This week’s Ketchup covers seven days from the realm of film development (including two days of San Diego Comic-Con), and ten of the top movie news stories of the week. Included in the mix are headlines for such movies as Green Lantern Corps, Stephen King’s IT Part I, LEGO Batman, and Disney’s Genies and Wreck-It Ralph 2.
The week after Universal Pictures and Illumination Entertainment had the second biggest opening weekend ever for an animated feature, Walt Disney Pictures has announced plans for a live-action prequel with something of a similar theme. This week’s news is also part of the growing development slate (now past 10 movies in development!) of live action adaptations of characters from Walt Disney animated features. That’s because Walt Disney Pictures now has plans for a live-action prequel to Aladdin called Genies. In Genies, we will journey to the magical realm that genies come from, and discover how Aladdin’s genie (originally voiced by the late Robin Williams) came to be trapped in the lamp where Aladdin found him. The Genies prequel will be written by the screenwriting team of Damian Shannon and Mark Swift, who have previously worked on the horror franchise entries Freddy vs Jason, the 2009 reboot of Friday the 13th, and the not-yet-released movie version of Baywatch. The long-term plans are for the Genies prequel to eventually lead into a live-action remake of Aladdin, which will then function as a sequel to Genies. This plan is similar (though not exactly the same) to how next year’s Alice Through the Looking Glass (5/27/16) will be both a sequel and an adaptation. Walt Disney Pictures’ currently announced live action adaptations of their animated films also include The Jungle Book (4/15/16), Pete’s Dragon (8/12/16), Beauty and the Beast (3/17/17), Night on Bald Mountain, Dumbo, Prince Charming, Winnie the Pooh, and Mulan.
This happens every year, but sometimes, because of all the focus on San Diego for the four days of Comic-Con, other stories that come out are sort of lost in the wake. That, ostensibly, is what columns like the Weekly Ketchup are for, to help people “catch up” on news stories they may have missed. This year, the news story that is probably most examplary of that trend involves Jennifer Lawrence (who was actually at SDCC for The Hunger Games: Mockingjay Part II and X-Men: Apocalypse). Jennifer Lawrence has signed to star in a “romantic dramedy” being developed at Columbia Pictures called The Rosie Project. The dramedy is an adaptation of a book by Graeme Simsion, and is being adapted by Scott Neustadnter and Michael Weber, who are best known for their (500) Days of Summer screenplay. At one point, the directing team of Phil Lord and Christopher Miller had been eyeing directing The Rosie Project, but they have now moved on to focus instead on Star Wars Anthology: Star Wars and an animated Spider-Man movie. Jennifer Lawrence will star in The Rosie Project as a woman who confounds a genetics professor’s theories about what sort of woman should be his ideal mate.
When a movie earns over $470 million from a budget of $165 million, you would think a sequel would be obvious, almost non-news, and yet, it’s also because such movies were so popular that their sequels are big news. An example of that this week was Wreck-it Ralph 2, which John C. Reilly, who voiced the title character, confirmed this week that he is signed to return as Wreck-It Ralph. It’s not yet known what Wreck-It Ralph 2 will be about, but director Rich Moore has said in the past that we might see the sequel implementing more “mobile gaming” characters, and/or other versions of Wreck-It Ralph from other consoles or stages of video game history. There is no release date yet for Wreck-It Ralph 2, except that it probably won’t be before 2018, as it has to wait for its spot after other Walt Disney Animation Studios movies like Zootopia (3/4/16), Moana (11/23/16), Giants (3/9/18), and another sequel, Frozen 2.
(Admittedly, that joke headline is probably funnier if you’ve seen the 2013 horror film Mama.) Ever since Mama out performed expectations in early 2013, Hollywood has collectively been trying to find the right next project for director Andy Muschietti. As of yet, the right movie hasn’t come together, but Muschietti does have a few films in development, including the video game adaptation Shadow of the Colossus. This week’s news might actually be Muschietti’s next, as it’s almost pretty much ready to go, following the recent departure of its previous director. That’s because Andy Muschietti is now in talks with New Line Cinema to direct at least the first movie in their two-part adaptation of Stephen King’s IT, about a group of kids terrorized by a subterranean being posing as a clown called Pennywise. Cary Fukunaga, the director best known for the first season of HBO’s True Detective, had been developing the two IT movies for some time, but dropped out in May over “vision and budget” issues. It’s not known if Fukunaga’s choice for Pennywise, We’re the Millers star Will Poulter, will still be cast as the evil clown, or if Muschietti will recast the role. It’s also unknown if Andy Muschietti will direct both films, or if another director will take over for the concluding film in which the childhood friends reunite as adults to finally confront Pennywise.
Although most of the hype out of San Diego Comic-Con last weekend involved capes and sequels, longtime attendee Quentin Tarantino was still able to make a few intriguing announcements about his next film, The Hateful Eight. The headline news is that QT has recruited acclaimed Italian film composer Ennio Morricone to provide the score for The Hateful Eight, which will be his first Western in over 40 years, since his work with Sergio Leone on films like A Fistful of Dollars, For a Few Dollars More, and The Good, The Bad, and The Ugly. Quentin Tarantino had previously used some of Ennio Morricone’s work on Inglourious Basterds, the score of which was something of a musical collage. Tarantino also revealed that The Hateful Eight was filmed using the same Ultra Panavision 70mm lens that was used to film Ben-Hur and Lawrence of Arabia back in the 1960s (not similar lens, but the exact same set of lens). The Weinstein Company has scheduled The Hateful Eight for release on December 25, 2015 in 70mm (to be followed by a digital projection release in January, 2016).
Although the live action DC Comics movies like next year’s Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice and Suicide Squad receive most of the press, Warner Bros also has another line of movies adapted from DC Comics. The success last year of The LEGO Movie has led to WB greenlighting a spinoff sequel for LEGO Batman (2/10/17). That movie will be directed by Robot Chicken director Chris McKay, and Will Arnett will reprise his role as Batman from The LEGO Movie. This week, we learned that Will Arnett will be joined by the voice talents of Michael Cera as his crimefighting partner Robin. What is not yet known is which Robin Cera will be playing (there have been several in the comics). LEGO Batman is being written by Seth Grahame-Smith (Pride and Prejudice and Zombies). In other Michael Cera news, the Arrested Development star has recently acquired the rights to the novel Masters of Atlantis by Charles Portis (who also wrote True Grit). Published in 1985 and set in the early 20th Century, Masters of Atlantis is a comedy about a young man who becomes involved with a cult centered around the lost continent of Atlantis. Michael Cera will be both producing and starring in Masters of Atlantis.
Reese Witherspoon is continuing to help guide her own career as an increasingly prolific producer, following last year’s success with Gone Girl and Wild, which Witherspoon also starred in. Other movies that Reese Witherspoon is producing through her Pacific Standard production company with an eye towards starring in include Ashley’s War (about female soldiers in Afghanistan) and a Peggy Lee biopic, but she added another project to her producing/starring slate this week. Pacific Standard and Warner Bros are partnering on developing an adaptation of the upcoming (2017) novel All is Not Forgotten. Although the book is still almost two years away from being published, the premise is described as being an “adult thriller about a teenage girl in picturesque suburban Connecticut who is brutally attacked and raped, and the secrets that emerge during the course of the investigation.” Reese Witherspoon is being courted by Warner Bros to play the girl’s mother, “who decides with her husband to give their daughter a pill to erase her short term memory so she won’t relive the trauma of the rape.” This project is now seeking a screenwriter and/or a director.
The German/Swiss folklore monster “The Krampus” has been scaring young children around Christmas for hundreds of years, but for whatever reasons, the Krampus has mostly stayed under-adapted in modern Christmas fantasy stories. That’s about to change, with Universal Pictures and Legendary Pictures scheduling the horror comedy Krampus for December 4, 2015. And with that film potentially introducing the Krampus concept to the mainstream audience, now another film is being put into development. Walden Media (Chronicles of Narnia, Charlotte’s Web) and the Jim Henson Company are teaming up to produce Happy Krampus!, a family-friendly live action take on the Krampus legends. Happy Krampus! is expected to mark the feature film debut of short film director Kealan O’Rourke (The Boy in the Bubble), whose idea is the basis for this film. In this take on a Christmas story, Krampus is one of Santa Claus’ helpers, responsible for delivering the coal to the naughty children on Santa’s list. After losing his job because modern parents spoil their children, Krampus sets out to replace Christmas Day with his own Krampus Day.
Following weeks of recent rumors that multiple actors will be cast as various Green Lantern heroes in future WB/DC Comics movies, the studio confirmed a title which allows for exactly that at San Diego Comic-Con last weekend. Part of their event on Saturday was the revelation that Warner Bros is indeed planning to reboot Green Lantern in 2020 with Green Lantern Corps, a title which references both the intergalactic force Green Lanterns work for, and a long-running DC Comics title. Under the Green Lantern Corps umbrella, there have been multiple Green Lanterns from Earth, and thousands from all over the galaxy at large. Two of the actors who have been recently rumored are Tyrese Gibson (possibly as John Stewart) and Chris Pine (in addition to playing Steve Trevor in Wonder Woman). There is not yet any screenwriter or directors for Green Lantern Corps (or another farther-out DC Comics movie, Cyborg).
Within a certain range, it’s a frequent refrain that the same group of actors are considered for roles repeatedly. Some of the stars who are sometimes mentioned together these days are Hugh Jackman, Johnny Depp, Robert Downey, Jr. and Matthew McConaughey. Until this week, Jackman had been attached to star in a movie called Collateral Beauty, as a New York executive experiencing depression following a personal tragedy who discovers an unusual way of (possibly) breaking out of his condition. This week, however, Jackman dropped out of the film because of scheduling conflicts with his third solo Wolverine for 20th Century Fox. Rooney Mara and Jason Segel are also attached to costar, and the producers are now looking to replace Hugh Jackman, with early talks now about to begin with Johnny Depp, who does not have a film this fall. Collateral Beauty will be directed by Alfonso Gomez-Rejon (Me And Earl and the Dying Girl) from a script by Allan Loeb. Loeb’s nine-movie Rotten streak (which includes Just Go With It, The Dilemma, and So Undercover) is why this story is this week’s Rotten Idea.
