SUSPIRIA’s Luca Guadagnino to Direct SCARFACE

Luca Guadagnino

With a Scarface remake having been spinning its wheels for a few years now, that new take on an old favourite has now found a new director.

Courtesy of Deadline, Luca Guadagnino has boarded the project. To genre fans, Guadagnino will be best known for helming the stunning 2018 Suspiria.

If that news isn’t encouraging enough, the most recent draft of the Scarface script has been penned by the iconic pairing of Joel and Ethan Coen.

The last concrete news we’ve had on this new Scarface was back in 2017. At that point, The Equalizer director Antoine Fuqua departed the director’s chair early in the year, while his replacement David Ayer (Suicide Squad) likewise exited the project by the end of the year.

At the last count, Rogue One’s Diego Luna was on board to headline Scarface – although it remains to be seen whether that is still the case, especially with Luna now committed to a Cassian Andor series for Disney+.

Scarface was originally a 1932 movie from Howard Hawks, telling the story of an Irish immigrant rising to power in Chicago’s gangster-driven landscape. In 1983, Al Pacino famously starred in Brian De Palma’s Scarface, taking the original tale and changing it up for a 1980s Miami setting and focussing on a Cuban refugee. In this upcoming picture, the current word is that the film will have a Los Angeles setting.

As ever, expect more on this new Scarface as it continues to develop.

News on the Arrowverse’s Next Crossover

With Arrow having now sadly concluded after eight seasons, there’s a new Arrowverse offering on the horizon in the form of Superman and Lois – and now, there’s news that that new series is due to crossover with another of The CW’s shared universe.

Via Deadline, The CW Chairman Mark Pedowitz has revealed that plans are afoot for a crossover story involving Superman and Lois and Batwoman.

Speaking on a scheduling call, Pedowitz explained, “We’re still working on it. It will be a smaller event than usual, we’re only planning a two-hour event. We are talking about doing Superman and Batwoman together. There’s lots of characters coming from our other shows.”

This shared realm has never been shy of a good crossover or two, of course. Over the past couple of years, we’ve seen crossovers incorporating all of Arrow, The Flash, Supergirl, DC’s Legends of Tomorrow, and Black Lightning. Before that, there have been crossovers between Arrow and The Flash, and there was even that brilliant first season episode of Supergirl where Grant Gustin’s Scarlet Speedster accidentally found himself on the world of Kara Danvers.

Most recently, audiences are fresh off the jaw-dropping Crisis on Infinite Earths crossover event which had some huge consequences for this shared universe.

As for Superman and Lois, that series will find Tyler Hoechlin and Bitsie Tulloch back in the titular roles that they’ve played sporadically throughout the Arrowverse. Filming of the pilot episode for that show has been delayed due to the ongoing global pandemic we found ourselves in the midst of, but The Cw has plans to deliver a 13-episode first season for the show. Where the possible Superman and Lois and Batwoman crossover story will fit, the current word is that any such event will air in the first half of next year.

PERCY JACKSON TV Series Heading to Disney+

Percy Jackson and the Lightning Thief

In some great news for fans of Rick Riordan’s Percy Jackson series, that property is being adapted for a new Disney+ show.

Riordan himself revealed the news, taking to Twitter with the following:

 

The Percy Jackson and the Olympians book series began back in 2005 with The Lightning Thief, and amassed a total of five offerings before concluding with The Last Olympian in 2009.

Previously, of course, Riordan’s work was taken to the big screen with 20th Century Fox’s Percy Jackson and the Lightning Thief. While that movie did well enough to garner a sequel, those films didn’t quite deliver the Harry Potter levels of success that Fox was hoping for.

Now though, Disney will be getting a crack at adapting the property as a TV series that will seemingly spend each season centred on one of the five Percy Jackson novels. Disney acquired the rights to the IP as part of last year’s assimilation of Fox.

As ever, expect more on all of this as Disney+’s Percy Jackson series continues to develop.

Dakota Johnson Joins Olivia Wilde’s DON’T WORRY DARLING

Dakota Johnson

With an already impressive cast in place, New Line Cinema’s Don’t Worry Darling has moved to add Dakota Johnson to its ranks.

Via Deadline, Suspiria star Johnson has now joined an ensemble that also includes Florence Pugh, Chris Pine, and Shia LaBeouf, with Booksmart’s Olivia Wilde on directing duties.

The early word on Don’t Worry Darling has it pegged as:

A psychological thriller about a 1950s housewife whose reality begins to crack, revealing a disturbing truth underneath.

The Silence’s Shane and Carey Van Dyke wrote the original script for the film, before Booksmart screenwriter Katie Silberman did a rewrite after Wilde boarded the picture.

Vertigo Entertainment’s Roy Lee will produce alongside Wilde and Silberman.

HBO Max Adapting Stephen King and Joe Hill’s THROTTLE

Throttle

In some fantastic news, an adaptation of Stephen King and Joe Hill’s Throttle is on the way.

Via Deadline, HBO Max is in the early stages of adapting the 2009 tale as a feature film. Raising Dion’s Leigh Dana Jackson is penning the picture’s screenplay.

For those not aware of the legendary father and son pairing’s Throttle, the official blurb reads:

Throttle follows a father and son led biker gang who get terrorised by a big truck on an isolated stretch of the American desert.

And in case you were wondering, yes, Throttle was indeed inspired by Richard Matheson’s Duel. In fact, Throttle was released as part of a tribute to Matheson.

Expect more on HBO Max’s Throttle as it continues to develop.

AMC Acquires Film and TV Rights for THE VAMPIRE CHRONICLES

Anne Rice

Get ready to see plentiful vamp-tastic tales on both the big and small screen, for Anne Rice has agreed a deal for her works to be adapted by AMC.

Courtesy of Variety, AMC Networks has acquired a package that gives them the film and TV rights to develop Rice’s The Vampire Chronicles and The Lives of the Mayfair Witches. Both Rice and her son Christopher will serve as executive producers on any such movie or TV projects.

Between the two aforementioned book series, there are a total of 18 titles which sold a combined figure of over 150 million copies across the globe.

Previously, 2018 saw Hulu looking to develop a TV take on The Vampire Chronicles, while back in 2014 there was the prospect of Universal Pictures turning the property into a movie franchise. Neither of those projects ever really got off the ground.

Anne Rice’s The Vampire Chronicles began life back in 1976 with Interview with the Vampire, and the most recent tale was 2018’s Blood Communion: A Tale of Prince Lestat. And from there, we had the spin-off of The Lives of the Mayfair Witches stories.

Of course, The Vampire Chronicles has already been brought to big-screen life previously, with 1994’s adaptation of Interview with the Vampire starring Tom Cruise, Brad Pitt, Kirsten Dunst, and Antonio Banderas. Then, 2002’s Aaliyah and Stuart Townsend-starring Queen of the Damned pulled inspiration from both The Vampire Lestat and The Queen of the Damned books.

As ever, expect more on all of this as it continues to develop.

Premiere Date Set for DOOM PATROL’s Return

Doom Patrol

In some fantastic news, we now know when we’ll be able to see the second season of the utterly brilliant Doom Patrol.

For North American audiences, Season Two of Doom Patrol will premiere on DC Universe and the new HBO Max streaming service on June 25th. Sadly, at this stage there is zero information on when those of us outside of North America will be able to check out the further antics of this ragtag team.

This won’t be the last DC-driven series heading to HBO Max, of course, with live-action Justice League Dark and Green Lantern shows already confirmed for the service, plus an animated Aquaman miniseries from James Wan.

The official synopsis for Doom Patrol’s second year reads:

DC’s strangest group of heroes — Cliff Steele aka Robotman (Brendan Fraser), Larry Trainor aka Negative Man (Matt Bomer), Rita Farr aka Elasti-Woman (April Bowlby), Jane aka Crazy Jane (Diane Guerrero), and Victor Stone aka Cyborg (Joivan Wade) — are back again to save the world. That is, if they can find a way to grow up…both figuratively and literally. Following the defeat of Mr. Nobody, the members of the Doom Patrol now find themselves mini-sized and stranded on Cliff’s toy race car track.

Here they begin to deal with their feelings of betrayal by Niles Caulder aka The Chief (Timothy Dalton), while confronting their own personal baggage. And as each member faces the challenge of growing beyond their own past traumatic experiences, they must come together to embrace and protect the newest member of the family: Dorothy Spinner (Abigail Shapiro), Niles’ daughter, whose powers remain a mysterious but real threat to bringing on the end of the world.

Katee Sackhoff Boards THE MANDALORIAN

Katee Sackhoff Bo-Katan Kryze

Hot on the heels of the news that Temuera Morrison will be playing Boba Fett in The Mandalorian’s second season, there’s now another piece of casting news for this stunning Disney+ offering.

Via Slashfilm, it’s being reported that genre fave Katee Sackhoff is Mandalorian warrior Bo-Katan Kryze. This won’t be Sackhoff’s first venture to a galaxy far, far away, of course, for she has previously voiced Bo-Katan in The Clone Wars and Rebels. That’s in addition to Sackhoff’s time up in the stars on Battlestar Galactica, too.

The news of Temuera Morrison and Katee Sackhoff joining The Mandalorian was preceded by the casting of Rosario Dawson as the hugely popular Jedi, Ashoka Tano – which, all in all, means anticipated is now ridiculously high for The Mandalorian’s second year.

At present, the current plan is for Season Two of The Mandalorian to head to Disney+ this October.

THE NEW MUTANTS Now Set for August

The New Mutants

In one of the most drawn-out sagas in recent movie memory, it looks as if we’re finally going to see The New Mutants get a release.

As first reported by Deadline, the Josh Boone-helmed The New Mutants has been handed an August 28th release date by 20th Century Fox.

Originally, The New Mutants was set for an April 2018 release, which was then moved to a February 2019 release, which was then moved to an August 2019 release, which was then moved to an April 2020 release. Filming on the movie actually concluded in late 2017, and despite plentiful rumours of reshoots taking place, none ever actually happened.

Like so many movies, the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic saw this most recent April release scrapped, and now comes the latest news that The New Mutants will be heading to the silver screen this August. Of course, the current uncertainty of the present-day landscape means that this August date could still end up being changed.

Inspired by the work of Chris Claremont and Bill Sienkiewicz, The New Mutants centres on five young mutants who discover their unique abilities while being held against their will in a secret facility. Making up the key cast, we have Anya Taylor-Joy as Magik, Maisie Williams as Wolfsbane, Charlie Heaton as Cannonball, Blu Hunt as Dani Moonstar, and Henry Zaga as Sunspot.

DEEP BLUE SEA 3 Swimming to Screens

Deep Blue Sea 2

With Deep Blue Sea 2 going straight-to-video and straight-to-TV back in 2018, there’s now a third Deep Blue Sea picture on the way.

Via Exhibitor Relations, WB Home Entertainment’s Deep Blue Sea 3 has already been rated R by the MPAA, with “bloody images and language” helping to cement that R status.

The Quiet Ones’ John Pogue is on directing duties for Deep Blue Sea 3, with a tentative release date of July 28th. Again, it’s expected that the threequel will be a straight-to-video affair. Plot-wise, zero details are known right now – although presumably the film will centre on a group of scientists who decide to tamper with sharks, and end up paying the price for that meddling.

As ever, expect more on Deep Blue Sea 3 as we get it.