Chris Pratt’s COWBOY NINJA VIKING Put on Indefinite Hold

Cowboy Ninja Viking

While many a genre fan was grinning from ear to ear at the news that Chris Pratt was to star in the big-screen adaptation of A.J. Lieberman and Riley Rossmo’s Cowboy Ninja Viking, now comes some less encouraging news for the project.

Universal Pictures has moved to announce that they have put the picture on indefinite hold, pulling the film from its June 28th, 2019 release date and taking it entirely out of their release schedule. The movie is said to still be in active development, although no specific reasons have been given for the effort being put on hold. Logic suggests scheduling conflicts, yet that’s just us putting two and two together given the slate of films lined up for the ever-popular Pratt.

As it stands, Breaking Bad and Game of Thrones’ Michelle MacLaren is on board to direct Pratt as he plays an assassin who has the skills of, you guessed it, a cowboy, a ninja, and a Viking. Quantico’s Priyanka Chopra is another signed up, with her booked in to play the love interest of Pratt’s titular character.

Whether this delay ultimately affects the involvement of any of the signed-on talent remains to be seen, but expect more on Cowboy Ninja Viking as it continues to develop.

Jon Favreau’s Live-Action STAR WARS Series Gets $100 Million Budget

Star Wars Jon Favreau

Granted, the last few Star Wars pictures may have split opinion amongst genre fans, but surely we can all agree that the galaxy far, far away live-action series that Jon Favrea is developing has us all hugely excited, right? Right?! Well, now we’ve got an update on that small-screen effort.

Courtesy of The New York Times, it’s been revealed that the show will have a whopping $100 million budget for its ten-episode debut season – equating to $10 million per episode. Not too shabby, we’re sure you’ll agree.

This to-be-titled new Star Wars show is currently being developed as one of the must-see highlights of Disney’s upcoming streaming service. In terms of plot details, all that we really know at this stage is that the series will take place seven years after Return of the Jedi’s iconic Battle of Endor. Utilising a mixture of CGI and mo-cap technology similar to that seen in Favreau’s impressive take on The Jungle Book, the show will introduce a whole host of new characters created specifically for the series.

Disney clearly have a lot of faith in the massively talented Favreau, with him having helmed Iron Man, Iron Man 2, and The Jungle Book for the House of Mouse, not to mention he’s the man tasked with directing next year’s live-action/CGI incarnation of The Lion King. And then there’s his Star Wars ties, with the Happy Hogan actor having lent his vocals to characters in Star Wars: The Clone Wars and Solo: A Star Wars Story.

At present, this currently-untitled Star Wars series is set to premiere on Disney’s new on-demand service in the second half of next year.

Ruby Rose is BATWOMAN!

Batwoman Ruby Rose

Here at Moonbase Alpha, it’s kind of become a running joke over the years that a major news story always tends to break the very moment after our upcoming new issue has gone to print. So, with us going to print literally yesterday morning, now comes the huge news that The CW has brought in Ruby Rose to play their Batwoman.

The network themselves confirmed the news, with the Orange is the New Black fave having signed up to play Kate Kane in the Arrowverse. Two months or so ago, it was revealed that the Batwoman character would make an appearance in this December’s crossover between Arrow, The Flash, DC’s Legends of Tomorrow, and Supergirl. Since then, SDCC saw The CW make the brilliant announcement that Batwoman would then go on to have her own TV series within the Arrowverse.

Not only has Batwoman brought in Rose to play this hugely popular fan favourite character, but the first synopsis has been revealed for the series:

In The CW’s Batwoman, written by Caroline Dries based on the DC characters, armed with a passion for social justice and a flair for speaking her mind, Kate Kane soars onto the streets of Gotham as Batwoman, an our lesbian and highly trained street fighter primed to snuff out the failing city’s criminal resurgence. But don’t call her hero yet. In a city desperate for a savior, Kate must overcome her own demons before embracing the call to be Gotham’s symbol of hope.

The inclusion of Batwoman in the Arrowverse – not to mention the casting of Ruby Rose as the character – is yet another indicator of the constantly progressive nature of The CW’s superhero shows, with this news following in the footsteps of Supergirl bringing in TV’s first live-action transgender hero as Nicole Maines will be playing Nia Nal, aka Dreamer, in the Maid of Might series. And now, bringing in the genderfluid lesbian and LGBTQ activist Rose as lesbian hero Batwoman again reiterates this shared realm’s focus on being all-inclusive and progressive.

For those not familiar with Batwoman, she’s a character who’s found herself back in the spotlight again in more recent years, although her origins actually date back to a 1956 debut as Kathy Kane in Detective Comics #233. The Kathy Kane character was a creation of Edmond Hamilton and Sheldon Moldoff, and soon became synonymous with the Silver Age expansion of Batman’s supporting cast of players.

In more recent years, Batwoman was given a spruce up as part of DC Comics’ New 52 reinvention. Now while The New 52 as a concept was largely flawed and found wanting for a number of reasons, the change to Batwoman was one of the more positive moves to come from the rejig. After seemingly dropping off the face of the Earth, Batwoman was brought back into the fold in that 2006 refresh, reimagined as Kate Kane, a Jewish lesbian with bucket-loads of cash behind her. Inspired by Batman, she decided to use her hefty resources to don the cape and cowl and become one of Gotham City’s protectors.

Up next for Ruby Rose is The Meg – which swims to UK screens this Friday – and Batwoman is to premiere at a to-be-confirmed date next year.

Dave Bautista to Ask for His GUARDIANS 3 Release?

James Gunn Dave Bautista Guardians of the Galaxy

In the aftermath of Disney firing James Gunn from Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3, nobody has been more vocal in their unhappiness that Dave Bautista. And now, the Drax actor has stated that he won’t be returning for Guardians 3 unless Gunn’s script is used.

Previously, the Spectre rogue had talked about his upset at Gunn being fired, publicly backing the Guardians of the Galaxy and Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 2 director. Now, he’s gone one further and mentioned the possibility of asking to be released from his Guardians 3 contract.

Speaking to Short List, Bautista passionately explained, “Nobody’s defending his tweets, but this was a smear campaign on a good man. I spoke to Chris Pratt the day after it happened, and he’s a bit religious so he wanted time to pray and figure it out, but I was like, ‘’Fuck this. This is bullshit.’ James is one of the kindest, most decent people I’ve met. Where I’m at right now is that if they don’t use that script, then I’m going to ask them to release me from my contract, cut me out or recast me.”

In case you’ve been living under a rock, last month saw a whole slew of James Gunn’s old social media messages resurface. Gunn himself instantly came out and took ownership of the posts – which were from 2012 – and explained how he used to post controversial content merely for shock value and to get himself noticed. When the topics include the likes of rape and paedophilia, you have to question whenever that would be seen as a good idea. Some will call it misguided, some will call it bad taste, and others will call it utterly disgusting. Regardless, Disney were left with a tough call and decided to fire Gunn, despite him (and many others) stating how he’s a very different person these days. You can argue that they had no real choice in the matter, but then again, it’s not like the Walt Disney Company has previous themselves for questionable content in their past…

It certainly looks like we’ve not seen the end of all of this just yet, and there really does seem to be some major questions over the future of Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3. Originally, that film was to be Gunn’s last with the Guardians team, and he was then to serve as an advisor and creative force on the ever-expanding Marvel Cosmic Universe as Marvel Studios and Disney look to further delve into the stars.

At the crux of this, of course, the key figures of Guardians 3 are all signed up and contracted to that third film. So, regardless of unhappiness within the camp, Disney could simply play their legally-binding card of contractual duties should it come down to it.

Expect more on this whole situation as it continues to play out.

New SUPERGIRL Movie in Development

Supergirl

It’s fair to say, thanks to the success of The CW’s brilliant Supergirl series, the Maid of Might has seen an increase in popularity over the past few years. And looking to strike on that popularity, Warner Brothers is now looking to develop a new big-screen movie for the Girl of Steel.

Courtesy of Deadline, Warners has already moved to bring in 22 Jump Street’s Oren Uziel to work on the film’s script. The early word is that the picture will look to bring in a female director, and there’s already talk that Henry Cavill’s Superman may make an appearance in the effort.

The Supergirl character made her debut back in 1959’s Action Comics #123. As the decades progressed, Kara became a key part of the DC Comics landscape and has been positioned as one of the most powerful characters in this universe. With both heralding from Krypton, Supergirl has largely similar powers to her Man of Steel cousin.

This won’t be the first time that the Maid of Might has been given the movie treatment, of course, with Helen Slater famously starring in 1984’s Supergirl. In other live-action efforts, Laura Vandervoort debuted as Smallville’s Supergirl during the show’s seventh season, and then there’s the aforementioned Supergirl series that began in 2015. Originally, that show aired on CBS for its first season, yet it’s move to The CW for its second season saw the quality upped and now sees the series as must-watch for many a genre fan.

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

BIRDS OF PREY’s Villain to be Black Mask

Black Mask

While the last we’d heard about the ‘big bad’ of Warner Brothers’ Birds of Prey was that it would be a Batman rogue who’s yet to appear on the big screen, now we finally have word on which nefarious sort will be butting heads with some of DC Comics’ finest females.

As per The Wrap, the Birds of Prey team will be facing off against Roman Sionis, aka Black Mask. In more recent years, Sionis has been featured in the Arkham video game series and the Black Mask moniker has even appeared in Gotham.

Going back to his roots, Roman Sionis debuted back in 1985’s Batman #386. Created by Doug Moench and Tom Mandrake, the early word on the silver screen incarnation of the rogue has him pegged as “a brutally sadistic kingpin leading a gang called the False Face Society in Gotham City’s criminal underworld who has a fixation with masks.”

Throughout the years, the villain, like many of the Caped Crusader’s rivals, has seen his place on the totem pole vary; at times being a run-of-the-mill bad guy, at others being a truly sinister presence who is capable of all kinds of twisted acts.

Over the last month or so, we’ve heard stories that the line-up of ladies joining Margot Robbie’s Harley Quinn in Birds of Prey will be Black Canary, Huntress, Detective Renee Montoya, and Cassandra Cain (although it remains to be seen which of her many mantles Cain takes on).

To be directed by Dead Pigs’ Cathy Yan, Birds of Prey is currently set to start shooting in January once Robbie is finished working on Quentin Tarantino’s Once Upon a Time in Hollywood.

ONCE UPON A TIME IN HOLLYWOOD’s Sharon Tate Revealed!

hollywood

Following on from June’s sneak peek at Leonardo DiCaprio and Brad Pitt as Once Upon a Time in Hollywood’s leads, actor Rick Dalton and stunt double Cliff Booth, comes this, our eagerly-awaited first look at Margot Robbie in character as Sharon Tate…

Margot

The film will mark Quentin Tarantino’s ninth time as writer/director, meaning that if he sticks to his word, we’ll only be getting one more film from him before he retires from features in order to avoid the all too common occurrence of a once-maverick filmmaker burning out at the tail end of their career. (We could include examples here, but that would just be cruel…)

Joining DiCaprio, Pitt, and Robbie in QT’s typically terrific cast is (deep breath now…) Al Pacino, Burt Reynolds, Kurt Russell, Michael Madsen, Tim Roth, Damian Lewis, Timothy Olyphant, Emile Hirsch, Dakota Fanning, Luke Perry, James Marsden, Clifton Collins Jr., Scoot McNairy, Keith Jefferson, Nicholas Hammond, James Remar, Spencer Garrett, Mike Moh, Brenda Vaccaro, Martin Kove, Nichole Galicia, Craig Stark, Marco Rodriguez, Raul Cardona, and Ramon Franco.

Official Synopsis:

Quentin Tarantino’s ninth feature film is a story that takes place in Los Angeles in 1969, at the height of hippy Hollywood. The two lead characters are Rick Dalton (Leonardo DiCaprio), former star of a western TV series, and his longtime stunt double Cliff Booth (Brad Pitt). Both are struggling to make it in a Hollywood they don’t recognize anymore. But Rick has a very famous next-door neighbour… Sharon Tate.

ONCE UPON A TIME IN HOLLYWOOD opens August 2019

Jessica Lange Returning for AHS: APOCALYPSE

Jessica Lange American Horror Story

Fresh off the news that American Horror Story has now been renewed for a ninth and tenth season, now comes confirmation of the return of a major AHS favourite.

Courtesy of Bloody Disgusting, the upcoming American Horror Story: Apocalypse will see fan fave Jessica Lange making her AHS return. Having been a mainstay of the show’s first four seasons, Lange exited the show after AHS: Freak Show.

With the impending Apocalypse season to bring together both Season 1’s Murder House and Season 3’s Coven, Lange will be reprising her Constance Langdon role from the series’ debut year. The devilishly charming Lange joins Sarah Paulson, Evan Peters, Kathy Bates, Emma Roberts, Cheyenne Jackson, Billy Eichner, Billie Lourd, Cody Fern, Adina Porter, Kyle Allen, Jeffrey Bowyer-Chapman, Leslie Grossman, and Joan Collins in the hotly-anticipated eighth season of AHS.

American Horror Story: Apocalypse will premiere on September 12th.

New Picard Series with Patrick Stewart Confirmed

Stewart

Heavily rumoured over the past month or so, it’s now been confirmed that Sir Patrick Stewart will be returning to the roll of Captain Jean-Luc Picard in a new Star Trek series for CBS All Access.

The show will follow the next chapter of the Starfleet Captain’s life, and not be a Next Generation reboot, nor will it tie-in with Discovery. The announcement was made at the Star Trek Las Vegas convention, which took place this week. Stewart made a surprise appearance to reveal the news.

Alex Kurtzman (Discovery co-creator and executive producer) is looking after all new Trek content as part of a massive deal with CBS TV Studios. The creative team for the as-yet unnamed show will include James Duff, Akiva Goldsman, Michael Chabon, and writer Kirsten Beyer.

Stewart said: “I will always be very proud to have been a part of Star Trek: The Next Generation, but when we wrapped that final movie in the spring of 2002, I truly felt my time with Star Trek had run its natural course. It is, therefore, an unexpected but delightful surprise to find myself excited and invigorated to be returning to Jean-Luc Picard and to explore new dimensions within him. Seeking out new life for him, when I thought that life was over.”

“During these past years,” he continued, “it has been humbling to hear many stories about how The Next Generation brought people comfort, saw them through difficult periods in their lives or how the example of Jean-Luc inspired so many to follow in his footsteps, pursuing science, exploration and leadership. I feel I’m ready to return to him for the same reason – to research and experience what comforting and reforming light he might shine on these often very dark times. I look forward to working with our brilliant creative team as we endeavour to bring a fresh, unexpected and pertinent story to life once more.”

Expect more news when we get it.

Short Films Announced for Arrow Video FrightFest

short frightfest

The short film line-up for Arrow Video FrightFest has been announced, which includes a fantastic mix of well-known faces and unknown talent and weird and wonderful films from around the world.

Among the titles to look forward to are We Summoned a Demon directed by Chris McInroy, Sarah Talbot’s Secretion, Adria Tennor’s Pie, Heidi Lee Douglas’ Devil Woman and Ashlea Wessel’s Tick. Maisie Williams (Game of Thrones) stars in Tom de Ville’s Corvidae, and Alice Lowe appears in the demonic Salt.

Of particular interest to us at STARBURST are European Premieres for Jill Gevargizian’s 42 Counts, Izzy Lee’s My Monsters, and Brian Lonano’s BFF Girls. Filmmakers and shorts we’ve championed from their inception.

Other films worth checking out are Joanne Mitchell’s directorial debut Sybil, in which the star (and partner) of Dominic Brunt’s films Before Dawn, Bait, and Attack of the Adult Babies goes behind the camera to give us the off-beat story of a mortician finding herself in an odd love triangle.

Other shorts in the popular showcase slots that are receiving either their UK, European or World Premieres include David Malcolm’s Mannequins, Anneké Cullen’s The Lonely World, Malcolm Rumbles’ Fran and the Moth, Sian Harries’ Neckface, Tom de Ville’s Corvidae, Right Place Wrong Tim (starring Adam Buxton and Asa Butterfield), directed by Eros Vlahos (best known as Nico in the TV series Da Vinci’s Demons), Hanna Bergholm’s Puppet Master, Alberto Correder’s Baghead, Ben Larned’s Payment World, Tom Nicoll’s The Cost of Living, Lee Kyoungmi’s The Lady from 406, Teal Greyhavens’ Special Day and Envy, directed by Sam Hoggarth.

Arrow Video FrightFest takes place in London between August 23rd and 27th. For full details of the short film showcase strains and to buy tickets, head over to www.frightfest.co.uk.