Mel Gibson is being shipped off to war again, and this time he’ll hit the battlefield alongside Colin Farrell. The duo are set to star in War Pigs, a WWII film directed by Tommy Wirkola, who is best known for directing Dead Snow and Hansel & Gretel: Witch Hunters. Oh, well this sounds pretty great already.
The action-revenge flick follows disillusioned ex-soldiers who team up one last time to get revenge on a drug cartel that murdered their friend and stole drug money. Farrell’s character goes by the name of Drex while Gibson will be known as The Pastor, which sounds about right. The script is by Nick Ball and John Niven, who previously teamed up on the 2011 Paz Vega action-comedy, Cat Run.
With Farrell and Gibson, not to mention Wirkola, this is sounding like a pure testosterone flick, which I’m totally down for. Wirkola should be the right guy for the material, too. He’s coming off of last year’s solid sci-fi movie, What Happened to Monday? [THR]
Man, remember when the Uptown Saturday Night remake was going to star Will Smith and Denzel Washington? That was years ago, and sadly it never came to be because that would have been amazing. Kevin Hart is in one of the lead roles now, and it looks like he may finally have a director in Girls Trip’s Malcolm D. Lee.
Variety reports Lee as being in talks to direct Uptown Saturday Night, a remake of the 1974 buddy comedy that starred Sidney Poitier and Bill Cosby as friends who have their wallets stolen at a seedy nightclub, launching them into a crazy attempt to find the crooks and recover a winning lottery ticket. Black-ish creator Kenya Barris wrote the most recent script, while Smith remains on board as a producer. No word on who will join Hart as one of the two estranged buddies, but word is they wanted to name a helmer first.
This is a reunion for Lee and Hart who worked together on the upcoming comedy, Night School.
Despite a massive showing of support from fans and a joint letter by the Guardians of the Galaxy cast, chances are slim that Disney will rehire James Gunn. Variety, who only days ago were saying Disney was considering a reversal of their decision to fire the director, now say he is unlikely to be reinstated.
Gunn was fired from directing Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3 after years-old provocative tweets were made public by his enemies. Gunn’s supporters noted that he had apologized for the statements years ago, and there was some talk that maybe this would have an affect in getting Disney brass to change their minds. The cast’s letter, while heartfelt, doesn’t include any threats of quitting the film, and even if they wanted to they are all under contract. With Disney Studios chief Alan Horn and CEO Bob Iger both in on the decision to oust Gunn, there’s very little hope anything will change.
An insider told the site, “I don’t see Disney re-hiring him. Those tweets were so horrible and Disney has a different standard than other studios.”
There’s a chance Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3 will get pushed back while Disney searches for Gunn’s replacement. Names already being mentioned are familiar ones to the MCU: Taika Waititi (Thor: Ragnarok), the Russo Brothers (Avengers: Infinity War), and Jon Favreau (Iron Man). All are super busy with other projects, though, and are unlikely to be available any time soon, if at all, and it may be a Marvel outsider who ultimately gets the job.
Filming had been planned to start in February 2019 but if a director can’t be found expect that date to get moved.
That mega-deal last week which saw Andy Serkis’ Mowgli head over to Netflix? Apparently it was just the beginning, because now the streaming giant has become the home of another long-developing project Serkis has been working on, his adaptation of George Orwell’s Animal Farm.
In the works since at least 2012, the film is a live-action/motion-capture hybrid of the Orwellian classic, a political allegory about a group of farm animals who rebel against their human masters. Serkis will direct and obviously play a part in the motion-capture aspect, and he’ll be joined by his War for the Planet of the Apes director Matt Reeves and longtime collaborator John Cavendish as producers. The plan is to present the story in a contemporary fashion rather than reflecting the Russian Revolution.
No word on when this would shoot, but it could be a while due to the large amount of pre and post-production required for a motion-capture project like this.
Jay Roach’s next political film, this one titled Fair and Balanced, is shaping up to be pretty impressive already. As you probably guessed by the title, it will focus on Fox News and its disgraced former chief Roger Ailes and anchors Megyn Kelly, Gretchen Carlson, Bill O’Reilly, and Greta Van Susteren. This one’s bound to attract a lot of attention, especially with stars the caliber of Nicole Kidman and Margot Robbie joining Charlize Theron in the cast.
According to the report, Oscar winner Nicole Kidman is on board to play former Fox News anchor Gretchen Carlson, one of the most visible women alleging sexual harassment charges against Ailes. Robbie’s role is less clear, but she’s said to be playing an associate producer at the top cable news network. Theron has been on board for a couple of months, set to play Megyn Kelly, once a superstar at the network before she became arguably the loudest voice against Ailes.
No word on a release date but Fair and Balanced has the whiff of an Oscars player for sure. I’m just curious who they’ll get to play O’Reilly… [THR/Variety]
I’ll never forget being nine years old and going to the theater with my Dad to see Transformers: The Movie. He didn’t give a crap about it, of course, but I was practically bouncing out of my seat the whole time. I remember vividly shouting “Kup!” at the screen even though it was actually Hot Rod who was on it. I was just too excited and got my Autobots all mixed up. No matter how much money Michael Bay poured into his live-action Transformers movies none of them could hold a cube of energon to Transformers: The Movie, and now it’s coming back to theaters for one night only.
Hasbro and Shout! Factory are teaming up with Fathom Events for a nationwide one night only screening of Transformers: The Movie on Thursday, September 27th at 7:00pm. The digitally remastered edition will include a sneak peek at the upcoming Bumblebee live-action movie, which looks incredible. There will also be a brand new interview with Stan Bush, the singer/songwriter behind “The Touch”, and there will be a recent performance of the unforgettable theme song. Unfortunately he won’t be joined by Mark Wahlberg and John C. Reilly. Boogie Nights fans know what I’m talking about.
To me, Transformers: The Movie is the greatest cartoon movie ever made. Period, full stop. The 1986 film, which Hasbro lost a bunch of money on, by the way, told another battle in the ongoing war between the Autobots and Decepticons, but this would not be your typical fight. In a story that I know traumatized me and my friends, characters we loved were slaughtered like they were going out of style. Optimus Prime ate it, so did my beloved Ultra Magnus, and Megatron was so wrecked he had to be transformed into the crappy Galvatron. It was like Transformers was ditching the past and introducing a new wave of characters, which it was, but damned if my little heart could stand it.
Hasbro would kick my teeth in again later with GI Joe: The Movie, which saw Duke take a spear right to the damn heart. It’s worth noting that film was supposed to be in theaters, too, except Hasbro was afraid of losing more money.
Anyway, Transformers: The Movie will be available at over 500 theaters. You can find one near you and pre-order your tickets on August 3rd by going here.
The greatest director of all-time? Many would say that label is befitting of the great Alfred Hitchcock, whose resume includes some of the greatest movies ever: Rear Window, Psycho, Vertigo, North by Northwest, The Birds, and plenty more. And while he’s long been gone, Hitchcock may have just achieved his greatest feat now that he’s got his own Funko POP Vinyl.
That’s right, Hitchcock is the latest director to be given the Funko treatment, following James Wan, Guillermo Del Toro, Taika Waititi, and Paul Feig. Good luck getting any of those on the cheap, by the way. Anyway, Hitchcock’s comes appropriately enough in black and white, holding a clapboard for his famous horror, Psycho.
Pretty cool. My Pop! obsession may have waned some, but I definitely need to get my hands on this one, especially since it’s so readily available. You can pre-order it now from our friends at Entertainment Earth, who have the best prices and customer service for collectibles anywhere.
This year marks the 25th anniversary of the greatest baseball movie ever made not titled Major League. No, it’s not Bull Durham or The Natural. It’s The Sandlot, the 1993 film that introduced us to The Beast, Wendy Peffercorn, and Pia Flyers. Every time one of these anniversaries comes around you start hearing about a remake or a reboot, and Deadline has word that 20th Century Fox do indeed have something in mind for The Sandlot.
Apparently, a prequel to The Sandlot is in the works with original writer and director David Mickey Evans returning. He’ll co-write the script with Austin Reynolds, a Disney Writers program alum who had a 2016 script on the Black List. The story they cook up with the legend of The Beast, the menacing guard dog who swallows up baseballs hit into his owner’s yard by rambunctious kids. In The Sandlot, dorky new kid Scottie Smalls (Tom Guiry) has the story of The Beast told to him by his new friends.
No word on if the original cast will return in some capacity, but other than Guiry most of the core cast have left Hollywood. Denis Leary, Karen Allen, and Marley Shelton had supporting roles, but it really wouldn’t make sense for their characters to return. There were a couple of Sandlot sequels, including 2007’s The Sandlot: Heading Home which did have the popular character of “Squints” Palledorous make an appearance, played by the same actor.
I couldn’t be less a fan of this idea, but it doesn’t shock me. Nor would I be surprised if nothing came of it, or if the project ends up straight-to-VOD and nobody sees it, anyway.
We haven’t heard much abou HBO’s third season of True Detective, and maybe that’s for the best. After the highs of the critically-acclaimed first season, the second went awry with most viewers and there was legit question whether it would even come back again. But we know creator Nic Pizzolatto has a story cooked up and that it will star Oscar winner Mahershala Ali, and the duo are finally letting slip a few details.
The upcoming season is being shot right now in Arkansas, and the Ozarks Mountains are going to play an integral role. As for the story, it will tell “the story of a macabre crime in the heart of the Ozarks, a mystery that deepens over decades and plays out in three separate time periods.”
Pizzolatto says in regards to the Ozarks role in setting the tone for the season, “The mystery of the deep woods. The fog over the mountains. The rivers. The water. The sense of scale when you get out to some of this nature. Also, what the buildings say about the lives behind them. So I feel like people will see it as an extension of character, something that embodies characters’ emotional journeys while influencing those journeys.”
Ali added, “It would have been a disservice to the story not to shoot in the Ozarks, in Fayetteville, in Arkansas, because it’s such a character in the story.”
The behind-the-scenes buzz is this season will be more in line with the Woody Harrelson/Matthew McConaughey season which everybody loved. I’m one of the few who didn’t hate season two, and personally I’d rather see Pizzolatto try not to emulate anything he’s done before. The Ozarks setting is intriguing, though, and I can’t wait to see what he does with it. [ArkansasOnline]
The Terminator franchise can only go up from the dismal mark set by Terminator Genisys, right? With the flicks back under James Cameron’s guidance, and the directorial reins handed over to Deadpool director Tim Miller, production is underway on the untitled sequel that ignores everything after Terminator 2. How do we know? Because the first official look is here, featuring the film’s three badass leading ladies.
The image reveals Linda Hamilton’s return as Sarah Connor, looking like she’s ready to blow up all the terminators she can find. Mackenzie Davis is front and center as soldier Grace, joined by newcomer Natalia Reyes as Dani Ramos. Not pictured is a certain T-800 played by Arnold Schwarzenegger. Nor are confirmed co-stars Gabriel Luna and Diego Boneta. If you’re wondering how John Connor fits into the scenario, actor Jude Collie will be playing him but it will be Ed Furlong’s 1991 likeness using CGI.
I find it hard to get too worked up over this image because Terminator Genisys gave us loads of photos of castmembers standing around with guns looking tough, and the movie sucked. So while I’m excited to see Davis in anything and the return of Hamilton is cool, the only thing that matters is if the movie’s awesome and we’ll find that out on November 6th 2019.
