deVelOPMent hell

Your monthly glimpse into Hollywood’s hoped-for future

This is where movies wait to be born… or die in an inferno of indifference!

HOLD THE NUPTIALS! THE BRIDE OF FRANKENSTEIN

The Bride isn’t making it to the church on time. Universal has paused pre-production on Bill Condon’s remake of the 1935 creature classic. The studio has also scratched the intended 14 February 2019 release date. David Koepp is now performing rewrites on the screenplay, rumoured to downplay connective tissue to the Dark Universe franchise that sputtered into half-life with The

Mummy earlier this year. Condon tells Collider his focus is purely on the film: “What I’m doing is 100% making a really good monster movie. It has nothing to do with anything else. Nothing. Zero.” The helmer adds, “What I love about David Koepp’s script is he turns everything on its head. This is Eve before Adam, the bride comes first.” Angelina Jolie was originally in the frame for the Bride but her commitment to

Maleficent 2 might see her bow out – if she does, Condon’s back-up choice is said to be none other than that wondrous Amazonian princess Gal Gadot…

GO, GO, GOMEZ! THE ADDAMS FAMILY

Creepy? Check. Kooky? Check. Mysterious and spooky? Check. Altogether ooky? The ookiest. Yes, it’s the Addams Family, destined for a big-screen comeback courtesy of Sausage Party helmer

Conrad Vernon. Named for cartoonist Charles Addams, who illustrated their proto-goth

lifestyle in the pages of The New

Yorker, the macabre brood were immortalised in a 1960s TV show before enjoying an early ’90s revival in the cinema (we’ll draw a discreet pair of gold harem pants over MC Hammer’s soul-curdling spin-off single “Addams Groove”). Here’s the twist: the new movie will be an animated feature, which kinda makes it the spiritual Cousin Itt to Hanna-Barbera’s ’70s cartoon version. The screenplay’s by Pamela Pettler, no stranger to the ghoulish given her work on

Corpse Bride and Monster House.

How’d ya like that? AKIRA

Thor: Ragnarok’s Taika Waititi is the latest director linked to a live-action version of iconic manga Akira. “There’s been some chats,” he confirms to IGN. “[It’s] something that I [am] passionate about… I actually love the books. Love the [1988] movie but I would not do a remake of the movie. I would do an adaptation of the books.” There’s been talk that the film will relocate the action from Neo Tokyo to New Manhattan, enlisting such Hollywood faces as Kristen Stewart and Garrett Hedlund, but Waititi’s vision hews closer to Katsuhiro Otomo’s original epic of bike gangs and psychokinetic powers. “Asian teenagers would be the way to do it for me,” he reveals. “Like noname, sort of unfound, untapped talent. Yeah, I’d probably want to take it a bit back more towards the books.” Leonardo DiCaprio remains onboard as producer.

Cajun Heat! GAMBIT

Original Pirates Of The Caribbean helmer Gore Verbinski will bring Southern-fried mutant Remy LeBeau to the screen. 20th Century Fox’s X-Men spin-off has been locked in the George Foreman grill of Development Hell for some time now, marinading in the sweet juices of departed directors Doug Liman and Rupert Wyatt. With Verbinski signed, the studio has announced a new release date: 14 February 2019. Yes, the ideal Valentine’s date flick.

Channing Tatum will fling the cards in the lead role while Daniel Craig is said to be first choice for primary villain Mr Sinister – Mr Misunderstood to his mother. Other sources claim Candra the Benefactress, telekinetic leader of the Thieves’ Guild, will be the movie’s chief antagonist. Oh, fight it out, you two.

James Cameron has wiped Terminator 3, 4 and 5 from existence

tHe Horror, tHe Horror! THE NEW MUTANTS 2

We’ve seen the goose-fleshing trailer for next April’s The New Mutants. Turns out it’s only our first inkling of a darker, scarier X-Men universe. “These are all going to be horror movies, and they’ll all be their own distinct kind of horror movie,” filmmaker Josh Boone tells IGN, outlining his plans for a spine-rattling trilogy of adventures. “This is certainly the ‘rubber-reality’ supernatural horror movie. The next one will be a completely different kind of horror movie. Our take was [to] examine the horror genre through comic book movies and make each one its own distinct sort of horror film, drawing from the big events that we love in the comics.” And if you haven’t glimpsed your fave mutant yet, don’t despair. “We’re going to introduce new characters in the next movie as well. Characters like Karma and Warlock… all that will be in future movies.” Rubberreality horror? What, like a satanically-possessed gimp-suit?

kinG’s tHe tHinG! THE TALISMAN

It’s a good time to be a Stephen King fan. It’s also undoubtedly a very good time to be Stephen King. Yet another adaptation of the horror maestro’s work is set to follow IT and The Dark Tower to the screen. Look, here it comes now, heading out of Maine like a clown-masked hellhound at the wheel of a demonic truck powered by pig’s blood. Run! New Mutants helmer Josh Boone is penning this take on The Talisman, King’s fantasy-flavoured 1984 collaboration with Peter Straub. It’s the tale of a 12-year-old boy who sets out on a journey across America, hunting for a crystal that can save his dying mother. Entering an eerie mirror realm known as the Territories, he gains the power to flip between two worlds… Boone has been deep-mining King’s imagination for a while now, writing screenplays for adaptations of The Stand and Revival too.

terminated witH extreme prejudiCe! TERMINATOR 6

You have to admire James Cameron’s dedication. All those years working on next-level camera technology? A front for time-travel experiments. He’s just gone back and wiped Terminator 3, 4 and 5 from existence, establishing a new reality where the next movie is the only true sequel to T2. Seriously, check your shelves. He’s done it, the lunatic. “This is a continuation of the story from Terminator 1 and Terminator 2,” he tells The Hollywood Reporter. “We’re pretending the other films were a bad dream. Or an alternate timeline, which is permissible in our multiverse. This was really driven more by [director] Tim [Miller] than anybody, surprisingly, because I came in pretty agnostic about where we took it. The only thing I insisted on was that we somehow revamp it and reinvent it for the 21st century.” Tim Miller says the film will lean into the advancing years of title star Arnold Schwarzenegger: “I think we should embrace his age, and that’s what’s going to make it interesting and fresh for the fans.” Reuniting Arnie and Linda Hamilton, the new Terminator movie is set to begin filming in spring 2018, and it’s targeting a 26 July 2019 release date.