DEVELOPMENT HELL
Your monthly glimpse into Hollywood’s hoped-for future
Some of these movies will be made. Some of them won’t. Such is the way of things.
Word up! SHAZAM!
The major players are coming together for the big screen adaptation of DC’s very own Captain Marvel (not that we can call him Captain Marvel anymore, of course – not since an ancient wizard uttered the magic word “Litigation!”). Chuck star Zachary
Levi – Asgardian warrior Fandral in the last couple of Thor flicks – will play the hero alternately known as The World’s Mightiest Mortal and The Big Red Cheese.
Asher Angel from the Disney Channel’s Andi Mack is Billy Batson, the kid with the power to transform into his caped alter-ego by yelling “Shazam!” – actually a magical acronym invoking the immortal powers of Solomon, Hercules, Atlas, Zeus, Achilles and Marjorie Proops. Kingsman’s
Mark Strong is on supervillain duty as the deeply sinister Dr Sivana, who’s been a mainstay of the comic books since 1940.
No, No, SeveN!
BOND 25 Blade Runner 2049’s Denis Villeneuve won’t be bringing the next Bond caper to the screen. He’s too busy prepping the script for his take on Frank Herbert’s sand-blown, worm-riddled opus
Dune to be recruited into Her Majesty’s Secret Service. But never shay never again, as a wise Scotsman once said. “I would love to work with Daniel and a Bond movie for me would be a treat,” Villeneuve tells The Playlist. “It’s a
matter of timing, I guess.” Also out: SPECTRE’s Christoph Waltz, revealing he won’t be returning as arch nemesis Blofeld for 007’s 25th mission. “I’m really sad,” he says, doubtlessly already pining for the executive perks of electrified chairs and piranha pools. “That’s the tradition, that there is a new name.” Blofeld’s been recast before, of course, but we fancy Waltz is referring to the more general tradition of casting a new name as the main antagonist. With a director, a title and sinister, silky mastermind still TBC, the next Bond movie has 8 November 2019 in its cross-hairs.
MuMMy iSSueS! DARK UNIVERSE
Is this how a universe ends – not with a bang but an embarrassed cough? After the disappointment of The Mummy producers Alex Kurtzman and Chris Morgan have stepped down from their franchise-runner positions at Universal. They were chief architects of the ambitious Dark Universe initiative, set to corral the studio’s pantheon of horror icons into a Marvel-style shared cinematic reality. Despite pre-emptively announcing an entire slate of projects – Johnny Depp is the Invisible Man! (he’s not); Dwayne Johnson is the Wolfman! (he’s not); Javier Bardem is Frankenstein’s Monster! (oh, you get it) – it’s said the offices on the studio lot are now as empty and echoing as Dracula’s crypt, only red-eyed rats remaining to nibble on abandoned copies of Variety… No word on whether the studio will retool the entire concept but Bill Condon’s remake of The Bride Of Frankenstein – currently undergoing rewrites – is believed to have shed all connective tissue to the Dark Universe.
Trippy! IT: CHAPTER TWO
There are some heavy questions in this universe. Like, what does it all mean? Why are we here? And, perhaps most crucially, what exactly goes on inside the mind of a sewer-skulking psycho-demon clown? Pennywise actor Bill Skarsgård hopes that the sequel to this year blockbuster King adaptation will address at least one of these bogglers. “[It] might be worth exploring the psychological aspects of horror, but also maybe the sort of cosmological existence of this being,” he tells IGN. “It could be almost a surrealistic sort of psychedelic trip if you go into the mind of Pennywise. And if you’ve read the novel you know that they do actually go into his mind. Or they go into this transdimensional place, and they sort of beat him in this place.” Maybe this is the way to finally defeat the red-nosed terror of Derry. Light the jossies, spin the Syd, smoke the banana. Feel the power of mellow vibes, clown!
vaMpiNg iT up! MORBIUS
Sony continues to weave its dedicated Spider-Man movie universe. The latest supporting player plucked from the webslinger’s chorus line and shot into the big time is Morbius, the Living Vampire. First seen in The Amazing Spider-Man #101, way back in 1971, he’s a scientist whose experimental cure for a rare blood disease infects him with a strain of vampirism that grants superhuman strength and the power of flight, as well as an anti-social thirst for human blood. The screenplay’s by Power Rangers pair Burk Sharpless and Matt Sazama, no strangers to the undead given they also have a credit on Dracula Untold, more commonly known as Dracula Unwatched. The Morbius movie joins fellow Sony Spidey-projects Venom and Silver And Black, set
Rian will do amazing things with the blank canvas of this new trilogy
to unite Black Cat and Silver Sable. J Jonah Jameson: Rise To Glory is surely only a matter of time.
Bakula The fuTure? QUANTUM LEAP
Oh, boy… Veteran TV showrunner Donald P Bellisario is aiming to resurrect his high-concept hit from the early ’90s. “I just finished writing a Quantum Leap feature,” he tells Entertainment Weekly, while peering at a stranger’s face in the mirror. “I don’t know what’s going to happen with it, but I did write it. I write things exactly the same way. I just start writing and I let them take me wherever it’s going to take me. I’m entertained the same way the audience is. So I just put Scott [Bakula] and Dean [Stockwell] in my head, kind of rebooted them, and went from there.” Running for just under 100 episodes between 1989 and 1993, Quantum Leap saw its time-lost hero Dr Sam Beckett flung into different bodies on a weekly basis, frequently at crucial historical moments. Just imagine the moment he finds himself tweeting on the Presidential account…
expaNdiNg galaxy! STAR WARS
Just how much Star Wars can reality handle before exploding into a billion Yoda Pez dispensers? We may be about to find out. The Last Jedi director Rian Johnson has inked a deal with Lucasfilm to develop a brand new trilogy of adventures, one that will exist beyond the core nine-movie saga of the Skywalker clan. He’ll write and direct at least the first of the new movies, set to “explore a corner of the galaxy that Star Wars lore has never before explored.” And given just how much Star Wars lore is out there, that’s a pretty courageous mission statement… “We all loved working with Rian on The Last Jedi,” says High Priestess of Lucasfilm Kathleen Kennedy. “He’s a creative force, and watching him craft The Last Jedi from start to finish was one of the great joys of my career. Rian will do amazing things with the blank canvas of this new trilogy.”