DEVELOPMENT HELL

Plunge into Hollywood’s infinite possibility pool!

Let’s twist again! GLASS

M Night Shyamalan reclaimed his mojo with Split, springing himself from so-called Director Jail and earning the karmic right to pursue his dream project – a sequel to 2000’s Unbreakable, the slow-burn deconstruction of the superhero myth that starred Bruce Willis as blue-collar avenger David Dunn and Samuel L Jackson as the mysterious Mr Glass. But not only is this Unbreakable 2, it’s Split 2, too. So Unsplittable 3. Or something. “It was always my dream to have both films collide in this third film,” says Shyamalan. Returning alongside Willis and Jackson are Split’s James McAvoy as the malevolent Kevin Crumb and Anya Taylor-Joy as Casey. Following Dunn’s pursuit of Crumb’s superhuman identity the Beast – while revealing that Mr Glass holds secrets crucial to both men – Glass is set for release on 18 January 2019. Next up for Shyamalan: The Sixth Sign Of The Village In The Water.

Behind the mask! BATGIRL

Step away from the Bat-boots, Jennifer Lawrence. Unclip that cape, Olivia Wilde. Are you quite sure you’re in the right audition, Dame Maggie Smith? Sounds as though Batgirl writer/director Joss Whedon will pluck an unknown to play Gotham City’s crime-crunching femme. “I’m very excited to see a girl in the cowl,” he says, while admitting “I don’t have my eye on anybody. I’m creating this character, I’m in a dialogue with her, and then we’ll

see who joins that later on. I doubt it’ll be a name. I think this is somewhere where you go and find Batgirl and then you cast her. I’m not against movie stars, they’re great, but you need somebody who’s going to be just right, and in a situation like this the name [of the character] carries a lot of weight, so it’s not as critical.” If you’re currently waitressing in LA in-between acting gigs, now may be a good time to double-down on your backflips and right hooks.

CHARACTER BUILDING! CAPTAIN MARVEL

So now we know who’ll be helming Marvel’s first femalefronted blockbuster. Directing partnership Anna Boden and Ryan Fleck (Half Neson; Mississippi Grind) will bring Brie Larson to the big screen as the cosmically-powered Carol Danvers. “We cast a pretty wide net,” studio overlord Kevin Feige tells Vulture. “Captain Marvel will be, by far, the most powerful superhero in Marvel’s cinematic universe… You have to be able to track her and follow her and relate to her at all points of the movie, regardless of how many visual effects and spaceships and bad guys are filling the frame.” And that laser-sighted character focus is what Feige says Boden and Fleck will bring to the storytelling. “What Anna and Ryan have done so spectacularly well in all of their movies, albeit on a much smaller scale than they’re about to do, is create a singular character journey.” Captain Marvel arrives 8 March 2019.

CLONE WARFARE! GEMINI MAN

For years it’s been one of Hollywood’s most fabled unmade screenplays, attracting more buzz than Buzz Aldrin playing Buzz Lightyear in a remake of The

Swarm. Everybody wanted to make it. One snag: nobody thought they could make it… Now Life Of Pi director Ang Lee is set to finally bring high-concept tech-thriller

Gemini Man to the screen. No, it’s not a reboot of obscure ’70s invisible spy show Gemini Man – this one’s the tale of an ageing assassin who, on the verge of retirement, finds himself battling his own clone, 25 years younger and at the peak of his murderous abilities. Originally set up at Disney in 1997, the project’s been rumoured to star everyone from Sean Connery to Mel Gibson, Harrison Ford to Bruce Willis. Now Will Smith is orbiting the title role(s), with cutting-edge digital de-ageing technology potentially recreating him in his Fresh Prince Of Bel-Air prime. Jerry Bruckheimer is onboard as producer.

JUST FOLLOW THE SCREAMS! JURASSIC WORLD 2

Something has survived… and it looks very much like Jeff Goldblum in tinted specs. Yes, after sitting out Jurassic Park III and Jurassic World, the coolest man in Hollywood will reprise his role as rock god chaos theorist Dr Ian Malcolm in the next instalment of the dino-franchise. And that’s not the only callback to how it all began. Star Trek: First Contact’s James Cromwell reveals he’s playing a character with a direct connection to the plot of Steven Spielberg’s 1993 original: “The character Richard Attenborough played, I’m his partner, Benjamin Lockwood. We developed the technology of being able to clone the genes, and so I’m trying to deal with the blowback from what we’ve done.” Yes, you too can thrill to two gripping hours of one man being slapped with the biggest lawsuit in history… Jurassic World 2 opens 22 June 2018, reminding us once again that science is a monster.

guitar hero!

MAD MAX: THE WASTELANDS

Director George Miller isn’t Maxed out just yet, it seems. “Somewhere, if the planets align, there will be two other films,” the veteran helmer tells The Independent, revealing that he’s penned no less than two complete screenplays with co-writer Nico Lathouris (we know one of them’s titled The Wastelands – you were expecting Mad Max: The Garden Villages?). “We dug down deep into the subtext, the backstory of all the characters, and indeed the world.” And, promises Miller, Fury Road’s unforgettable riff-beast the Doof Warrior will be back, flamespurting guitar and all. “I know who his mother was. I know how it was that a man who is mute and blind survived the apocalypse. I know his story very well! If we get to make another movie, the Doof Warrior will be there! I’m hard-wired for the imaginative life. It’s part of who I am. These characters and these worlds tend to swirl around in the back of your brain like imaginary friends. It’s easy to get back to them.”

Phoenix rising! X-MEN: DARK PHOENIX

The whispers were true. The Dark Phoenix saga is coming to the screen… again. We know this after cold-eyed forensic analysis of the words X-Men: Dark Phoenix, which is what Twentieth Century Fox have chosen to title the next chapter of their big-screen mutant saga. Targeting a 2 November 2018 release, it’ll take inspiration from the classic ’80s comic book tale that detailed Jean Grey’s corruption by the Phoenix entity inside her. We’ve already seen this storyline loosely adapted in 2006’s X-Men: The Last Stand, of course, but that’s rarely spoken about in polite society. Sophie Turner will play Jean this time around, returning after her debut in X-Men: Apocalypse. There’s no confirmed director yet – did someone lose Bryan Singer’s mobile number? – but X-franchise producer Simon Kinberg is rumoured to be in the frame.

If we get to make another Max movie, the Doof Warrior will be there!