Prepare to return to the trippiest corner of the X-Men universe. Noah Hawley’s Legion is coming back to FX for season two in just a few days, and the network has revealed a new look at the mind-bending series starring Dan Stevens as David Haller, the schizophrenic son of Charles Xavier.
David is not only mentally ill, he’s also one of the most powerful mutants in the world. The second season finds him returning from his capture, thinking that only a day has passed but it has really been a full year for everyone he knows. That includes his girlfriend Syd (Rachel Barrett), and the Summerland folks who are now working for Division III. It’s up to David to figure out what’s reality and what’s not in hopes of defeating Amahl Farouk aka Shadow King who has found a way to infect people.
Hawley explains the central idea of the second season…
“The first year was very much about mental illness and that idea of what’s normal and what’s not normal… I wanted to continue to explore those ideas about mental illness: what is a delusion, how does a delusion take hold, how does it thrive. What does it take for a group of people to go mad?”
Naomi Watts is in talks to join Mel Gibson and Frank Grillo in the awesomely-titled Boss Level, the upcoming action flick from writer/director Joe Carnahan. The film has an Edge of Tomorrow-like premise, following a retired special forces veteran played by Grillo, who is forced to relive the moment of his death repeatedly. The only way to stop is to find the one responsible. [Variety]
Kevin Bacon will reteam with his Stir of Echoes director David Koepp for an adaptation of You Should Have Left. The Blumhouse horror will be written and directed by Koepp, based on the book by German author Daniel Kehlmann that follows a screenwriter’s descent into madness while he’s at a remote hotel in the Alps with his wife and daughter to pen a sequel to his hit screenplay. After a pair of #1 hits in 2017 (Get Out, Happy Death Day) Blumhouse may have another on its hands. [THR]
Screenwriter Zak Penn has maybe written more geeky movies than anybody. X2, X-Men: The Last Stand, The Avengers, Elektra, The Incredible Hulk, and in a few days his adaptation of Ready Player One hits theaters. He’s currently working on some kind of followup to The Matrix, but another comic book property just jumped to the top of his list. Penn will write Paramount’s movie based on ROM: Spaceknight.
ROM is part of Paramount’s potential Hasbro Cinematic Universe along with Transformers, M.A.S.K., G.I. Joe, Micronauts, and The Visionaries. ROM began life as a toy line that eventually spawned a Marvel comic book series, which I think you can say about all of these properties. The character is an alien cyborg who is sworn to protect the universe from the Dire Wraiths, shapeshifting creatures strong in dark magic. The battle eventually found its way to Earth and was joined by a number of Marvel’s most popular heroes. You won’t have to worry about any of them popping up in a ROM movie.
Penn is described by Deadline as someone who has “always loved the property” which I have to believe is a lie. There can’t really be die-hard ROM fans out there, right? Ok, well maybe he’s got an idea that can finally make this character cool. No word on who might direct but Penn has been behind the camera a few times himself and could probably do it if Paramount gives the green light.
They said we would see more Ava, and we clearly got a whole bunch of her! Last week on Legends of Tomorrow, Sarah became possessed by Mallus while wielding the death totem. Sarah, being a handful on her own, was a force to be reckoned with for the Legends as a result of the possession by the evil entity. The Legends had help from both John Constantine and Ava Sharpe, who had their own love triangle concerning Ava. In the aftermath of Sara expulsing Mallus from her system, Sarah realized that her dark side was a part of her, and it was something that she would have to deal with and accept. This led to her breaking up with Ava.
This week’s episode starts with Sarah deciding that she needs to take a sabbatical in the aftermath of her possession. It makes sense as she does have some demons to exercise, and something that as captain would be hard for her to honestly do. But the ship needs a captain. Nate thinks that he’s the best guy for the choice, but Sarah overrules him and appoints Amaya as the interim captain of the ship. Her first task, the appoints Zari to train Rory in using the fire totem. No longer needing the heatwave gun, he needs to learn how to use the fire totem. Zari teaching him makes sense, as she’s a totem bearer herself. Rory was more concerned with cooking food. Not realizing that it’s Ramadan (and Zari is a Muslim), he keeps offering her the food he cooks (including pork).
Just then time agent Gary portals into the Wave Rider looking for Ava. From Sara and the Legends perspective, Ava’s been off the ship since she and Sara broke up. Sarah and Ray agree to help Gary look for the missing Ava. Their first stop is Ava’s parents’ house in Fresno. As Ava’s parents are straight out of a sitcom, Sarah sees something is off. Threatening Ava’s “mother” at knifepoint, she finds that Ava’s “parents” are really actors. Something’s wrong with Ava. The trio leaves the fake parents behind and goes through Ava’s office. They snoop around and discover her files have been erased from the Time Bureau’s system. The only record not erased is a classified file related to the year 2213, but that time period is off limits. Thinking that Ava herself might be a time anachronism, they steal the Time Bureau’s mothership and make their way to the forbidden time period. There, something’s amiss. They run into Ava, and another Ava, and another Ava, and hundreds more. Turns out Ava is a clone model!
Meanwhile, with Amaya’s totem now in possession of Norah/Mallus, this is causing ripples through the timeline. Amaya’s granddaughter Mari McCabe doesn’t have the totem, but she still wants to carry out vigilante activities in Detroit, trying to help people and ending up in the hospital. While Amaya wants to head to Detroit to help her granddaughter, this could cause a problem and further corrupt the timeline. Instead, she has Wally and Nate head there to try and make sure she’s OK. While at the hospital, Nate sees Kuasa, meaning something’s going on. When they catch up to her, Kuasa reveals that she’s trying to help Mari since she doesn’t have any powers. Kuasa reveals that she’s having some buyer’s remorse with Norah getting Amaya’s totem and they agree to work together to try and get the totem back from Norah. They decide to lure Damien and Norah by using Nate as bait, which works. Norah gives Kuasa Amaya’s totem but Kuasa ends up betraying Nate as he and Amaya remaining together also jeopardizes her family’s history as well. As Damien is trying to torture Nate, he also is having second thoughts as Mallus taking over his daughter is not what he ultimately wants.
Wally heads back to the Wave Rider and surprisingly is joined by Kuasa and they all return back to Detroit to take on Norah, who also beat her father when he decides not to kill Nate. They all fight against Norah, but it’s still not an even match. Amaya isn’t able to use her totem completely as it’s still bonded to Norah. Kuasa tries to take Norah on, to fatal consequences as she rips the water totem out of Kuasa’s body, killing her. Amaya is heartbroken as her family dies trying to save her.
Back in 2213, Ray and Sara find a closing facility and encounter one of the Ava clones. After subduing her, the real Ava teleports looking for them to 2213. Seeing a clone of herself, she faints. Turns out Ava doesn’t know anything about her past, nor that she’s a clone. When Ava awakens, she’s not sure what to believe as she is starting to think that her whole life is a lie. Sara reassures her that she is an individual, as she cares for her. However, there are more clones arrive and the team has to fight their way through all of them. Ava even cons them pretending to be one of them before the fight breaks out. Sarah and Ava take the clones on. When they leave 2213, Ava and Sara decide that they have to get in contact with Rip Hunter to find out why he erased her file and pulled her from that timeline and had her placed in the Time Bureau.
In the aftermath of Kuasa’s death, both Rory and Zari are feeling her death (since they are totem bearers). Nate and Amaya are feeling it the worst though. Nate feels guilty as he believes that Kuasa’s death is his fault. Amaya is equally blaming herself and she decides that she has to take a time ship and head to her home country of Zambesi in 1992, to prevent the massacre of her village. Gideon warns her that this is not a good idea as she can literally destroy her family history, but she’s determined.
Next week’s episode “Guest Starring John Noble” will probably be very meta, since actor John Noble provides the voice of Mallus. It also looks like Gorilla Grodd is back as well.
Too many Marvel posters are just a blob of superheroes all mashed into a single image, so already this latest batch get a thumbs up from me, even though they aren’t especially creative. Marvel have decided to split up the team into four separate squads in the latest Avengers: Infinity War posters. Each has a colorful theme that will stand out if seen in the lobby of your favorite multiplex.
The first one is blue, which makes sense with Chris Evans’ Captain America as the featured character. He’s joined by Sebastian Stan as Bucky, Black Panther star Letitia Wright as Shuri, which just goes to show how popular that supporting character has become, plus Guardians of the Galaxy stars Karen Gillan and Pom Klementieff as Nebula and Mantis respectively. As one of Thanos’ daughters we could see Nebula play a major role.
The green poster has Scarlett Johansson’s Black Widow leading the way, joined by Chadwick Boseman’s Black Panther, Danai Gurira as Okoye, and Mark Ruffalo as The Hulk. Again, Marvel really wants you to know that Black Panther characters are going to play a prominent part to play.
Chris Hemsworth’s Thor leads the purple one-sheet, joined by Guardians of the Galaxy‘s Chris Pratt as Star-Lord, Dave Bautista as Drax, plus Vin Diesel and Bradley Cooper as Groot and Rocket.
The red poster features Robert Downey Jr. as Iron Man, joined by mystical teammates Benedict Cumberbatch as Doctor Strange, Benedict Wong as Wong, and Tom Holland as Spider-Man in his new Iron Spider suit.
And finally it’s Elizabeth Olsen’s Scarlet Witch leading the yellow poster. This is what I would to call “The Expendables” image, because I’m not sure any of them are going to survive the next couple of movies. Paul Bettany is there as Vision, Scarlet Witch’s android lover and a target of Thanos because of the Infinity Stone in his head. He’s joined by Anthony Mackie as Falcon and Don Cheadle as an apparently-recovered War Machine.
Seriously, Hawkeye couldn’t find his way onto any of these posters?
Clearly these are the teams that will be assembled to take on Thanos and his Black Order on multiple fronts.
Where in the world is Jane the Virgin and Annihilation star Gina Rodriguez? She’ll be at Netflix for a while playing the fedora-wearing thief Carmen Sandiego in a pair of Where in the World is Carmen Sandiego projects. Last year she was confirmed to be voicing the character in an animated series for Netflix, and now she’s agreed to star as her in a live-action movie.
The film is being seen as an “extension” of the Carmen Sandiego brand but will be a standalone story. The animated show is an origin story while the film will presumably follow the globe-hopping villain’s latter capers. Whatever the case, Rodriguez is more than ready for the role, tweeting last year…
Where in the World is Carmen Sandiego became a smash hit in 1985 as an educational video game for kids. That spawned a multimedia franchise including books, TV shows, and PBS game shows. No writer or director is attached to the film yet. [Deadline]
We don’t know a ton about the landscape of the MCU post-Infinity War, but we do know that Brie Larson’s Captain Marvel will be a big part of it. Marvel’s first female-led flick is an origin story set in the ’90s and centers on the superhero and an apparent encounter with other alien races. Certainly the Kree will be one of them but also possibly the shapeshifting Skrulls. We’ve seen various set photos from the movie, even one that has Larson in an odd-colored Captain Marvel costume, but the official start of production comes with a new look at Larson in the role of ace fighter pilot Carol Danvers aka Captain Marvel, as well as some surprising casting news.
The image features Larson alongside Brigadier General Jeannie Leavitt, 57th Wing Commander during a trip to a Las Vegas Air Force base for character research. Nothing huge there, but the other news is. Clark Gregg is making his long-awaited return to the Marvel big screen as SHIELD Agent Phil Coulson, while Lee Pace and Djimon Hounsou are back as Guardians of the Galaxy villains Ronan and Korath. Coulson’s “death” in The Avengers was the unifying factor for the team, and his resurrection was seen as a major betrayal for a lot of fans. He’s been relegated to Agents of SHIELD for the last few years, but remember, this takes place long before these things ever happened.
The rest of the cast includes Jude Law as Mar-Vell, Ben Mendelsohn as the film’s villain, Samuel L. Jackson as a young Nick Fury, Gemma Chan as Minn-Erva, and Lashana Lynch, joined by other new additions McKenna Grace (Gifted), Algenis Perez Soto (Sugar), Rune Temte (Eddie the Eagle), and Robert Kazinsky (Pacific Rim).
My theory that all of this is leading to Avengers 4: Secret Invasion remains intact.
Directed by Ryan Fleck and Anna Boden, Captain Marvel opens March 8th 2019.
Sony’s upcoming Venom movie has been the source of confusion for a lot of people, including yours truly. Is it part of the MCU? What about Spider-Man? Is he showing up or what? To be fair, even Sony execs didn’t seem to know what they were talking about for a while. But a recent rumor has really started to take hold, and it’s that we may not even see the Venom symbiote in the movie because, well, there’s no Spider-Man for it to model itself after. Makes sense. Kinda.
Well, star Tom Hardy thinks that rumor is stupid and took to Instagram to kill that noise in the only way he knows how: aggressively, calling the stories “asinine” while showing a creepy “Face Eater” logo.
A post shared by Tom Hardy (@tomhardy) on Mar 23, 2018 at 11:02am PDT
Hardy’s firm rebuke aside, I still think the Venom symbiote is only going to emerge when least expected. Everything about this movie feels like a non-traditional superhero story with horror elements, and showing too much of the alien would be detrimental. We shall see.
Directed by Ruben Fleischer, Venom opens October 5th.
After the disastrous response to Pan, Joe Wright got back on the right track with Darkest Hour, his Winston Churchill drama that scored a Best Picture Oscar nomination and Best Actor win for Gary Oldman. Wright will hope to stay on the right track with his next film, The Woman in the Window, an adaptation of the best-selling book by A.J. Finn and not the Edward G. Robinson film noir from 1944.
If Wright is going to stay on top he’s got just about the best help possible, with Pulitzer Prize-winning playwright/actor Tracy Letts (August, Osage County) writing the script. The Rear Window-esque plot centers on New York City recluse Dr. Anna Fox, who drinks her days and nights away watching classic movies and paying too much attention to her neighbors. When a seemingly idyllic couple moves into the house across from her, she spies them closely until she witnesses something shocking that changes her life.
So a bit of a change of pace for Wright, and I’ll be curious to see who gets to play the paranoid protagonist. Am I wrong for hoping he can reconnect with Keira Knightley on this one? [Variety]
Recently I did my best to breakdown all of the X-Force members I could spot in the latest trailer for Deadpool 2. I think it was pretty thorough, but one thing I couldn’t confirm was the actor seen portraying one of my favorite characters, Shatterstar. The futuristic, battle-hardened warrior from the planet Mojoworld was clearly there, and now the actor playing him has confirmed that’s him underneath the silly headgear.
Iron Fist and Into the Badlands actor Lewis Tan took to Instagram to confirm he’s playing Shatterstar…
A post shared by LEWIS TAN (@lewistanofficial) on Mar 23, 2018 at 5:52pm PDT
This is pretty cool news. Tan was great in Iron Fist as the drunken protector Zhou Cheng, more than outshining star Finn Jones. I can see him kicking serious butt as Shatterstar, an intergalactic gladiatorial champion.
Tan is joined by other X-Force members Zazie Beetz as Domino, Terry Crews as Bedlam, Brianna Hildebrand as Negasonic Teenage Warhead, Rob Delaney as Pete Wisdom, Bill Skarsgard as Zeitgeist, and Shiori Kutsuna as Surge.
