Development hell

Your monthly glimpse into Hollywood’s hoped- for future

Acid Dreams! ALIEN 5

Earlier this year District 9 director Neill Blomkamp uploaded a truly tantalising splurge of concept art for an unmade Alien sequel, briefly snaring the collective gaze of the internet before LOOK! CATS! ROLLERBLADING! It was an idle piece of creative dreaming to break up post- production chores on Chappie – but hey, in Hollywood dreams come true ( when they’re not being thrown down elevator shafts, of course). Blomkamp has revealed that he’s now officially the helmer of the next Alien movie for Twentieth Century Fox. Ridley Scott produces through his production company Scott Free while continuing to prep prequel tale Prometheus 2. Intriguingly, Blomkamp’s vision appeared to erase Alien 3 and 4 from continuity, reuniting Ripley with Michael Biehn’s Hicks, but there’s no word on whether Sigourney Weaver will be returning to xenomorph-battling duty.

As the Crow flies! THE CROW

Say, do you have a daylightdodging pallor, easy access to the Boots make- up counter and a frankly unhealthy fixation with the essential tragedy of existence? Congratulations. Hollywood is calling your name, goth boy. Luke Evans has just bailed on the remake of The Crow, leaving a distinctly star- shaped hole in a project that’s already hemorrhaged several potential leading men and directors ( existence, man! It sucks!). Corin Hardy – the movie’s helmer of the moment – tells Fangoria that his take will be “incredibly emotional and brutal”, taking its cues directly from James O’Barr’s original comics. “I’m very much going back to the graphic novel, particularly looking into the illustrations themselves as much as the story and picking out all those beautiful ideas and details that haven’t really been used yet.”

X- ing it up! DEADPOOL

Looks as though the Deadpool movie will tie the smart- mouthed super- mercenary closer to Twentieth Century Fox’s X- universe than we first suspected. Look for an appearance by metal- plated X- Man Colossus alongside Fast And Furious 6’ s Gina Carano as Angel Dust, a member of underground mutant group the Morlocks in the original Marvel

comics. Star Ryan Reynolds, meanwhile, is enthusing about FX- man- turned- director Tim Miller, who makes his featurelength debut with this film. “Tim’s always been the right guy,” he tells

Collider. “He’s always shown nothing but a fierce loyalty to the canon of Deadpool and that’s the thing you look for first and foremost, a guy that is always wanting to push a little bit farther. And the advantage of doing a movie like this on a budget that is significantly less than any other kind of superhero movie is that you get to do things that you don’t get to do on other superhero movies…”

Ghostbustiers! GHOSTBUSTERS

As the wandering balladeer Bobby Brown once told us, “Too hot to handle, too cold to hold/ They’re the Ghostbusters and they’re in control.” Yes, the cast has finally been revealed for Paul Feig ’s remake of the slimedrenched ’ 80s classic – and it’s one that, as long hinted, adds a significant dose of XX chromosome to Manhattan’s premier spookchasers. As rumoured, Bridesmaids stars Kristen Wiig and Melissa McCarthy will lead the team, joined by Saturday Night Live players Leslie Jones and Kate McKinnon. Intriguingly Feig is also chasing original ’ Buster Bill Murray for the role of a professional debunker of the supernatural ( our quick, off- thecuff calculations tell us this film would be approximately 72% more amusing with Richard Dawkins in this part). Stay Puft Man ahoy!

Wa ke me up before you go- go! PASSENGERS

Current Hollywood ace faces Jennifer Lawrence and Chris Pratt are in the frame for a new SF tale to be helmed by Morten Tydlum, director of The Imitation Game. Pitched as a love story for the cryogenic suspension generation, it’s set aboard a starship transporting thousands of colonists through interstellar space to a new world. A malfunction in the craft’s sleep chambers causes one of the colonists to wake 90 years ahead of his fellow travellers. Facing the prospect of growing old alone – without even a working credit card and a high- speed broadband connection to soften the blow – he chooses to wake another passenger. Naturally romance blooms. Well, drips like a defrosting refrigeration unit. It’s a project that’s attracted some A- list heat of late: Keanu Reeves, Reese Witherspoon and Rachel McAdams all briefly fell into its orbit. The screenplay’s by Jon Spaihts, who penned Prometheus as well as Marvel’s Doctor Strange.

Phoenix rises! X- MEN: APOCALYPSE

Game Of Thrones star Sophie Turner is talking up her role as the young Jean Grey in Bryan Singer’s next X- fest. “I think Famke [ Janssen] played Jean incredibly well,” she tells IGN. “I want to emulate Famke in a sense, because she has to seem like the Jean in the first two movies, but I’m also going to put my own twist on her. I think I’m also going to take inspiration from the comics.”

X- Men: First Class star Rose Byrne will reprise her role as Moira MacTaggert in Apocalypse, playing a significant role in the storyline. And dust down your mirror balls, for boogie- themed superheroine Dazzler may also feature in this ’ 80s- set adventure, no doubt swearing vengeance for the death of disco…