DEVELOPMENT HELL

Your monthly glimpse into Hollywood’s hoped-for future

Hollywood slaps more dreams on the barbie. Hear them sizzle.

The IT Crowd! IT: CHAPTER TWO

The Losers Club is assembling for the second half of IT, set to focus on the adult incarnations of the clown-scarred kids we met in Chapter One. James McAvoy is said to be the frontrunner for the role of Bill Denbrough, played by Jaeden Lieberher in the 2017 movie. Saturday Night Live vet and Barry star Bill Hader is reportedly the studio’s pick for Richie Tozier, replacing magnificently named

Stranger Things star Finn Wolfhard, who seriously needs a younger brother named Finn Wolfhard: Wolf Harder. They’ll join Jessica Chastain as Beverly Marsh, played in the first film by

Sophia Lillis. Filming begins in July for a September 2019 release and director Andy Muschietti tells Fandango, “It’s going to be scarier and more intense, so bring your adult diapers.” The Shape Of Water’s Paul Austerberry steps up as production designer, while Bill Skarsgard returns as creepy clown Pennywise. Because he will never leave your dreams.

FAMILY VALUES! AVATAR 2 & 3

“It’s a generational family saga very different than the first film,” says James Cameron of the

Avatar sequels currently shooting back-to-back in New Zealand. Think The Godfather, only more blue and with fewer horse’s heads. “It’s a continuation of the same characters,” he tells Coming Soon, “but what happens when warriors, willing to go on suicide charges and leap off cliffs on to the backs of big orange Toruks, grow up and

have their own kids. Now the kids are the change makers. It’s interesting. Everyone is either a parent or they had parents at the very least. If you look at the big successful franchises now they are pretty much uninterested in [parents and children]. So this could be the seeds of utter damnation and doom for the project or could be the thing that makes it stand apart and continue to be unique.” As you scramble to check your shares in Lightstorm Entertainment we’ll inform you that Avatar 2: Bloody Kids! opens 18 December 2020, with Avatar 3:

We Blame The Parents following

17 December 2021.

HAWK-A-A-A! BLACKHAWK

Fire up the Grumman XF5F Skyrockets! Steven Spielberg is entering DC airspace, producing – and potentially helming – a blockbuster showcase for aerial adventurer Blackhawk. First taking to the skies in Military

Comics 1 in August 1941, Blackhawk’s the leader of a squadron of international daredevils dedicated to thwarting evil and looking sharp in matching uniforms. The deal scratches a longtime itch for Spielberg – he first tried to bring the pilot hero to the screen in the early ’80s, with

Dan Aykroyd reportedly his choice of flyboy. There’s no word on whether the movie will retain the WW2 setting of the original comics – or if other DC icons will cameo – but we do know that frequent collaborator David Koepp (Jurassic Park, War Of The Worlds) will provide the script. It won’t be Blackhawk’s debut on the big screen – Kirk Alyn, cinema’s first Superman, played him in a 1952 black-and-white cliffhanger serial from Columbia. Remember that one, pops?

CHOOSE IT OR LOSE IT! CHOOSE YOUR OWN ADVENTURE

The Cave Of Time. House Of Danger. Mountain Survival. And, perhaps most existentially challenging of all, You Are A Shark. All titles in the iconic Choose Your Own Adventure library, the series of books that taught an entire generation that life was best experienced as a series of multiple choices (if you agree with this statement turn to page 141; if you disagree with this statement turn to page 192; if you’re convinced you’re a shark, look, a windsurfer!). Now 20th Century Fox is bringing the whole fate-flipping experience to cinemas by licencing Kino Industries’ CtrlMovie technology, which allows audiences to vote on choices made by characters onscreen, so shaping the narrative – and even the running time – by the power of democracy itself. The choices made will play out seamlessly – well, until violence breaks out in the cheap seats. TV Arrowverse supremo Greg Berlanti is onboard as one of the producers.

WHEELS OF STEEL! MAN OF STEEL 2

Henry Cavill wants some Super-sequel action. “I’m having a lot of conversations, behind-thescenes, with certain people and we will hopefully be having conversations with other people who are also behind-the-scenes to make things start happening,” he tells Collider, sounding a little like Frank Sinatra in his scary Vegas prime. “It is very much my desire to do a Man Of Steel 2, a direct sequel to Man Of Steel, and there is a whole bunch of Superman story that I want to tell. There is a whole style of Superman’s character that I’m very keen to tell and I’m looking forward to the opportunity.” Cavill’s discussed his take on the Last Son of Krypton with director Chris McQuarrie (the pair just teamed up on Mission: Impossible – Fallout) and McQuarrie’s not averse to the idea of bringing more Superman to the big screen. “They know where to find me,” he says.

EUROPEAN ROAD THWIP! SPIDER-MAN 2

Get set for some global web-spinning in the next Spidey movie. “We start filming early July,” Marvel Studios supreme being Kevin Feige tells io9. “We film in London… We shoot a lot of films in London but there’s another reason we’re shooting in London which is, yes, Spidey, of course, will spend some time in New York but he’ll spend some time in other parts of the globe.” Feige won’t detail Peter Parker’s travel plans but he hints that all the continent-hopping shapes the movie’s choice of villain. And no, it’s not Brexit Beast, The Living Referendum. “We’ve chosen a villain, and I think the storyline is fairly impacted by the locations we go to. We love the notion of taking Spider-Man to places that we haven’t seen him in before. And we have a villain who I think will play into that nicely.” Homecoming’s Jon Watts returns as director and the movie’s set to scuttle across the screen on 5 July 2019.

WHERE NO WOMAN HAS GONE BEFORE! STAR TREK 4

British director SJ Clarkson is in line to helm the next Star Trek movie. She’s not the first female director on the final frontier – another Brit, Gabrielle Beaumont, has that distinction for her work on season three of The Next Generation in 1989 – but she’s the first to call the shots on the big screen. “What a great thing for the franchise,” says Trek star Simon Pegg. “It’s about time and I’m excited.” Clarkson directed the first episode of Jessica Jones and has notched up genre credits on everything from Heroes to Life On Mars. Paramount has two Trek movies in development: this one’s expected to be a time-travel tale with Chris Hemsworth reprising the role of George Kirk from the ’09 movie. Quentin Tarantino’s take, meanwhile, is understood to be set in a separate timeline from the Kelvinverse. Perhaps the Mirrorf***er Universe.

Spielberg enters DC airspace with adventurer Blackhawk