alien 5, including concept art of Ripley and other characters. This week, however, Blomkamp announced through his Twitter account that his Alien film is “kinda holding/pending,” and it’s directly because of Ridley Scott’s Prometheus sequel. This news surely disappoints some fans of both Alien and Neill Blomkamp, but for the director’s fans, it may end up being good news in disguise. Perhaps now Blomkamp can turn to sequelizing one of his own films (District 10 being the most obvious possibility). In somewhat related news, Sigourney Weaver made headlines this week because she will be costarring with Michelle Rodriguez in an action movie called Tomboy. Rodriguez will play “an ace assassin who is double-crossed by gangsters and falls into the hands of rogue surgeon known as “The Doctor,” who turns him into a woman. The hitman (now a hitwoman) sets out for revenge, aided by a nurse named Johnnie, who also has secrets.” Tomboy will be directed by Walter Hill, the director of such films as 48 Hrs, The Warriors, Undisputed, and Bullet to the Head. But the thing that really connects Tomboy to Blomkamp’s news is that Walter Hill is also one of the producers of the Alien franchise, having worked in that capacity on every film all the way back to 1979’s Alien.
