Several More Major Movies Hit Delays

While some projects are finally heading back into production after recent delays, this morning brings news of a slew of release dates being pushed back.

News of such delays are commonplace right now, with the COVID-19 pandemic still very much at play across the globe.

First up, John Krasinski’s A Quiet Place Part II has been pushed back yet again. Originally planned to hit the silver screen this past March 20, the film was then moved to July, and now comes word from Paramount Pictures that the follow-up has been pushed to April 23, 2021.

Elsewhere, director Scott Cooper’s Guillermo del Toro-produced Antlers has been set for February 19, 2021. Starring Keri Russell, Jesse Plemons, and Jeremy T. Thomas, that mystery-laced horror was original to be released through Disney Searchlight this past April.

Speaking of Disney, several big hitters have run into delays at the House of Mouse. Of course, if you remember, Black Widow was one of the first major releases to be shunted due to the pandemic. That solo offering for Scarlett Johansson’s Natasha was intended to hit the big screen in April of this year, but was quickly moved to this November. Now, Tom Holland’s Web-head has seen his next Spider-Man outing swung back from November 2021 to December 2021 by Disney and Sony Pictures.

The other Disney big ‘uns to be hit are the Star Wars and Avatar franchises. A new trilogy of Star Wars pictures was intended to begin in December 2022, although that start date for this trio has been moved to December 2023. That film will then be followed in December 2025 and December 2027 by the second and third legs in this trilogy. As for Avatar, James Cameron’s Avatar 2 has gone from a December 2021 release to December 2022 at the House of Mouse. In a knock-on fashion, that then moves Avatar 3 to December 2024, Avatar 4 to December 2026, and Avatar 5 to December 2028.

All of these delays come hot on the heels of Warner Bros. completely pulling Christopher Nolan’s Tenet from the WB’s release schedule for the foreseeable future.

After yesterday’s news that Bill & Ted Face the Music will be released on VOD on the same September 1 date that it begins a limited cinema run, it could well be that certain future releases take this same approach during these most uncertain of times.

The only problem there, mind, is that so many of these upcoming movies are big-budget affairs where having no cinema run would make it impossible to pull in any substantial return to balance out that hefty budget or to make any semblance of a profit – which is why studios are hesitant to a) release films to cinemas at a time when audiences are extremely minimal, or b) release direct-to-VOD and likewise take a financial hit.

As ever, expect more on all of these movies as we get it.

Disney+ Series for Donald Glover’s Lando?

Lando Calrissian

Take this with a huge pinch of salt right now, but there’s a new story out there claiming that Donald Glover’s Lando Calrissian could be getting his own Disney+ series.

The source of this rumour is the Kessel Run Transmissions podcast, who have reported that Glover will pick up his Solo: A Star Wars Story role for his own Lando spin-off show.

While many didn’t feel the need for a movie giving Han Solo’s backstory, and the box office return was a disappointing one, there’s a good chunk of people out there who really enjoyed Solo. And given how the film ended, there were clearly plans in place to continue forward with the antics of Alden Ehrenreich’s Han.

After Solo took a $390 million box office haul from a bloated budget rumoured to be pushing the $280 million mark, that put paid to any plans for a Solo follow-up. Could we get to see this world expanded on the TV screen, though? If this latest rumour is to be believed, that could well be the case.

For what it’s worth, Disney has yet to comment on any of this, and the usual reliable sources have zero to report. That said, Kessel Run do have previous for breaking news, with them being the ones to first reveal that Disney+ would house a Clone Wars spin-off, The Bad Batch.

As mentioned, treat news of this Lando series as a rumour for now – but expect more on this as and when we get it.

Edgar Wright to Tackle STAGE 13

Edgar Wright

While last month brought word that Edgar Wright had signed on to adapt Adrian McKinty’s The Chain, now comes news on another new project for the filmmaker.

Via Deadline, Wright will be directing Stage 13 for Amblin Partners. That tale was a part of Simon Rich’s Hits and Misses collection from 2018, and Rich is on board to pen the picture.

The early word on this spook-laced affair reads:

The film follows the ghost of a silent film-era actress that has haunted the titular soundstage of a backlot for decades. After a struggling director meets the ghost, they find an unexpected kinship and team to make their mark o the world.

Edgar Wright and Simon Rich will also both be serving as products on Stage 13.

Britbox Launches Cult TV Collection

The Prisoner

Britbox, the popular subscription streaming service created by the BBC and ITV to bring the very best in past, present and future British programming and award-winning content to viewers all in one place, has announced an exciting raft in new content arriving in August under the umbrella title the Out Of This World Collection.

Earlier this year the service tested the waters by offering selected episodes of cult TV favourites such as Gerry Anderson’s Thunderbirds and Captain Scarlet and rarely-screened children’s classic Timeslip, but next month several bona fide classic UK genre shows will make their debuts on the service in their entirety.

The new arrivals will include all seventeen episodes of Patrick McGoohan’s puzzlebox thriller series The Prisoner in which McGoohan’s unnamed retiring secret agent is abducted and held captive in a strange coastal village where he is tormented by his abductors who are determined to discover the reason for his sudden resignation. The series, a stone-cold classic of imaginative British television, has fascinated and confounded fans and scholars since it arrived on TV screens over fifty years ago.

Sapphire and Steel, the creepy and atmospheric adventures of two mysterious ‘time agents’ investigating and correcting temporal anomalies, starred Joanna Lumley and David McCallum and first appeared on ITV screens back in 1979. All 34 episodes of the series will be available on Britbox.

Gerry Anderson fans are well catered for as Britbox expands its Supermarionation slate with every episode of Thunderbirds and Captain Scarlet and the Mysterons expanding from the already-available handful of episodes. More excitingly, though, the three ‘new’ episodes of Thunderbirds created in 1965 to celebrate the show’s 50th anniversary and based on the ‘mini-adventures’ released on vinyl back in the 1960s, will be available publicly for the first time since a strictly limited edition physical release a few years ago. These episodes were created by producer/director Stephen La Riviere and his team using lovingly-recreated sets, puppets and props are were filmed at the unassuming Slough Trading Estate building (now sadly demolished) in Stirling Road where most of the original Century 21 productions were made back in the 1960s.

Fans of live action Anderson fare are also catered for, though, as Britbox will be making available all 26 episodes of STARBURST favourite UFO (1969/70) in which the Supreme Headquarters Alien Defence Organisation, headed by Commander Ed Straker (Ed Bishop) battles to keep Earth safe from an insidious invasion by body-snatching Aliens. All 48 episodes of Space:1999 (1975-7) in which a nuclear explosion causes the moon to be blown out of Earth orbit and set adrift in space and starring Martian Landau and Barbara Bain, will also be available… but we’d advise just sticking with the first 24 episodes.

Rounding off Britbox’s latest exciting archive acquisitions will be ITC’s quirky 1969 detective series Randall and Hopkirk (Deceased) in which Marty Hopkirk (Kenneth Cope) returns from the grave as a white-suited ghost to help his shambolic partner Jeff Randall (Mike Pratt) in his investigations and BBC4’s short-lived adaptation of Douglas Adams’s cult Dirk Gently novels with Stephen Mangan playing the hectic holistic detective. The series, which ran for only three episodes in 2012 following the broadcast of a successful pilot episode in December 2010, was created by Howard Overman (Merlin, Misfits, Future Man, War of the Worlds) and co-starred Darren Boyd as Dirk’s sidekick Richard Macduff with guest appearances from Helen Baxendale, Jason Watkins and Miranda Raison.

Britbox’s Out of this World collection will be available from August 20th.

 

Stephen King’s THE REVELATIONS OF BECKA PAULSON Headed to The CW

Stephen King

Just last week, we said how barely a month goes by where we don’t get word on a new Stephen King adaptation being in development – only for another new King project to be announced a couple of days later! Well now, yet another King tale is being adapted.

Via Deadline, King’s 1984 The Revelations of Becka Paulson is being eyed to get the TV treatment over at The CW. To be titled Revelations, this series will be developing by Last Man Standing’s Maisie Culver, Dead Inside’s Katie Lovejoy, and Warner Bros. TV.

The official blurb on the source material reads:

After accidentally shooting herself in the brain with a nail gun, a Pollyanna-ish Becca Paulson is recruited by an over-it Jesus to be his ‘chosen one’ in stopping the apocalypse. In order to save the world, Becca will have to prove that our deeply backward planet Earth is redeemable – starting with her quirky midwestern hometown.

If all of that sounds familiar, that’s likely because The Revelations of Becka Paulson was previously adapted for an episode of The Outer Limits back in 1997.

As for those other recently-announced Stephen King adaps, Ben Stiller is overseeing a feature film take on Rat, while American Horror Story’s Ryan Murphy is teaming with Blumhouse for a movie adaptation of Mr. Harrigan’s Phone.

Gael Garcia Bernal Teaming with M. Night Shyamalan

Gael Garcia Bernal

With M. Night Shyamalan currently working on two new original thrillers for Universal Pictures, now comes news of a new addition for one of these movies.

Courtesy of Deadline, Gael Garcia Bernal has signed on to join one of these mystery films. While we don’t know the title or the plot of this particular offering, the Coco and The Motorcycle Diaries star will join Alex Wolff, Eliza Scanlen, Thomasin McKenzie, Aaron Pierre, Nikki Amuka-Bird, Ken Leung, Vicky Krieps, and Abbey Lee in this movie.

As alluded to, Shyamalan is in development on two “weird and dark” pictures for Universal, and production on this film is due to start as soon as it is safe to do so – with a July 23, 2021 currently booked in for this movie.

Elisabeth Moss Developing Anthology Series

Elisabeth Moss

Having wowed earlier this year in Leigh Whannell’s The Invisible Man, now comes word on a new project for Elisabeth Moss.

Via The Hollywood Reporter, Moss has now launched a production banner called Love & Squalor Pictures, which has in turn signed a first-look TV deal with Hulu and Fox 21 TV Studios. As part of that agreement, Moss is to develop an anthology series titled Black Match for Hulu.

Moss will headline Black Match, with The Handmaid’s Tale’s Mike Barker on board to direct. Deputy’s Ian McCulloch is penning the project.

The early word on Black Match has it pegged an LA-set psychosexual neo-noir thriller.

Expect more on Black Match as it continues to develop.

Zachary Quinto and Khary Payton Join INVINCIBLE

Zachary Quinto Khary Payton

Amazon’s upcoming animated adaptation of Robert Kirkman’s Invincible has found two more cast members.

Via EW, Heroes favourite Zachary Quinto and The Walking Dead star Khary Payton have signed on to lend their vocals to this animated series. Kirkman himself revealed the news to EW, although he’s yet to specify just which characters Quinto and Payton will be voicing.

This duo join a cast that will be headline by The Walking Dead’s Steven Yeun in the lead role of Mark Grayson – the 17-year-old who gains powers and becomes the titular Invincible hero. Also on board for Invincible are Spider-Man’s J.K. Simmons, Deadpool 2’s Zazie Beetz, Community’s Gillian Jacobs, The League’s Jason Mantzoukas, Justified’s Walton Goggins, the iconic Mark Hamill, and Seth Rogan as Allen the Alien.

Invincible was created by Robert Kirkman and Cory Walker in 2003, running for 144 issues up until the title ended in 2017.

Amazon has confirmed that Invincible will get an eight-episode first season, although a premiere date has yet to be confirmed by the on-demand streaming platform.

JAWS’ Orca Being Recreated for Marine Research

Return of the Orca

It’s been 45 years since Steven Spielberg’s Jaws first swam to the silver screen, and the appetite for this most beloved of movies is still just as fervent as it’s ever been – which is why it’s hugely interesting to hear about a new project called Return of the Orca.

Where Jaws is concerned, the Orca is Quint’s fishing vessel seen throughout Spielberg’s 1975 movie. As in, the one and the same vessel that Quint, Brody, and Hooper use to embark on their movie-ending mission to take down the Great White that’s been terrifying the waters of Amity Island.

Now, an Indiegogo campaign labelled Return of the Orca is being launched to not only recreate the Orca, but to then use this ship to research marine life in and around the Martha’s Vineyard locale where Jaws was shot.

Jaws author Peter Benchley was a major supporter of conservation, and it’s the Beneath the Waves non-profit organisation – for whom Benchley’s widow Wendy is on the board of directors – who will utilise this new Orca for research and expedition purposes.

Not only are Wendy Benchley and Beneath the Waves involved in this project, but so too are Jaws production designer Joe Alves and Martha’s Vineyard local Chris Crawford. Not only is Crawford a resident of the area, but he also helped to create the original Orca back in 1974 ahead of Jaws beginning shooting. This new Orca will be crafted from a Nova Scotia lobster vessel called Lydia, which was found on the north shore of Massachusetts.

Alves, Crawford, and their respective design and production teams are coming together once more to create what’s dubbed Orca III. Why Orca III, you ask? Well, that’s because there were actually two Orca ships used on Jaws – one a fibre glass copy, and the other the original vessel that saw out its days at Universal Studios.

Bringing added support to Return of the Orca are two heavy representatives of the Jaws community, Making the Monster and The Daily Jaws.

Combining the passion of the fans with the passion of some of those involved in bringing the original Orca to life, Return of the Orca is an absolutely fascinating project being undertaken for a truly worthy cause.

To support the Return of the Orca campaign, head on over to the project’s Indiegogo page or returnoftheorca.com.

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DOCTOR WHO Serial MARCO POLO Gets LP Release

marco polo

The latest release from Demon Records and the BBC is the long lost Doctor Who serial Marco Polo.
The William Hartnell-era story will be presented as a narrative TV soundtrack, with all seven parts pressed on four ‘desert sandstorm’ coloured vinyl. A must for any collector, we’re sure you’ll agree!

From the press release:

When the TARDIS breaks down in Central Asia, its occupants are met by the explorer Marco Polo. The year is 1289, and Marco is crossing the Gobi desert to Peking, for an audience with the emperor Kublai Khan. Marco sets his mind on offering the TARDIS as a gift to the Khan, despite the Doctor’s protests. The time travellers must endure a long journey, fraught with danger, as they join Marco’s caravan in the company of the treacherous warlord, Tegana. Can the Doctor ever win back his magical blue box?

Presented across 4 x 140g vinyl, with an etched TARDIS Side B, this 1964 TV soundtrack – no episodes of which survive as film recordings – is narrated by William Russell, who co-stars with Jacqueline Hill and Carole Ann Ford as the Doctor’s companions Ian, Barbara and Susan. Mark Eden co-stars as Marco Polo himself, with Derren Nesbitt and Zienia Merton among the supporting cast. Incidental music is composed by Tristram Cary, and the familiar strains of the Doctor Who theme are courtesy of the BBC Radiophonic Workshop.

The coloured vinyl LPs are presented in fully illustrated sleeves which, when assembled together, form the cover image. Original episode billings, and full cast and credits, are also supplied.

You can pre-order the album here.