Katherine McNamara Promoted to ARROW Series Regular

Katherine McNamara

As The CW’s Arrow gears up for its eighth and final season, now comes word that one of the show’s supporting players is getting promoted to a series regular.

Courtesy of Deadline, Katherine McNamara is now a series regular for the upcoming final season for Oliver Queen and Co. McNamara, of course, played Mia Queen in the flash-forward moments of Arrow’s seventh season. That character is the daughter of Oliver and Felicity, and she’s one of the key parts of the future’s Team Arrow line-up.

Given that Katherine McNamara and Joseph David-Jones – the show’s Connor Hawke – are both now confirmed to return for Season 8, that most certainly suggests that we’ll be getting more jumps to the future in Arrow’s final year.

Production is now underway on Arrow’s eighth season, with the ten-episode final season to premiere later this year.

Amazon Developing a PAPER GIRLS TV Series

Brian K. Vaughan and Cliff Chiang's Paper Girls

With a slew of new comic book adaptations continuously being announced, now comes word that Paper Girls is up next to be brought to life.

Via Deadline, Amazon Studios is to develop Brian K. Vaughan and Cliff Chiang’s Image Comics title as a live-action TV series. Toy Story 4’s co-scribe Stephany Folsom will serve as the lead writer and showrunner on the show.

For those not familiar with Paper Girls, the official word on the comic book title reads:

Paper Girls follows the story of four teenage girls: Erin, MacKenzie, KJ, and Tiffany. While delivering newspapers in 1988, the girls find themselves thrust into a war between time-travelling factions. Along the way, the girls also discover what their respective futures hold.

Having begun back in 2016, Paper Girls is actually due to come to an end this month.

As ever, expect more on Amazon’s Paper Girls as the series continues to develop.

BILL & TED 3 Adds Kristen Schaal and Holland Taylor

Kristen Schaal

As Bill & Ted Face the Music continues to amass its core cast, the threequel has added two more most triumphant names to its ranks.

Via Entertainment Weekly, Kristen Schaal and Holland Taylor have joined this third Bill & Ted offering. The ever-charming Schaal is likely best known for Flight of the Conchords and BoJack Horseman, while Taylor has recently appeared in Mr. Mercedes in addition to roles in the likes of Two and a Half Men and Legally Blonde over the years. For Bill & Ted Face the Music, Schaal is to play a messenger from the future, while Taylor is playing an all-powerful being called the Great Leader.

In Bill & Ted 3, this duo will be joining the returning Alex Winter, Keanu Reeves and William Sadler, in addition to Heroes’ Jayma Mays as Bill’s wife Princess Joanna, Mayhem’s Samara Weaving as Bill’s daughter Thea, Children’s Hospital’s Erinn Hayes as Ted’s wife Princess Elizabeth, Atypical’s Brigette Lundy-Paine as Ted’s daughter Billie, and Gotham’s Anthony Corrigan as the villain of the piece.

The early blurb on Bill & Ted Face the Music reads:

Following 1989’s Bill & Ted’s Excellent Adventure and 1991’s Bill & Ted’s Bogus Journey, the stakes are higher than ever for William “Bill” S. Preston Esq. and Theodore “Ted” Logan. Yet to fulfil their rock and roll destiny, the now middle-aged best friends set out on a new adventure, when a visitor from the future warns them that only their song can save life as we know it and bring harmony to the universe. Along the way, they will be helped by their families, old friends and a few music legends.

With Galaxy Quest’s Dean Parisot on directing duties, from a screenplay courtesy of the original two movies’ Chris Matheson and Ed Solomon, Bill & Ted Face the Music is booked in for an August 2020 release.

 

AHS: 1984 Signs Up Angelica Ross

Angelica Ross

While we’ve recently heard how mainstays Sarah Paulson and Evan Peters will not be back for American Horror Story: 1984, now comes word on someone who will be a part of this new AHS offering.

Taking to her own Twitter account, Pose’s Angelica Ross has confirmed that she’s joined the slasher-driven ninth season of American Horror Story.

 

To date, the only confirmed cast members for AHS: 1984 are Emma Roberts and Olympian Gus Kenworthy.

American Horror Story: 1984 will premiere on September 18th.

Storm Reid Joins James Gunn’s SUICIDE SQUAD Sequel

Storm Reid

As James Gunn’s Suicide Squid gears up to start shooting in September, the sequel-cum-reboot has added another new face to its ranks.

Via The Wrap, A Wrinkle in Time’s Storm Reid has signed on to play the daughter of Idris Elba’s character in the film. Elba was initially thought to be taking over the Deadshot role from Will Smith, although it’s since been revealed that Elba will be playing a completely different character.

It’s believed that the majority of 2016’s Suicide Squad – bar Smith and Margot Robbie – will be reprising their roles, and the follow-up has also added David Dastmalchian as Polka-Dot Man.

At present, The Suicide Squad – yes, the sequel to Suicide Squad is titled The Suicide Squad – is currently booked in for an August 2021 release, with Gunn writing and directing the effort.

New WALKING DEAD Spin-Off Finds First Cast Members

alexa mansour

As AMC’s new Walking Dead spin-off starts to take shape, the walker-centric series has moved to cast three of its lead characters.

Courtesy of The Wrap, Unfriended: Dark Web’s Alexa Mansour (pictured), The Amazing Word of Gumball’s Nicolas Cantu and Bilched’s Hal Cumpston have all landed lead roles in this to-be-titled spin-off.

Details on this new show are being kept relatedly hush-hush right now, although we do know that the series will be based around two young females and will centre on the first generation to grow up in the midst of an undead apocalypse.

With Matt Negrete on showrunner duties, this latest Walking Dead spin-off has been booked in for a ten-episode debut first season.

Marvel’s THE ETERNALS Adds Millie Bobby Brown

Millie Bobby Brown

Fresh off the stunning third season of Stranger Things, Millie Bobby Brown is now heading to the Marvel Cinematic Universe.

As per Variety, the young actress has signed on to join Marvel Studios’ The Eternals. There’s not information just yet on which character Brown will be playing, but she joins a cast that currently features Angelina Jolie, Richard Madden, Kumail Nanjiani and Ma Dong-seok, with Salma Hayek also in talks.

The Eternals is one of only a few new MCU movies confirmed in the post-Endgame landscape, and a whole lot of new MCU information is expected once San Diego Comic-Con kicks off next week.

Created by the iconic Jack Kirby back in 1976, the Eternals comic book title was based around a race of age-old humans created by the alien Celestials with the plan being for these humans to serve as Earth’s protectors against the nefarious Deviants. The big-screen Eternals will reportedly be based around the Sersi character who is an energy-manipulating being who is pretty much immortal.

To be directed by Chloe Zhao, The Eternals is currently pencilled in for a 2020 release.

RIP TORN 1931 – 2019

Rip Torn who portrayed the amiable Zed in the Men In Black films, passed away at the age of 88. Born Elmore Rual Torn, Jr. on February 6, 1931 in Temple, Texas, Mr. Torn adopted the family name, ‘Rip’ as his first. Studying animal husbandry at Texas A&M, but defected to the drama department, Mr. Torn decided to hitchhike to Hollywood to become a movie star in order to make enough money to buy a ranch. When he arrived he had to work a series of odd jobs until he got a break as the dentist in an uncredited role in Elia Kazan’s, Baby Doll.

After service in the Army as a military police officer he became serious about learning his craft moving to New York City where he appeared in plays as well as in the Golden Age of television between 1957-1960 on Omnibus and Playhouse 90 where he received a Tony nomination in Sweet Bird of Youth.

Some of the feature films he appeared in were Pork Chop Hill, The Man Who Fell to Earth, The Cincinnati Kid, and Dodgeball, but his greatest performance was in an obscure film entitled, Payday which should have made him a star. If you have never seen Payday, seek it out. Mr. Torn’s performance is stellar.

Television appearances include 30 Rock and the Man From U.N.C.L.E., but his comedic flair exploded on the Larry Sanders Show as the show’s producer, Artie, where his last name was never revealed. He was nominated six times for the role and finally won an Emmy for it.

One of his best quotes was when he was at the Academy Awards where he received his first Oscar nomination: “People are finally realizing that I’m one of the few actors that never missed a performance. I’ve worked with broken arms, legs, ankles and even passed a kidney stone on the opening night of a show.”

He was quite a character. We will miss him.

STARBURST sends our good thoughts out to his family and friends.

Felicity Jones Joins Clooney’s GOOD MORNING, MIDNIGHT Adaptation

Good Morning, Midnight - Felicity Jones

Fresh off last month’s news that George Clooney was to direct and star in Netflix’s adaptation of Good Morning, Midnight, now comes word that Felicity Jones has joined the picture.

Via Deadline, the Rogue One star has landed a to-be-revealed role opposite Clooney in the movie take on Lily Brooks-Dalton’s 2017 sci-fi tale.

For those not familiar with that hugely popular novel, the official blurb on Good Morning, Midnight reads:

The post-apocalyptic tale follows the parallel stories of Augustine, a lonely scientist in the Arctic, and an astronaut on board the Aether spacecraft, which is trying to return home to Earth, as Augustine races to make contact with the spaceship.

Clooney will be playing Augustine in the Netflix movie adaptation, with The Revenant’s Mark L. Smith penning the project.

Expect more on Good Morning, Midnight as it continues to develop.

Sam Raimi Teases a New EVIL DEAD Movie

Evil Dead 2

Could there be life in the old Evil Dead dog yet…? Maybe.

With barely a week going by these days without some mention of further possible Evil Dead offerings, now Sam Raimi has chimed in on the chance of fans seeing something Evil Dead in the future.

If you remember, Ash vs. Evil Dead was cancelled last year and star Bruce Campbell stated how he’d officially retired as Ashley J. Williams. Now, Raimi has offered up hope that early work has already begun on a new Evil Dead picture.

Speaking to Bloody-Disgusting during press work for Alexandre Aja’s Crawl (which Raimi is producer on), the horror fave teased, “I’d like to make another one. I don’t think TV is in its future, but we’re talking about – Bruce, Rob [Tapert] and myself – one or two different ways to go for the next movie. We’d like to make another Evil Dead feature and, in fact, we’re working on some ideas right now.”

With Campbell having hung up his chainsaw, Raimi revealed that there is currently a plan in place should he be able to coerce Campbell out of Ash retirement, then there is another idea in place to move ahead with a sequel to Fede Alvarez’s impressive Evil Dead reboot should Campbell not be keen, and even a third plan should either of these projects not be able to move forward.

Raimi ended this chat by added, “I think you may see some action on the Evil Dead movie in the next six months.”

So, it certainly looks, whether with Bruce Campbell involved or not, there’s certainly something brewing on the Evil Dead franchise.

As ever, expect more on all things Evil Dead as we get it.