Denis Villeneuve’s DUNE Adds Josh Brolin

Josh Brolin

Seriously, the cast being assembled for Denis Villeneuve’s upcoming adaptation of Frank Herbert’s Dune is shaping up brilliantly. And now, another top-tier talent has been added to the movie.

Courtesy of Variety, Josh Brolin has joined the picture to play Gurney Halleck, a character pivotal to the Atreides family at the centre of the film and somebody played by a certain Sir Patrick Stewart in the 1984 take on Dune. Brolin, of course, is best known over the past couple of years for playing both Thanos and Cable in big-screen Marvel movies.

For Dune, Brolin joins a cast that includes Timothée Chalamet as Paul Atreides, Rebecca Ferguson as Paul’s mother Lady Jessica, Charlotte Rampling as Reverend Mother Mohiam, Javier Bardem as Stilgar, Stellan Skarsgard as Baron Vladimir Harkonnen, and Dave Bautista as the sadistic nephew of Skarsgard’s Baron Harkonnen. Elsewhere, Oscar Isaac is currently in talks to play Duke Leto Atreide, the father of Paul, and Zendaya is in talks to play Chani, the love interest of Chalamet’s character.

Dune began life back in 1965, with Frank Herbert’s original novel tying for the 1966 Hugo Award and then winning the inaugural Nebula Award for Best Novel. Set in the distant future, the story centres on Paul Atreides as his family takes control of the desert planet known as Arrakis. With valuable resources key to the tale, what unravels is a plot that’s full of politics, betrayal, and man’s relationship with nature. A Kyle MacLachlan-starring, David Lynch-helmed movie followed in 1984, which went on to become a cult classic, and then Syfy developed a Dune TV series in 2000. As for written works, Herbert penned five sequels himself before Kevin J. Anderson and Brian Herbert expanded that written world even further.

At this stage, Villeneuve’s Dune has yet to be given a release date.

Ridley Scott Developing Two ALIEN TV Shows?

ALIEN: BLACKOUT

At the turn of the year, speculation was rampant that the Alien: Resistance comic book may or may not spawn a video game and/or a TV series. As it happened, there was indeed a mobile game announced, but all remains quiet on the TV front. That is, until now.

Courtesy of HN Entertainment, Sir Ridley Scott is believed to be in talks to executive produce an Alien show for Hulu. While still obviously a rumour right now, the report claims that the series would be an anthology effort where each season would be its own individual story set somewhere in the Alien universe. In addition to this, there are supposedly plans for a second Alien show as well, although specifics aren’t known for this one just yet.

As alluded to, treat this as merely a rumour for now.

For Sir Ridley, up next for him is TNT’s Raised by Wolves sci-fi series.

Batman/TMNT Animated Crossover Announced

Batman vs Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles

Well, this sounds all kinds of awesome. Yes, as the headline suggests, the Caped Crusader and those Heroes in a Half-Shell are getting their own animated crossover.

Courtesy of SYFY, DC Entertainment and Nickelodeon are teaming together for a new animated movie titled Batman vs. Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles.

The film will be based on James Tynion IV and Freddie William II’s comic book miniseries Batman/Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles and will bring the TMNT to Gotham City. After some transdimensional chicanery, the Turtles will find themselves teaming up with the World’s Greatest Detective to take down some of his most nefarious rogues.

Along for the ride, the feature will see Troy Baker voice both Batman and The Joker, with Eric Bauza as Leonardo, Baron Vaughn as Danatello, Darren Criss as Raphael, Kyle Mooney as Michelangelo, Rachel Bloom as Batgirl, Tom Kenny as The Penguin, John DiMaggio as Mr. Freeze, Cas Anvar as Ra’s al Ghul, Carlos Alazraqui as Bane, and genre fave Tara Strong pulling double duty as Harley Quinn and Poison Ivy.

Batman vs. Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles is expected to hit Blu-ray, DVD, and digital this spring.

EVE Online’s Valentine’s Day event is Back!

valentine eve

From today, players of EVE Online, the in-depth and uniquely player-driven spaceship MMO game from CCP Games, will be able to take part in this year’s Guardian’s Gala to fight against the fearsome pirates of New Eden and earn exclusive rewards in the process.

From the press release:

Last year, the Guardian’s Gala was once again attacked by opportunistic capsuleers. This time around the Angel Cartel are back, more prepared than ever to ward off the inevitable assault. Otuwiri and Khaitetha have sworn vengeance on the capsuleers after last year’s humiliation and will be laying in wait for unsuspecting pilots who think they can make a quick few kredits by crashing the party.

In celebration of Valentine’s Day, the New Eden Store will exclusively offer a variety of rewards, including a new line of Spirit SKINs for additional hulls, Agency Combat Boosters, Facial Augmentations, modules and fireworks for the duration of the Guardian’s Gala event. Taking out both Gala hosts and outlaw attendees will secure points that can be used to claim rewards via The Agency.

“The Guardians Gala is one of our most popular recurring activities that sees a lot of participants from our community each year,” said Paul Elsy, Senior EVE Universe Community Manager. “This time around, capsuleers can get their hands-on exclusive rewards such as SKINs, Cerebral Accelerators and Facial Augmentations upon challenging the Cartel’s finest combat pilots.”

CCP Games has also announced the introduction of CCPlease, a high-level visual roadmap that will provide players with an accessible overview focusing exclusively on upcoming quality of life fixes, optimizations, and improvements to EVE Online. As part of CCP Games’ ongoing commitment to player experience, giving fans clear and concise information, CCPlease will provide players with progress on each development milestone. EVE Updates, meanwhile, will continue to focus on providing detailed insight into each content update and project for EVE Online.

This month’s update to EVE Online, released today (Tuesday), provides a number of such quality of life tweaks, including the ability to share broadcast settings and overview filters, along with the ability to copy current industry jobs lists. Players will also benefit from improvements to finding items in their personal assets, as well as the addition of a hit point percentage display for drones.

The Guardian’s Gala pirate party runs from February 12-25 and can be accessed in-game via The Agency. More info on the event can be found here.

EVE Online can be downloaded for free by visiting www.eveonline.com.

British Screenwriter Getting a Tell-All Book

screenwriter

Legendary screenwriter and director David McGillivray will have his eagerly-awaited autobiography Little Did You Know: the Confessions of David McGillivray published by Fab Press in June.

McGillivray wrote some classic British horror films in the seventies such as House of Whipcord, Satan’s Slaves, Terror, and Schizo, working with the likes of Peter Walker and Norman J. Warren. He is also an expert on the British sexploitation films of the sixties and seventies, and recently issued an updated edition his seminal book on the subject, Doing Rude Things. As well as movies, he’s written for many comedy legends including Julian Clary. He also recently produced the controversial short Trouser Bar, which was written by a prominent British thespian, whose name we can no longer divulge (read our interview about that here!).

The book will be a tell-all about his career and some of the most notorious parties in the early part of the 21st century.

The book is available to pre-order now, and signed editions will be shipping from June 1st. Head over to https://www.fabpress.com/little-did-you-know.html for more info.

Marvel and Hulu Teaming for Four New Animated Shows

Marvel Hulu

With superhero shows, both live-action and animated, everywhere you look these days, now comes word on four more animated efforts in development.

Showcasing some of Marvel’s lesser-known heroes, Marvel Entertainment and Hulu have announced that they’re now at work on four new animated shows and a standalone special.

The Hulu service has ordered animated series for Howard the Duck, M.O.D.O.K., Hit-Monkey and Tigra & Dazzler Show, with the standalone special to bring all of these characters together in The Offenders.

The official word on all of these offerings reads:

M.O.D.O.K., set around the character of the same name created by Stan Lee and Jack Kirby, will be written and executive produced by Patton Oswalt (Happy!) and Jordan Blum (Community) alongside Jeph Loeb (Legion). The series will follow the titular supervillain with the really big head and really small body as he fights to keep control of his organization and his needy family.

Hit-Monkey will follow a Japanese snow monkey who trains with the ghost of an American assassin to prepare for a bloody and darkly comical revenge trip through the seedy Tokyo underworld. The character was created by Daniel Way and Dalibor Talajic and the series is being written and executive produced by Josh Gordon and Will Speck (Office Christmas Party) and Loeb.

Tigra & Dazzler Show will see the titular best friends/superheroes as they face one of their biggest battles yet: recognition from other superpowered people in Los Angeles. Tigra, created by Tony Isabella and Gil Kane, and Dazzler, created by Tom DeFalco, Roger Stern, Louise Simonson and John Romita Jr, have not been seen on the small screen for years, with Dazzler’s previous portrayal seen in the 2009 animated series Wolverine and the X-Men and is reportedly set to appear in the next live-action X-Men film, Dark Phoenix, and Tigra was last seen in the 1999 Fox animated series The Avengers: United They Stand. The new series will be written and executive produced by Erica Rivinoja (The Last Man on Earth) and Chelsea Handler (Chelsea) alongside Loeb.

Howard the Duck, who previously made it to the big screen in the widely detested 1986 film and cameo appearances in the Guardians of the Galaxy films, was created by Steve Gerber in 1973. The series, being written by Kevin Smith (Jay and Silent Bob reboot) and Dave Willis (Your Pretty Face is Going to Hell), will follow the titular hero as he, with the help of his best friend Beverly, attempts to return to his home planet before Dr. Bong can kill and cook him.

The Offenders, executive produced by Loeb, will follow all four of the characters as they are forced to reluctantly team up to save both the Earth and various parts of the universe from an unknown force.

As ever, expect more on all of these animated efforts as they continue to develop.

ZOMBIELAND Sequel Brings in Thomas Middleditch

Thomas Middleditch

With Ruben Fleischer’s hugely anticipated Zombieland sequel now finally filming, the film has moved to confirm another new addition.

Via Bloody Disgusting, Zombieland: Double Tap has added Thomas Middleditch to its ranks. The charismatic actor is likely best known to genre fans for his roles in the likes of Silicon Valley, The Final Girls, The Wolf of Wall Street and will be seen in this May’s Godzilla: King of the Monsters.

Middleditch joins a cast the includes the returning Jesse Eisenberg, Emma Stone, Woody Harrelson and Abigail Breslin, and fellow new additions Rosario Dawson, Zoey Deutch and Avan Jogia.

The early word on the Zombieland sequel reads:

In this next installment, through comic mayhem that stretches from the White House and through the heartland, the zombie slayers must face off against many new kinds of zombies that have evolved since the first movie, as well as some new human survivors. But most of all, they have to face the growing pains of their own snarky, makeshift family.

At present, Zombieland: Double Tap is set for an October 11th, 2019 release.

Screenwriter Returning for AQUAMAN 2

aquaman

Many had hoped that James Wan’s Aquaman would be a success, but not even the biggest King of Atlantis fan could have dreamt the Jason Momoa-starrer would top $1 billion at the box office. And with a sequel now confirmed, we have a brief update on that follow-up.

Courtesy of The Wrap, David Leslie Johnson-McGoldrick has been brought in to begin work on a script treatment for the Aquaman sequel. Johnson-McGoldrick worked alongside Will Beal on the screenplay for last year’s first solo outing for the Marine Marvel. Other than that, his credits include work on the likes of The Walking Dead and Wan’s The Conjuring 2.

Right now, it’s unclear whether Wan himself will actually be back to direct Aquaman 2. Currently, the huge genre favourite is in talks to return as an executive producer along with Peter Safran, although whether he ends up in the director’s chair is uncertain.

If you remember, this past weekend brought news that The WB is already at work on an Aquaman spinoff in addition to the sequel. Said spinoff will be centred on the sinister Trench area seen in the final third of Aquaman.

As ever, expect more on Aquaman 2 and that Trench effort as they continue to develop.

Noomi Rapace Signs on for Half-Human, Half-Sheep Supernatural Drama LAMB

Noomi Rapace

Did somebody say “supernatural drama centred around a human-sheep hybrid”?

As it happens, just such a movie is in development, and now comes word that Noomi Rapace has joined the picture.

From Valdimar Johannsson, Lamb is a story about a married, childless Icelandic couple who are sheep farmers. On Christmas Eve, the pair discover a newborn baby who is half-human, half-sheep. Desperate for a child of their own, they decide to keep the hybrid creature and raise it as their own. Think the Kents finding a young Ka-El… but with, y’know, more super-baaaaa-wers than superpowers. We’ll get our coat.

Initially reported by Variety, Prometheus and The Girl with…’s Rapace has signed on to play Maria, the wife involved in all of this.

On this news, the actress enthused, “A script like this is rare and I directly felt that I had to do it. I’ve never done anything like this before and I can’t wait to start filming and go back to my roots in Iceland.”

The current plan is for Lamb to start shooting later this year ahead of a 2020 release.

AMC Reveals the Title of THE TERROR’s Second Season

The Terror

We can all agree that the first season of AMC’s The Terror was pretty damn impressive, and now comes a brief update on the on-the-way second season of the show.

Said brief update sees AMC reveal that the title of this upcoming season is The Terror: Infamy.

The second year of the Ridley Scott-developed series is currently shooting, with George Takei, Kiki Sukezane, Miki Ishikawa, Cristina Rodlo, Yuki Morita and Shingo Usami to star.

With True Blood’s Alexander Woo serving as showrunner, the early word on The Terror’s second season reads:

Set during World War II, the second of follows a series of bizarre deaths that haunt a Japanese-American community and a young man’s journey to understand and combat the malevolent entity responsible.

The ten-episode The Terror: Infamy is due to premiere later this year.