This week’s Ketchup covers the post-Memorial Day weekend in Hollywood and film development news, which included stories about such films as Assassin’s Creed, Bourne 5, Doctor Strange, League of Extraordinary Gentlemen, and Wonder Woman.
Superman has Lois Lane, Superboy had Lana Lang, and Wonder Woman has military man Steve Trevor, who in many versions of her origin is the outsider who first discovers the Amazons on Paradise Island. This week, we learned that the role of Steve Trevor in Warner Bros and DC Comics’ long-awaited adaptation of Wonder Woman (6/23/17) will be none other than Chris Pine, who is now in talks. If Chris Pine does sign on to join Gal Gadot, it will be the third franchise for the actor, after his two (and soon, three) Star Trek films as Captain Kirk, and one reboot attempt with Jack Ryan: Shadow Recruit. Wonder Woman will be directed by Patty Jenkins (Monster), who came aboard the superhero adaptation after the departure of Breaking Bad director/producer Michelle MacLaren. Chris Pine reportedly won the role of Steve Trevor after the studio tested a few other actors, including Scott Eastwood, who instead was cast in a supporting role in DC Comics’ Suicide Squad.
The movie industry is so obsessed and pre-occupied these days with every little movement from the successful world of superhero comic book adaptations that people might be forgiven if they forget that there have been comic book adaptations that have nothing to do with DC or Marvel, or superheroes at all. For example, there’s indie comics writer and artist Daniel Clowes, whose books inspired both Ghost World and Art School Confidential. Laura Dern and Woody Harrelson are now in talks to star in the Daniel Clowes graphic novel adaptation Wilson, which will be produced by Alexander Payne (Sideways, The Descendants). Wilson will be directed by Craig Johnson, who recently directed the indie hit The Skeleton Twins. Harrelson will star as the title character, “a middle-aged misanthrope… who seeks out his ex-wife (Dern), a scarred drug abuser, after the death of his father. When he learns of a teenaged daughter, born after his divorce, he tries to force them all to join him in his last gasping stab at a family.” Filming is scheduled to start on Wilson in Minneapolis in June.
British director Joe Wright made his feature film debut in 2005 with Pride and Prejudice, followed in 2007 by Atonement, which was nominated for seven Academy Awards (including Best Picture), and won for Best Original Score. Wright’s next film will be the J.M. Barrie adaptation Pan (10/9/15), but the director is already looking for his next project. Wright is in talks with Focus Features to direct their adaptation of the Charlotte Rogan historical novel The Lifeboat. Anne Hathaway is already attached to star as a young newlywed who survives the sinking of an ocean liner in 1914 only to find herself on trial for murder because of events that unfolded on the over-crowded lifeboat while awaiting rescue. The Lifeboat was adapted by screenwriter William Broyles, Jr, whose filmography includes another film about survival at sea, Cast Away.
Following the surprise success of this spring’s science fiction film Ex Machina, that film’s star Alicia Vikander has become one of the most in-demand young talents of the year thus far. This was demonstrated this week by the news that Vikander is in talks to costar in both the videogame adaptation Assassin’s Creed (along with Michael Fassbender) and the fifth Bourne movie (with Matt Damon and director Paul Greengrass). The Swedish actress had been expected to join Tom Hanks in the tech company drama The Circle, but in the interest of Assassin’s Creed and Bourne 5, Vikander may depart The Circle, possibly to be replaced in the role by Emma Watson.
After two critically disappointing films (Labor Day and Men, Women & Children) recently, director Jason Reitman (Juno, Up in the Air) appears to be interested in mixing things up a bit. Reitman is teaming up with DreamWorks Animation’s new leadership on an animated adaptation of the children’s book The Adventures of Beekle: The Unimaginary Friend, by author Dan Santat. The Beekle adaptation is the first project to start development under DreamWorks Animation’s new leadership following a few years of films that were seen as box office disappointments, such as Rise of the Guardians, Turbo, and Mr. Peabody & Sherman. DreamWorks Animation’s next release will be Kung Fu Panda 3 (1/29/16).
Every once in a while, a spoof or parody comes along that actually transcends in popularity (at least for a while) the original subject that was being spoofed. That’s arguably what happened in the 2000s as the Cartoon Network’s Adult Swim hit The Venture Bros became one of the network’s most popular shows. The Venture Bros is inspired by other sources, but for those who know what to looking for, it’s easy to see that the characters and stories are takes on the 1960s animated adventure show Jonny Quest. The idea of adapting Jonny Quest as a big budget live action adventure has been bouncing around at Warner Bros for several years, including a time (much earlier in his career) when Zac Efron’s name was frequently mentioned (he’s considerably aged out of the role since). The Jonny Quest adaptation received new life this week as Spy Kids franchise creator and director Robert Rodriguez has now joined the project. Critically, Rodriguez’s filmography has been all over the map, from highs like the Certified Fresh first two Spy Kids movies, Sin City, and Machete, to critical misfires like the third and fourth Spy Kids movies, Machete Kills, and The Adventures of Sharkboy and Lavagirl in 3-D.
It was only 12 years ago, but the climate and approach to comic book adaptations was very different in some ways in 2003 when 20th Century Fox released The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen (AKA LXG). Adapted from a very popular mini-series by writer Alan Moore, LXG was considered by most as a critical and box office flop, and by fans of Alan Moore’s series as something of a travesty. Twelve years later, there’s now a Showtime series in its second season, Penny Dreadful, which has borrowed a similar premise (fictional characters in Victorian England who team up to fight supernatural menaces), and has been well received. It’s therefore perhaps not surprising that 20th Century Fox has started development on a new adaptation of Moore’s original League of Extraordinary Gentlemen series. If the remake hews close to Moore’s story, it will feature the characters Captain Nemo, Allan Quatermain, Mina Murray (from Dracula), The Invisible Man, Jekyll/Hyde, and distinctly, not “Tom Sawyer,” who was an addition for the first movie that did not appear in Moore’s team. Most recently, Fox had been attempting to adapt League of Extraordinary Gentlemen as a TV series (right around the same time that Penny Dreadful was in development), but the show was never greenlit past the pilot stage. The remake script is being adapted by Jayson Rothwell, whose credits to date are mostly direct-to-video films like Second-in-Command, starring Jean-Claude Van Damme.
In the comics, the origin story of Marvel’s Doctor Strange (11/4/16) heavily involves a mysterious Tibetan mystic called The Ancient One, who lives high in the Himalayas and instructs injured surgeon Stephen Strange in the art of sorcery. A few months ago, there was an (unconfirmed) story that three of the actors Marvel Studios was considering for the key role of The Ancient One were Bill Nighy, Morgan Freeman, and Ken Watanabe. Instead, the news broke this week that Marvel is now in negotiations with British actress Tilda Swinton to take the role. It’s worth mentioning at this point that Marvel Studios does have something of a gender equality problem in their movies (the number of cinematic Avengers, for example, is now at 10, but only two of them are women). However, what many in social media remarked about this week is that Marvel Studios is casting a caucasian actress for what is traditionally an Asian role. If Tilda Swinton does take on the role of The Ancient One (and the character is still male), it won’t be her first encounter with gender-bending, as she also starred in the 1992 adaptation of Virginia Woolf’s Orlando. Swinton won an Academy Award for Best Supporting Actress in 2007’s Michael Clayton, and has also been nominated four separate times for a Screen Actors Guild award.
After making an impressive directorial debut with 2003’s Thirteen, director Catherine Hardwicke has since had a much rougher time with critics, as none of her five films since have scored a Fresh Tomatometer score. Those films included Lords of Dogtown (55%), The Nativity Story (38%), and most famously, the first Twilight movie (48%). This week, the news broke that Catherine Hardwicke is in talks with Fox 2000 and the Temple Hill production company to direct another movie with a similar audience, namely the adaptation of the 2014 YA novel Love Letters to the Dead. Author Ava Dellaira has adapted her own script from her novel about a teenage girl who starts writing letters to dead celebrities like Kurt Cobain, Amy Winehouse, Amelia Earhart, Judy Garland, Janis Joplin, and Heath Ledger. Temple Hill is a company that has made a lucrative business out of YA adaptations, with a filmography that includes The Fault in Our Stars and The Maze Runner franchise. Will Love Letters to the Dead be the film to break Catherine Hardwicke’s Rotten streak on the RT Tomatometer?
For fans of Stephen King’s massive decades-spanning horror epic IT, the plans for a two-movie adaptation took a bit of a stumble this week. That’s because director Cary Fukunaga (2011’s Jane Eyre, HBO’s True Detective) has departed the IT adaptation, reportedly over budget issues and New Line Cinema’s interest in adapting IT as a single movie. Filming had been scheduled to start on the first IT movie this summer, with We’re the Millers star Will Poulter recently cast as Pennywise, the evil clown monster. Fukunaga’s departure has been described as putting the project on hold, but this story reports that IT may yet proceed with a new director, moving back to Warner Bros from subsidiary New Line Cinema. Some sources are also reporting that the cold feet about IT came from the perceived lackluster box office performance of the Poltergeist remake, which also heavily featured a scary clown in its marketing (that’s how Hollywood works sometimes, folks!).
