DEVELOPMENT HELL

Your monthly glimpse into Hollywood’s hoped-for future

THE UNDISCOVERED DADDY! STAR TREK 4

Star Trek Beyond has barely warped into cinemas and already we know where the fourth film is heading. It’s set to re-enlist Chris Hemsworth as George Kirk, father of James T, whose heroic self-sacrifice in the opening moments of 2009’s Star Trek not only made you cry but took your hot tears and made a nice big cup of sniffle tea. The screenplay’s by JD Payne and Patrick McKay, the original writers of Star Trek 3 before the creative warp core breach that ousted director Bob Orci. Given the next movie will clearly meddle with the timestreams, what chance we’ll finally see William Shatner interact with the new cast? “I’ve talked to [Shatner] about it,” says producer JJ Abrams. “If Kirk had lived [in Star Trek Generations] there’d be an answer. But there something about his having died that makes it impossible.” Come now, JJ. We don’t believe in the no-Will scenario…

DREAM WEAVER! ALIEN 5

Lord Ridley of Scott has just wrapped the prequelicious Alien: Covenant in Australia but Neill Blomkamp’s canon-fixing pitch for an Alien sequel just won’t go away. First teased in early 2015, the dream project just won the backing of a key figure in the Alien franchise: James Cameron, writer and director of 1986’s Aliens. “I think it works like gangbusters,” he says of Blomkamp’s take, which would resurrect Sigourney Weaver’s Ripley by the cunning

creative ploy of jamming its fingers in its ears and screaming “I can’t see you, Alien 3 and 4!” Cameron tells io9: “He shared it with me and I think it’s a very strong script and he could go make it tomorrow. I don’t know anything about the production, and I don’t know what Ridley’s doing, but hopefully there’ll be room for both of them. Like parallel universes.” Weaver’s also hopeful she’ll kick Xenomorph ass again: “He has work to do and I have work to do. I’m hoping when we finish those jobs we will circle back and start to do it.”

FRESH FROM THE LAB! FRANKENSTEIN

Not every man is able to pull off the neck bolt. But if anyone can make it work as a style statement, it’s Javier Bardem. The Skyfall star is said to be up for some lightning-fuelled reanimation as Frankenstein’s monster, part of Universal’s ever-expanding monsterverse initiative (other projects on the slate include Tom Cruise’s The Mummy and, it’s rumoured, The Invisible Man with Johnny Depp and Dwayne Johnson in The Wolf Man). Spin-off flick The Bride Of Frankenstein is already in development and the studio’s also hatching a fresh take on Van Helsing, the creature-slaying badass played by Hugh Jackman in 2004. This time they’ll steal their cue from another recently reactivated action hero. Screenwriter Eric Heisserer tells Hitfix: “Early on, our inspiration for his behaviour and mannerisms was all in Mad Max.” Fingers crossed he battles werewolves so we can deploy a Van Helsing: Furry Road pun. Oh, we just did. Feel our shame.

MOVES LIKE JAEGER!

PACIFIC RIM: MAELSTROM

We know that John Boyega is set to topline the recently greenlit sequel to Guillermo del Toro’s monster/mecha brawl-fest from 2013. Now comes word that Charlie Hunnam, one of the stars of the original movie, won’t be back. He had a key role in an early draft of the screenplay but regrets that other filming commitments have left him unable to save the world again. “I’m very excited about it,” he says. “I’m glad they’re making it.” Another reported absentee is Rinko Kikuchi, who played rookie Jaeger pilot Mako Mori. Del Toro’s only producing this one – it’s set to be directed by Steven S DeKnight, who helped bring Daredevil to the small screen – but he promises “a lot of the cast from the first movie is coming back”. The script’s by Jurassic World’s Derek Connolly and the return bout between humanity and monsterdom begins 23 February 2018.

CYBERPUNK ROCKS! SNOW CRASH

It’s five – five! – years since Joe Cornish brought us inner city alien invasion tale Attack The Block. Now he’s prepping an overdue return to the big screen, adapting Neal Stephenson’s cyberpunk classic Snow Crash. Originally published in 1992, it’s set in an independent Los Angeles, ruled by entrepreneurs and connected by a post-internet realm. “I hope we get started on that next year,” producer Frank Marshall shares with Collider. “It’s a complicated story. It takes place in the near future and it has a lot of virtual reality in it. [There’s] a character that goes back and forth between what’s called the metaverse… the sequences are fantastic and it really gives Joe the opportunity to show that great imagination that he has and create fantastic scenes.” Optioned on publication, the book has smouldered in the digital pathways of Development Hell ever since.

IT’S A BIRD!

SPIDER-MAN: HOMECOMING

It’s official: Tom Holland’s teen Spider-Man will tangle with vintage comic book villain the Vulture. The creation of Stan Lee and Steve Ditko, the scrote-faced winged menace debuted in issue two of The Amazing Spider-Man, way back in 1963. “It just felt like the right thing to do, to go back to the roots in that way,” director Jon Watts tells ComicBook.com. “We talked about a lot of different things but the Vulture always rose to the top. And just the opportunity to have Spider-Man versus a guy that can fly really lends itself to some pretty cool visuals.” A role rumoured to be earmarked for the mighty Michael Keaton, the swooping reprobate will rock a taloned, hi-tech suit that, Tom Holland says, “allows us to incorporate a much more physical presence from the Vulture… he’s a really formidable villain”. The Grand Budapest Hotel’s Tony Revolori just joined the project as Peter Parker’s jock nemesis Flash Thompson.

The premise is filled with ideas that are interesting to revisit

ROMANTIC INTENTIONS! STARMAN

There’s a Starman remake, waiting in the sky… Yes, Night At The Museum helmer Shawn Levy is set to update John Carpenter’s ’84 classic, the cosmically-tinged romance that bagged an Oscar nomination for Jeff Bridges as an alien who crashlands on Earth – and into the heart of the widowed Karen Allen. “The premise is filled with ideas that are interesting to revisit in a different way in 2016,” says Levy, who recently helmed episodes of ’80s-phile’s delight Stranger Things. “I am going to try to be faithful to the romantic spine to the story but also the fish-outof-water humour, which is genuinely charming and winning in a way that Carpenter and Bridges filmed it.” Levy says he’s considering previous collaborators for the title role, meaning everyone from Hugh Jackman to Ben Stiller could be in the frame for some cross-species swooning. Grace Of Monaco’s Arash Amel provides the screenplay.