'Fantastic' reboot; 'Daredevil' done?; 'Korra', 'Skies', 'Teen' renewed; 'CREEPY' coming
For a while now it’s been known that 20th Century Fox was fast-tracking two Marvel properties that will revert back to Disney come this fall. But one of them, now, may be scrapped in the end. As I mentioned at the beginning of the year, Fox wants to reboot Fantastic Four. After two films that, while making a star out of Chris Evans (one guesses it did help him get Captain America), they failed to ignite at the box office here or overseas. Josh Trank, –who helmed the low budget “found film” feature Chronicle- was the leading contender back in January when the word broke. Fox has now made it official. However, expectations are the film will recast all the roles. The other film is Daredevil. That film has struggled to get traction at Fox since 2003’s Ben Affleck attempt. It’s gone through many scribes, including David Scarpa [The Day The Earth Stood Still remake] and Fringe‘s Brad Caleb Kane. David James Kelly was brought in, and apparently this script Fox liked. But now director David Slade announced this week he had to drop out of the production, citing scheduling conflicts with his commitment to NBC’s midseason drama Hannibal from Bryan Fuller, in which he is directing the pilot. As I noted, with both films face deadline issues, Fox may end up letting Daredevil return to Disney in favor of Fantastic Four.
Speaking of Hannibal, due to Mads Mikkelsen inking a deal to play the titular serial killer on that NBC show, he was forced to drop out as the villain for Thor 2. In an interview with Zoomin Movies, Mikkelsen talks about what happened: “Yeah, that’s not happening unfortunately. I had a meeting with them, but they were a little too late. And then Hannibal came in, and everything just came in the same period, so now it’s not happening.” Thor 2 begins filming in the fall, as does the pilot for Hannibal.
Nickelodeons popular animated series The Legend of Korra, the continuation of their equally popular Avatar: The Last Airbender, has been given an additional 26 episode pick-up. The cable net calls it a second season order, but considering they’ll be splitting them up into two segments (or Books, as they call them) of 13 episodes each and airing them a year apart, they might as well be called seasons 3 and 4. Book 1 (season one?) just finished airing on June 23rd. Book 2 begins in 2013.
Despite a dip in ratings for the start of season two, TNT seems to have enough confidence and has announced they’ve picked up Falling Skies for a 10 episode third season.
It’s been confirmed that MTV has picked up Teen Wolf for a third season, ordering 24 episodes instead of the 13 for season’s 1 and 2. Due to the series recently winning one of the California’s $100 million tax-credit lotto, the show will relocate production from Atlanta to Los Angeles for the next season as well.
Attack the Block’s director Joe Cornish has become a very busy man, as its been announced he’ll helm Rust, an adaptation Royden Lepp’s sci-fi novel for 20th Century Fox. At issue is where this latest job fits into his already cluttered schedule. I noted last month that he signed on to helm the long-gestating version of Neil Stephenson’s novel Snow Crash, but no timetable has been announced for its production start. He’s also attached to the Ant-Man from director Edgar Wright.
Karen Gillan, who is exiting Doctor Who this season, has signed on to play the lead role in the independently made Oculus, a horror film being produced by Trevor Macy and Marc D. Evans through their Intrepid Pictures. Production is set for the fall in Alabama. The plot begins 10 years after a horrifying family incident left two young children orphans. Although authorities charged the brother with murder, his sister, Kaylie, believed that the true culprit was a haunted antique mirror. Now rehabilitated and in his 20s, the brother is ready to move on but Kaylie is determined to prove that the mirror was responsible for destroying their family.
Chris Columbus is dusting off CREEPY Magazine to produce a four-part anthology film, one segment of which he will write and produce. CREEPY was a seminal horror comic magazine that was generated by Warren Publishing from 1964-83. This horror anthology film is a throwback to when films like The House That Dripped Blood and Tales From the Crypt were made. This production will emulate the set-up of those films.
