This Week’s Ketchup covers seven days in film development headlines that cover such movies as 23 Jump Street, Aquaman, Ghostbusters, Star Trek 3, and the return of the Japanese Godzilla franchise.
It is a nightmare what happened to Sony recently, as thousands of in-house e-mails were released to the internet (rumored to be a North Korean retaliation for Sony releasing The Interview). Sites that cover movie news have to deal with something of a double-edged sword as the contents of those e-mails are revealed (the implications could fill an entire column so let’s leave it at that). The Weekly Ketchup covers what made the news, so we’re going to include the relevant stories that sprung from the e-mails (but we still feel bad about it). The biggest such story involved Sony’s continued rights to Marvel’s Spider-Man franchise. One of the details was that Marvel Studios had been in talks with Sony to produce a new Spider-Man trilogy which Sony would still distribute, ostensibly so that Marvel could then use Spider-Man in Captain America: Civil War in 2016 (but those talks eventually fell through). Spider-Man plays a central role in the Civil War storyline in the comics, and Marvel sort of lacks a character in the MCU that could fill his shoes (though Netflix’s Daredevil sort of comes close). The other big revelation was that Sony is planning a “Spidey Summit” next month at which they will try to figure out what to do with the franchise, and one of the contenders is an animated Spider-Man comedy. If Sony did move forward with such a project, it would be produced by (but not necessarily directed by) the team of Chris Miller and Phil Lord, who gave Sony their 21 Jump Street franchise and also recently directed The LEGO Movie for Warner Bros. Other projects in contention include The Sinister Six, Venom, an untitled movie about the “women in Spider-Man’s life”, and of course, The Amazing Spider-Man 3.
One thing that the last year in the development of Marvel’s Ant-Man proved is that online fans really love director Edgar Wright (Hot Fuzz, Shaun of the Dead, Scott Pilgrim vs the World). Any site posting a story about Ant-Man can expect at least a few comments from Spaced enthusiasts bemoaning that Ant-Man director Peyton Reed had nothing to do with The World’s End. Such fervor might have an actual real world impact, if this story bears fruit. The story starts with the news that Roberto Orci, who had been attached to take over Star Trek 3 from J.J. Abrams, will no longer do so (though he is still a producer). You can probably guess the next part, which is that Edgar Wright is reportedly at the top of Paramount’s short list to replace Orci as director. One little bit of synergy, if Edgar Wright did take the job, is that his longtime friend and collaborator Simon Pegg plays Scotty in the rebooted franchise. Another director who has voiced interest in Star Trek 3 is Jonathan Frakes, AKA Commander Will Ryker himself. Although Jonathan Frakes did direct one of the best reviewed films in the franchise (Star Trek: First Contact, 92% Fresh), the three movies he directed after it had steadily lower Tomatometer scores (55% for Star Trek: Insurrection, 29% for Clockstoppers, and 19% for Thunderbirds). In other news of directors leaving high profile genre movies, Night at the Museum franchise director Shawn Levy has departed Warner Bros’ adaptation of the popular videogame Minecraft.
At the end of 22 Jump Street, there were several joke sequels teased. One of the revelations that came out of the leaked Sony e-mails is that what we might actually get (or could have gotten, if the leak prevents it) is a project that itself seems like a joke. Sony’s plan for 23 Jump Street is for it to merge with the world of the Men in Black franchise for release in 2016 or 2017. For the rest of this story, let’s just quote the e-mails. President of production Hannah Minghella wrote, “We don’t have a script yet so we’ll be greenlighting the movie off the concept and the talent involved.” Continues executive Andrew Gumpert, “We didn’t do as well as we had hoped for on the last MIB film, but that hasn’t caused us to lose faith in the franchise. In reality, the exact opposite has occurred where we all have an opportunity to take an interim step on the way to hopefully forging ahead again in the pure-play MIB universe.” 21 Jump Street star Jonah Hill reflected on the premise thusly, “jump street merging with mib i think that?s clean and rad and powerful” ([SIC] several times, obviously).
Warner Bros and Legendary Pictures’ Hollywood reboot of Godzilla was one of the year’s most successful box office hits (#11 for the year), and plans for multiple sequels are still in the works. These movies were licensed directly from Toho, the Japanese studio behind 28 previous movies featuring Godzilla, and previously, it was thought that Toho would be done with the monster while Hollywood was making those movies. This week, we learned that is no longer the case, as Toho is now developing their own return to the Godzilla franchise, for the first time since 2004’s Godzilla: Final Wars. Although there is no writer, director, or cast for the 29th Toho Godzilla yet, the studio plans on filming in the summer of 2015 for international release in 2016. It’s also not yet known if Toho will be implementing their trademark “man in suit” technology for Godzilla 29. Hopefully, an American distributor will pick up the eventual release. Gareth Edwards’ Godzilla sequel is scheduled for June 8, 2018.
We are obviously (super obviously) in an age dominated by superhero movies. One reason for this is that it’s finally possible to depict their adventures without looking ridiculous, but also because the child fans of the 1960s and 1970s have aged into being the “adults” who make decisions about which movies to produce. If one buys that theory, it could bode well for video game adaptations in the years to come, as the fans of video games from the 1980s and 1990s likewise start to age into such positions. In the last couple of years, we’ve seen a few companies start to develop slates based on their games (the most active of them is Ubisoft Motion Pictures, which will start with Assassin’s Creed in 2016). One of those companies is Sega (SEGA!), and this week, we learned the titles of the seven games which Sega is starting with, for both live action and animated adaptations. That list includes: Altered Beast (lycanthropes), Crazy Taxi (driving action), Rise of Nightmares (zombies), Shinobi (ninjas), and Streets of Rage (martial arts fighting). Virtua Fighter (more martial arts fighting) and Golden Axe (fantasy action) are also in development.
In this age of Twitter, sometimes we get our news 140 characters (or less) at a time. One example of that this week involved Warner Bros and DC Comics’ big screen plans for Aquaman, as played by Stargate: Atlantis and Game of Thrones star Jason Momoa. The series of Twitter “tweets” started with confirmation that Jason Momoa is signed for four movies as Aquaman. Presumably, that very specific number refers to: Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice (3/25/16), Justice League Part 1 (11/17/17), Aquaman (7/27/18), and Justice League Part 2 (6/14/19). The real news is that Jason Momoa has expressed interest in the Aquaman movie being directed by Zack Snyder, who directed Watchmen, Man of Steel, and will be directing 2016’s Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice. An incident that supports the idea that Zack Snyder might indeed somehow fit Aquaman into his schedule is the story a while back, in which Zack Snyder took a local radio zoo crew to task over the awesomeness that is Aquaman. If Snyder does take on the Aquaman solo movie, that does raise the question about who will direct the Justice League movies, as presumably, Snyder wouldn’t be able to do all three. In related news, a spoiler made its way online this week about one of the characters that we won’t be seeing in Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice.
Director John Lee Hancock has sort of built his career on true stories, including The Rookie, The Alamo, The Blind Side, and Saving Mr. Banks. The director is now in talks to tackle yet another such movie, in the form of The Founder, about how Ray Kroc met the McDonald Brothers and convinced them that they could turn their hamburger restaurant into a national franchise. The script by screenwriter Robert Siegel (Big Fan, The Wrestler) is being compared in tone to both The Social Network and There Will Be Blood. Before Hancock’s involvement, both Tom Hanks (who worked with Hancock on Saving Mr. Banks) and Michael Keaton (currently hot because of Birdman) had talked to the production company about the role, but they were waiting to see who the director would be. Might Hancock be what convinced Tom Hanks to sign on? In other news involving someone fromA League of Their Own (and baseball), that film’s director Penny Marshall is now attached to direct a biopic about Effa Manley, one of the owners in the Negro National League, who also became the first woman inducted into the Baseball Hall of Fame. The untitled movie would be Penny Marshall’s first film in over 10 years (since Riding in Cars with Boys in 2001).
French-Canadian director Xavier Dolan (I Killed My Mother, Mommy) is set to make his English language debut with a movie that doesn’t have a single maternal reference in its title. The Death and Life of John F. Donovan will tell the story of a fictional actor famous for playing a superhero (who isn’t Birdman) whose career is jeopardized when his correspondence with a young girl is portrayed in the media as being pedophilic. Kit Harrington (Jon Snow from Game of Thrones) will play the actor, and Jessica Chastain will play the gossip columnist behind the story manipulation. Kathy Bates has signed on to play the actor’s manager, and Susan Sarandon will play his mother.
The continuing journey towards Sony Pictures making their own Steve Jobs biopic has had enough twists and turns to someday become its own movie (and considering how often that happens, maybe someday, it will). When Christian Bale departed the film, Michael Fassbender was mentioned as being a top contender, but this week, in a somewhat buried lead, we learned that he has indeed signed, with Seth Rogen also still signed to play Steve Wozniak. Jeff Daniels is also being “eyed” to play Apple CEO John Sculley. Natalie Portman had been in talks to play Macintosh marketing chief Joanna Hoffman (described as the film’s female lead), but this week, Portman also dropped out. This Steve Jobs movie, which tells his life in three acts (around the launches of the Macintosh, the NeXT, and the iPod), will be directed by Danny Boyle (Slumdog Millionaire, 127 Hours) from a script by Aaron Sorkin.
Although there were obviously some big stories this week, the last seven days were sort of lacking in quantity. So, we’re going to finish up with two stories that represent things that might never happen, or they might be portents of huge deals yet to come. First up, there’s Al Pacino, who back in August was well documented as saying that he enjoyed Guardians of the Galaxy. This week, Pacino confirmed that he has indeed talked (in the past tense) with Marvel’s Kevin Feige about someday working with Marvel. Pacino doesn’t seem to know what it would be (and Kevin Feige may not even know right now), but they’re apparently talking. This writer thinks Al Pacino would be a good choice for Baron Mordo in Doctor Strange, or Star-Lord’s father in Guardians of the Galaxy 2. What do the commenters think? In other news of actors talking about movies they might not necessarily end up dong, Rebel Wilson revealed this week that she’s met with Sony about their plans for a female-led Ghostbusters reboot. Wilson’s Bridesmaids costar Melissa McCarthy has also been mentioned in the past, including speculation that the reboot could be a de facto Bridesmaids reunion with multiple actresses from that movie starring. Might this be confirmation of that theory?
There wasn’t a single headline story that stood out to us this week as a Rotten Idea (though some of the stories buried within them might have been). Which story do the commenters think was the week’s Rotten Idea?
For more Weekly Ketchup columns by Greg Dean Schmitz, check out the WK archive, and you can contact GDS via Facebook.
