This week’s Ketchup covers the week when both Marvel and Warner Bros made big superhero movie announcements (Captain America 3, The Flash, Cyborg, Suicide Squad, etc). Other movies did still make the news, however, like Ghost in the Shell, Pete’s Dragon, Pirates of the Caribbean 5, and… Minecraft?
Early in the week, it seemed like the big superhero movie news of the week was going to be all about Iron Man and something called Civil War (more on that later). And then, on Wednesday, Warner Bros had an investors meeting and confirmed plans for ten superhero movies stretching all the way until 2020. The plan is for at least two DC Comics adaptations a year, although some years will have more, because this list of ten doesn’t include solo movies for Batman and Superman, and other DC adaptations like Sandman and Justice League Dark. Also in the mix are the first three Harry Potter spinoffs adapting J.K Rowling’s Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them, and the next three LEGO movies. In 2016, there will be Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice (which might feature a female Robin), the super villain team movie Suicide Squad (more on that later), the first Fantastic Beasts, and The LEGO Ninjago Movie. In 2017, Wonder Woman will finally get her live action solo movie, along with Justice League Part One (to be directed by Zack Snyder), and The LEGO Batman Movie (first announced last week). In 2018, there will be The Flash, Aquaman, the second Fantastic Beasts, and The Lego Movie 3. 2019 brings us Shazam and Justice League Part Two, and 2020 will see the release of a Cyborg solo movie, a reboot of Green Lantern, and the third Fantastic Beasts movie. Read on for more about some of these DC Comics adaptations down below, and check out this image to see what the superhero movie landscape for the next six years looks like now.
We’ve known for a while that the 5/6/16 release of Captain America 3 would be preceded that year by Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice on 3/25/16. This week, we learned that Batman and Superman aren’t the only superheroes who will be at odds in the near future. Robert Downey Jr is in final talks with Marvel Studios to expand his contract beyond Avengers: Age of Ultron and the eventual Avengers 3. The new deal is for Captain America 3, which has now been confirmed to be the start of a new multi-film storyline bringing Marvel’s Civil War event to the big screen. There’s a lot more to Civil War than could possibly be explained in this space, but here’s the gist: After a tragedy (which might be different for the movies), the U.S. Government passes a “Superhuman Registration Act” forcing heroes to reveal their identities, or be branded criminals and fugitives. Iron Man and Black Widow support the SRA, and Captain America and Falcon oppose the law, and go underground with other rebels. (In the comics, Hawkeye, Hulk, and Thor weren’t involved in Civil War, for various reasons). A key figure in Civil War also just happens to be a character who, it was (very) recently rumored, might possibly join Marvel’s Cinematic Universe: Spider-Man (we won’t reveal why, because it’s a pretty awesome surprise in the comics.) Civil War also opens the door for the introduction of any number of new characters who could expand into their own solo movies, especially as Marvel Studios is expected to expand from two movies a year to three movies a year starting in 2017.
Ever since the 1990s, the Internet’s various movie sites and blogs have been running early casting speculation stories far before the involved studio actually confirmed any such decisions. Right now, for example, we’re very deep into the Doctor Strange cast-a-thon. One thing that you can definitely give Warner Bros credit for this week is that with their announcement, they just slid out who will be playing The Flash (Ezra Miller), accomplishing a few things. Not only had no one predicted that the star of We Need to Talk About Kevin was going to play The Flash, but the Internet hadn’t even really gotten around to such speculation yet. Ezra Miller also lands the job as the movie version of The Flash just a week after Grant Gustin made his debut as the new TV show version. Miller has the distinction of being the first openly gay actor to be cast as a superhero lead character in a major franchise. Gal Gadot (Wonder Woman), Jason Momoa (Aquaman), and Ray Fisher (Cyborg) also each got their solo movies confirmed, but only Momoa’s casting had still been a question mark (though his name’s been rumored/speculated for several months now). Warner Bros appears to be very much in the “star making” business with these movies, especially considering that Ray Fisher still has not made his feature film debut yet (his only appearance, other than stage work, was in a 2008 short film called The Good, the Bad, and the Confused). In somewhat related news, Gal Gadot is also now in talks for the lead female role in the Ben-Hur remake, along with the news that Pedro Pascal (Oberyn Martel from Game of Thrones) is in talks to play Pontius Pilate.
Out of context, Suicide Squad (8/5/16) might have seemed like an odd choice for Warner Bros as only the third DC Comics adaptation in their new cinematic universe (after Man of Steel and Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice). On the same day that Suicide Squad was confirmed for 2016, a story broke that potentially explained the rationale. Suicide Squad, if Warner Bros’ plans pan out, is looking like something of a super villain version of Ocean’s Eleven, featuring an impressive cast. This news came in something of a buried lead in a longer story about Ryan Gosling (who’s also one of the potential Doctor Strange stars). In addition to Gosling, Warner Bros is reportedly talking to Will Smith, Tom Hardy (formerly their “Bane”), and Wolf of Wall Street costar Margot Robbie (who is newly available after leaving Ghost in the Shell). If those stars sign on, it’s still unclear exactly which DC Comics super villains will make up the movie version of Suicide Squad (there’s been a lot of members in the comics). This recent rumor, however, suggests it might include Blockbuster, Captain Boomerang, Mindboggler, Multiplex, Vixen, Deadshot (as the leader of the team), and Jaculi (who is a Suicide Squad enemy in the comics). Three of those characters are particularly obscure, but WB might be taking a cue from Guardians of the Galaxy. Suicide Squad will be directed by David Ayer, who’s latest film is this weekend’s Fury (Certified Fresh at 77%).
Last month, in the slow news days immediately after Labor Day, our lead story was that Margot Robbie (The Wolf of Wall Street) had landed the lead role in the live action manga adaptation of Ghost in the Shell. We don’t know exactly what happened, but Robbie is no longer attached. Instead, DreamWorks has reportedly made a $10 million offer to Scarlett Johansson to take the lead instead. Ghost in the Shell is set in a cyberpunk future where cyborg bodies called “shells” are controlled by “ghosts” (human minds), with the two leads being cyborg cops investigating both a government conspiracy and a hacker called the Puppet Master. This live action version of Ghost in the Shell will be directed by Rupert Sanders (Snow White and the Huntsman).
Different fans may most associate director Sam Raimi with either horror (the Evil Dead franchise) or superhero movies (Spider-Man). The truth might be closer to “n/a”, because Raimi has plied his skills on lots of different genres, including western (The Quick and the Dead), thriller (A Simple Plan), sports (For Love of the Game), and fantasy (Oz: The Great and Powerful). Now, Raimi looks poised to take on a romantic comedy, with the news that he is in talks to direct an adaptation of an upcoming novel by the author of Silver Linings Playbook. Although it won’t be published until next summer, Love May Fail is already being adapted by screenwriter Mike White (The Good Girl, School of Rock, Orange County). The premise involves a woman who escapes a failing marriage to go back to her hometown to save her English teacher who is embroiled in a “horrific scandal.”
One sign that an actor is in the later years of his career is that film writers are challenged to figure out if his role in a remake is the one previously played by Mickey Rooney, Jim Backus, or Red Buttons. Of course, Robert Redford is now 78, so maybe this isn’t exactly breaking news. Indeed, Redford is now over 10 years older than those three actors were when they costarred in the movie in question: 1977’s Pete’s Dragon. Anyway, yes, Robert Redford is in talks with Walt Disney Pictures to costar in their remake of Pete’s Dragon as “a local who tells tall tales involving dragons that no one believes.” Indie director David Lowery (Ain’t Them Bodies Saints) is directing this new version, which transplants the story from a 20th century fishing village to a modern setting where loggers are cutting down a forest (a forest where a dragon has been raising a young boy named Pete). If he signs on, Robert Redford will be the first adult actor to join child stars Oakes Fegley (Boardwalk Empire) and Oona Laurence.
Sony’s search for their own Steve Jobs (after that movie with Kelso) has been going on for months now, and this is probably the 4th or 5th time the Weekly Ketchup has covered the process. Christian Bale had been an early favorite to star in this version of a biopic about Apple founder Steve Jobs, but then… things changed. For a while, Leonardo DiCaprio had been in talks to star, but two weeks ago, he dropped out. Then Bale was back in the running, along with other possibilities, like Bradley Cooper, Ben Affleck, and Matt Damon, and now it looks like he is indeed the front runner. If Christian Bale does sign on, he will be working with director Danny Boyle (127 Hours, Slumdog Millionaire), who will be working from a script by Aaron Sorkin. Boyle’s own hiring was the result of something of a similar process, coming after the departure of David Fincher (who would have reuniting with the screenwriter of The Social Network, another tech billionaire biopic).
Spanish actor Javier Bardem seems like a perfectly nice gentleman, but Hollywood has been sort of pigeonholing him into being a “heavy,” a “bad guy.” Bardem’s two most famous big budget roles were both villains, in No Country for Old Men and in the James Bond movie Skyfall (more about Bond villains at the end of this story). Javier Bardem is now in talks for a third such big budget villain role, in the fifth Pirates of the Caribbean movie, once again starring Johnny Depp. If he signs on, Bardem will play the film’s villain, called “Captain Brand,” who might also just happen to be a ghost. Joachim Ronning and Espen Sandberg, the directors of Kon-Tiki, are expected to start filming Pirates of the Caribbean 5 in Australia in 2015, and Walt Disney Pictures has scheduled the film for release on July 7, 2017. This story is a “Rotten Idea” not because of Javier Bardem or the directors, but because the Tomatometer ratings for the Pirates of the Caribbean franchise have been steadily declining with each new movie since the first movie was Certified Fresh at 79%. The other (possible) James Bond villain news this week is still a rumor as of this writing, but here you go: Dave Bautista may have landed the “Hinx” villain role in James Bond 24.
It wasn’t included with all of the other hoopla that their films attracted this week, but another Warner Bros adaptation also had major news this week. In other words, it’s not related to DC Comics, J.K. Rowling, or LEGO. Nope, this story is all about that retro video game that gamers below a certain age are obsessed with, and people over a certain age are mostly bewildered by: Minecraft. Having had success with The LEGO Movie, Warner Bros apparently sees Minecraft as a potentially similar success in the making, since they’re both about… building blocks? The difference, of course, is that LEGO has spent decades developing a loose storyline with various character-based sets, as well as games and animated movies based on various licensed characters. Minecraft, as well as this person-over-a-certain-age can tell, is mostly non-narrative. Anyway, it’s Shawn Levy‘s problem now, because the director of Night at the Museum, The Internship, and This is Where I Leave You is now in talks with Warner Bros to direct the Minecraft movie.
For more Weekly Ketchup columns by Greg Dean Schmitz, check out the WK archive, and you can contact GDS via Facebook.
