Live-Action LITTLE MERMAID Adds Harry Styles as Prince Eric

Harry Styles

Following the recent casting of Halle Bailey as Ariel in Disney’s upcoming live-action take on The Little Mermaid, the movie has now found who’ll be getting the chance to “kiss the girl”.

Via The Hollywood Reporter, Harry Styles has signed on to play Prince Eric in this new take on an old favourite. Now while Styles may seem like a slightly left-field choice, you have to remember that the One Direction star did impress in Christopher Nolan’s Dunkirk back in 2017. Since then, he’s been looking to explore the acting world in a larger way, including auditioning for the lead role in Baz Luhrmann’s Elvis Presley biopic.

As for Prince Eric, The Little Mermaid sees him fall in love with Ariel after she saves him from drowning. This love story takes an eerie twist when the nefarious Ursula manages to get Ariel to swamp her star singing voice for a pair of legs that would allow for her to join her new beau on land.

Currently, only Bailey and Styles are the confirmed cast members for The Little Mermaid, although Jacob Tremblay and Awkwafina having held talks to join the film – not to mention, Melissa McCarthy in negotiations to play the aforementioned villain of the piece, Ursula.

Mary Poppins Returns’ Rob Marshall is on directing duties for The Little Mermaid, as the House of Mouse eyes an early 2020 production start date. The film has yet to be given a release date.

Taiki Waititi Signs Up for THOR 4

Taika Waititi

In some great news for Thor fans, Taika Waititi will be returning to direct Thor 4. But as is often with great news, it’s also accompanied by some less than great news for Akira fans.

Courtesy of The Hollywood Reporter, Waititi has signed on to return to the director’s chair for the Thor: Ragnarok follow-up. The downside of this, however, is that this will mean further delays for Warner Brothers’ long-gestating live-action Akira movie.

Akira was previously booked in for a May 2021 release, although that now looks like it will be pushed back. The fourth Thor picture has yet to actually be given a set release date, but the issue here is that ongoing script and budget issues with Akira had Warner. Bros getting nervous that the production start dates of both movies were a little too close for comfort.

This does not mean that the hugely talented Taika Waititi is completely off Akira, with Warners keen to move forward with a Waititi-directed Akira once the New Zealander is finished up on Thor 4.

Given that Chris Hemsworth’s Thunder God was last seen heading off into space with the Guardians, it may well be that we next see Thor in James Gunn’s 2021 Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3. Either way, expect more on both Guardians 3 and Thor 4 as we get it.

Oliver Jackson-Cohen Returning for THE HAUNTING OF BLY MANOR

Oliver Jackson-Cohen

Hot off yesterday’s news that Oliver Jackson-Cohen will be headlining Leigh Whannell’s upcoming new spin on The Invisible Man, now comes word that the actor will be returning for The Haunting of Bly Manor.

If you remember, The Haunting of Bly Manor is the follow-up season to Mike Flanagan’s stunning The Haunting of Hill House. In Hill House, Jackson-Cohen played poor Luke Crain. This time out, with The Haunting of Bly Manor telling a completely different story, Jackson-Cohen will be playing a “charming fellow” called Peter. The Wrap confirmed the news, and the actor joins fellow Hill House alum Victoria Pedretti in returning to the whole Haunting of anthology offering.

In terms of what we know about The Haunting of Bly Manor, this new season of television will be based around Henry James’ gothic terror The Turn of the Screw. That tale takes place at an old country mansion and largely centres on a pair of orphans who are looked after by a governess.

Should The Haunting of Bly Manor be even half as gripping as The Haunting of Hill House, genre fans will be treated to something truly special.

Sci-Fi Film Music Prom Coming to The Albert Hall

sci fi proms

So this sounds like a very interesting event coming to The Albert Hall on Wednesday 7th August! They have really put together some exciting pieces from outside of the mainstream. Check it out below…

A Late Night Prom with a futuristic spin brings together some of the best sci-fi film music. Excerpts from cult soundtracks come together with recent works by Hans Zimmer and Mica Levi. The award-winning London Contemporary Orchestra – whose collaborators include Radiohead, Goldfrapp and Steve Reich – perform music from Under the Skin, Interstellar and the recent Netflix series The Innocents, among other titles, as well as from Alien: Covenant, whose soundtrack the LCO recorded.

PROGRAMME

Music from sci-fi film and TV scores, including excerpts from:

Jed Kurzel Alien: Covenant

Hans Zimmer Interstellar

Mica Levi Under the Skin

Clint Mansell Moon

Steven Price Gravity

John Murphy Sunshine

Carly Paradis The Innocents

London Contemporary Orchestra

Robert Ames conductor

You can buy tickets here

New Line Developing a SPACE INVADERS Movie

Space Invaders

Mark this one in the “okaaaaay…” file, for a Space Invaders movie is on the way.

Via Deadline, New Line Cinema is developing a big-screen take on Space Invaders. As in, yes, that Space Invaders. Y’know, the mega-addictive video game of the ‘80s.

New Line has already brought in Greg Russo to pen the picture, with Russo first tackling the upcoming Mortal Kombat reboot for New Line.

For those who may not be familiar with Space Invaders, the basic crux of the game saw players have to blast no-good stinkin’ aliens into smithereens. Formulaic? Sure. Repetitive? Definitely. But man oh man was this a game that was as addictive as they come.

Expect more on Space Invaders as it develops.

POWER RANGERS Being Rebooted Already

Power Rangers

After largely disappointing back in 2017, it looks like the cinematic future of the Power Rangers is getting a rejig.

Previously, we’ve heard rumblings of there being a Power Rangers sequel on the way, yet Dacre Montgomery – the 2017 movie’s Red Ranger – has shed some light on proceedings.

During a Reddit AMA chat, Montgomery was asked about what’s happening with said sequel. His response seems to indicate that the franchise is getting rebooted, as he replied with, “I think there is a movie in the works, but it’s not with me and the cast. So, yes – but not with us.”

Montgomery was joined in that Dean Israelite-directed effort by Naomi Scott, RJ Cyler, Becky G, Ludin Lin, Elizabeth Banks, Bill Hader and Bryan Cranston, with the mid-credits scene for the film teasing the arrival of Tommy Oliver’s Green Ranger for any sequel.

While the response to Power Rangers was mixed, the box office return of $140 million from a $105 million budget would seemingly be worrying for Lionsgate and Saban. As such, it seems as if they’re going back to the drawing board with the Power Rangers franchise.

As ever, expect more on all things Power Rangers as we get it.

John Carpenter Writing a JOKER Story For This October

Joker: Year of the Villain

One of the greatest directors in the history of cinema? Handling one of the greatest villains in the history of comics? Yes please!

As part of the Year of the Villain showcase, DC Comics has announced that John Carpenter will be co-writing a new one-shot story for The Joker. Borderlands 2’s Anthony Burch will be on writing duties alongside Carpenter, with the pair having previously worked together on the all-kinds-of-fun Big Trouble in Little Trouble: Old Man Jack miniseries. Philip Tan and Marc Deering are handling the art for this new tale.

On this news, Carpenter enthused, “The Joker is the greatest villain in comics. I’m proud to be reunited with Anthony on this project.”

This story will begin after Lex Luthor turns himself into the human-alien hybrid known as Apex Lex. In this landscape where Lex is encouraging mankind to succumb to its most evil of thoughts, the Clown Prince of Crime is “on a mission to get his swagger back in a world gone bad by out-badding everyone else, proving that the greatest evil is always the one that leaves them laughing”.

Joker: Year of the Villain will be released this October.

Oliver Jackson-Cohen to Headline THE INVISIBLE MAN

Oliver Jackson-Cohen

With Universal and Blumhouse’s new take on The Invisible Man having begun to assemble its core cast over the past several months, the film has now found its titular character.

Courtesy of Deadline, The Haunting of Hill House’s Oliver Jackson-Cohen has signed on to play the Invisible Man. Jackson-Cohen joins a cast that currently features Elisabeth Moss, Aldis Hodge, Storm Reid and Harriet Dyer.

The early blurb on The Invisible Man reads:

The film follows Cecilia, who receives the news of her abusive ex-boyfriend’s suicide. She begins to re-build her life for the better. However, her sense of reality is put into question when she begins to suspect her deceased lover is not actually dead.

If you remember, The Invisible Man was initially being developed as part of Universal’s shared Dark Universe realm that began with the Tom Cruise-starring The Mummy. After The Mummy was poorly received, all plans for the Dark Universe were put on hold and are now seemingly as dead as a dodo.

Back then, Johnny Depp was on board to play the title role in The Invisible Man, with this new report claiming that Depp has now departed the project. In addition to Depp at one stage to play the Invisible Man, Javier Bardem was to play Frankenstein’s monster; the pair joining a shared world that had Sofia Boutella as the Mummy and Russell Crowe as Dr. Jekyll, Dwayne Johnson in talks to play the Wolfman, Scarlett Johansson lined up to play the Creature from the Black Lagoon, Angelina Jolie to play the Bride of Frankenstein, and with Tom Cruise along to battle such beasties.

From what we’ve heard, pretty much all of those projects have been shelved apart from possibly The Bride of Frankenstein and, of course, The Invisible Man.

Fresh off the success of Upgrade, long-time genre fave Leigh Whannell is serving as writer, director and executive producer on The Invisible Man, with the film due to start production in Sydney, Australia later this month ahead of a March 13th, 2020 release.

Lashana Lynch is the New 007?

Lashana Lynch

In some interesting news, it looks like the Bond franchise has found its new 007.

We’ve known for some time now that the upcoming to-be-titled Bond 25 is to be the last outing as James Bond for Daniel Craig, and that in itself has caused all kinds of speculation about who may replace Craig as Bond. In a fun spin on this, Bond 25 will actually introduce as new 007 in Bond’s absence.

What we know plot-wise about Bond 25 is that Craig’s Bond will be enjoying retirement in Jamaica when the movie opens. Now, The Daily Mail (we know…) is reporting that Bond 25 will introduce Captain Marvel’s Lashana Lynch as the new 007. Lynch’s character will take up the role of 007 in Bond’s absence, although it’s not known whether this will be any sort of permanent arrangement moving forward.

This decision is believed to have originated with Phoebe Waller-Bridge, who is part of the writing team for Bond 25. And if we’re honest, this is an absolutely brilliant move. Of course, given that this story originated with The Daily Mail, it’s likely best to take this all with a pinch of salt until something more official is confirmed.

To be directed by Cary Joji Fukunaga, Bond 25 is set for an April 2020 release.

Tasha Suri wins the Brave New Words Award

brave-new-words-award-nominees-announced

Starburst Magazine is delighted to announce that Tasha Suri has won 2019’s Brave New Words Award for her debut novel, Empire of Sand. It was presented at Edge Lit in Derby, 13th July.

The novel is the story of Mehr , a girl trapped between two cultures. Her father comes from a noble bloodline, but her mother’s people were spirit worshipping Amrithi nomads. Caught between two worlds and two cultures, things become more complex when the spirits of the sand and the gods themselves interfere with Mehr’s destiny and the path of her heart. It is stunning and there is something there for everyone.

The Brave New Words book prize goes to an individual, not a specific work. Like all of the Starburst Awards (such as the ones presented at the Starburst Film Festival), it’s designed to encourage new and exciting work. The judges are always looking for examples that most define the creators output. The award goes to someone who produces break-out literature that is new and bold, and breaks new ground. We felt Empire of Sand most exemplified these values.

Tasha’s acceptance speech said “I’m so surprised and thrilled to win the Brave New Words Award. Right now, SFF is full of amazing new voices, producing innovative, clever and yes – brave – works. To be one of those voices is a privilege, and to be recognised for it is an even bigger one. So I just want to give a massive thank you to the judging panel, Starburst Magazine, and my publisher Orbit. Thank you for this wonderful award!”