DEVELOPMENT HELL

Your monthly glimpse into Hollywood’s hoped-for future

Gaze upon the racing spermatozoa of Hollywood, seeking a greenlit ovum.

Jedi Harder! OBI-WAN KENOBI

Jedi Master Obi-Wan Kenobi is the next Star Wars icon in search of a spin-off movie. Lucasfilm is reportedly in the early stages of developing a standalone adventure for the character, set to be directed by Stephen Daldry, Oscarnominated director of The Hours and Billy Elliot. The big question, of course, is just where it will slot into Star Wars chronology: will we see his original initiation into the Jedi order? Maybe we’ll follow him into battle in the Clone Wars? Or could we be gripped by scenes of self-imposed exile on Tatooine, practising his party piece impression of a desert dragon? You should hear his mating Bantha squeal too. It’s very good. No word on whether Ewan McGregor will reprise his best Alec Guinness from the prequels – but after Rogue One let’s not rule out a digital resurrection of Sir Alec himself…

Old Man Kong! GODZILLA VS KONG

Life. It just won’t cut you a break, especially if you’re a gigantic ape with impulse control issues. Director Adam Wingard says upcoming creature-slam Godzilla Vs Kong will shift Skull Island’s early ’70s timeframe to the modern day, bringing us an older but no mellower simian monarch. “Ours is more in continuity with the sequel to Godzilla right now,” he tells Slash Film. “We have a

couple of characters from

Godzilla 2 in ours, but it’ll be interesting to see how Kong has fared over the years. You see him in [Kong: Skull Island] and he’s just constantly under attack. Things are going wrong and there’s probably been lots of human intervention since then. It’ll be interesting to see a more rugged, a bit more aged Kong in this film.” Godzilla Vs Kong: Get Off My Lawn, Lizard Boy! is looking to rip 22 May 2020 from the earth and use it to swat a chopper.

The newer Batch! GREMLINS 3

Chris Columbus has been feeding the Gremlins franchise after midnight. He’s just completed the screenplay for a third entry in the furry peril saga. “I’m really proud of the script,” he tells Slashfilm. “It is as twisted and dark as anything… I wanted to go back to the really twisted sensibility of the first movie. I found that was a very easy place for me to fall back into and start writing again, so hopefully we’ll see that movie soon.” Originally planned as a reboot, the movie will now be a direct sequel to 1990’s Gremlins 2: The New Batch, with people finally wising up and trying to kill Gizmo, source of the Gremlin scourge. Columbus promises the creatures will be brought to the screen with old school puppet power: “Oh, without a doubt, minimal CGI. CGI will enable us to remove wires and make the puppeteers’ lives a little easier.” No word yet on the surely inevitable Critters revival.

gunning for it!

GUARDIANS OF THE GALAXY VOL 3

So what can we expect from the next Guardians Of The Galaxy joint? A snark-spewing trash panda and a soundtrack of expertly exhumed ’70s pop gold is pretty much a given – but how about the entire future direction of a cinematic universe too? “It will take place after the next two Avengers movies and it will help to set up the next 10, 20 years of Marvel movies,” says the never-knowingly underambitious James Gunn. “It’s going to really expand the cosmic universe. We’re going to be setting up new characters. It will be the last movie of this version of Guardians of the Galaxy.” Shooting is expected to begin in “a little more than a year” – Gunn’s currently busy developing a TV revival of classic cops-’n’-cardies show Starsky And Hutch – and may, the writer/ director shares, introduce fan fave hero Nova to the MCU.

I wanted to go back to the twisted sensibility of the first movie

in the red! HELLBOY

Hold on to your horn-stumps: Hellboy creator Mike Mignola says the imminent reboot will deliver a major tonal swerve compared to the original movies. “It’ll lean in the horror direction, more so than the fantasy direction [Guillermo] del Toro was doing,” he tells The Verge of Neil Marshall’s hard-edged take on the occult ’tec. “Now it’s really going to be an action-horror film. I think it helps that Deadpool and Logan were R-rated, and what I’ve been telling people is that the tone of it will be much more the Logan approach: lean, dark, tough, and not something that stops to show limbs flying through the air.” Latest additions to the cast include Ian McShane as Big Red’s adoptive daddy Professor Trevor Bruttenholm and Milla Jovovich as villainous sorceress the Blood Queen. We’re sure she’s just misunderstood.

“funny like i’M a clown?” THE JOKER

Joker movies. Just like buses. You wait forever for one and then two turn up at once and kill you with a psychotic cackle. Actually, buses don’t do that, do they? Thank God for that. What an unpleasant world it would be. First up: none other than Martin Scorsese is set to produce an origin story for the Clown Prince of Crime. With a screenplay by The Hangover’s Todd Phillips and reportedly echoing the urban bleakness of such Scorsese classics as Taxi Driver, it’ll chart the Joker’s rise in the underworld of early ’80s Gotham. While this movie will stand alone from the DCU, Warner Bros are also prepping a Joker and Harley Quinn project, reuniting Suicide Squad’s Jared Leto and Margot Robbie as the grease-painted Bonnie and Clyde. This one’s set to be written and directed by Crazy Stupid Love’s Glenn Ficarra and John Requa. One day all movies will be Joker movies. And we’ll all be sat there lobbing popcorn into our fixed rictus grins.

Say THe wOrd! SHAZAM!

DC’s cinematic universe continues its journey into the light. After Aquaman wraps the next film in front of the camera will be Shazam! – and this one, promises helmer David F Sandberg, will be a distinctly angst-free zone. “In terms of what people can expect, I think this will be one of the more fun or lighthearted movies so far,” the Lights Out director tells The Toronto Sun. “It certainly will be a departure.” Pitched as “Big with superpowers”, it’s the tale of Billy Batson, a boy who transforms himself into a superhero by uttering the mystic word “Shazam!”, granting him the ability to identify any snatch of music in a TV ad within seconds. A power he must learn to use for good. “The big attraction for me with that character is the fact that every kid dreams of being Superman, right? [Billy] is a kid that gets that chance.” Shazam! is targeting a 5 April 2019 release, with a screenplay by Jack The Giant Slayer’s Darren Lemke.