As Hellboy: Rise of the Blood Queen continues to flesh out its cast, the upcoming reboot for Big Red has moved to bring in Sophie Okonedo, Brian Gleeson and Alistair Petrie.

As per Deadline, Hotel Rwanda’s Okonedo will play Lady Hatton, a seer at the Osiris Club. What’s the Osiris Club, you ask? Why, it’s “an ancient English club dedicated to uncovering supernatural mysteries.” For Rogue One’s Petrie, he’s be playing a member of said club called Lord Adam Glaren, while Snow White and the Huntsman’s Gleeson is a wizard named Merlin.

The threesome join a cast that currently has David Harbour as Hellboy, Ian McShane as Professor Broom, Milla Jovovich as the villainous Blood Queen, and roles for Sasha Lane, Penelope Mitchell and Daniel Dae Kim.

To be directed by The Descent’s Neil Marshall, Hellboy: Rise of the Blood Queen has yet to be given a set release date, although shooting is expected to start sooner rather than later ahead of the film hitting the big screen at some point in 2018.

With the Tom Hardy-headlined Venom set for a 2018 release, the film is now in talks to add Scott Haze to its ranks.

As per The Hollywood Reporter, the Child of God and Midnight Special actor is in negotiations to join the picture in an unknown role. If Haze were to join Venom, he’d join a cast that currently features Hardy, Michelle Williams, Jenny Slate, Riz Ahmed and Reid Scott.

Venom, of course, is the first film in Sony Pictures’ shared cinematic Spider-Verse – which won’t actually be featuring ol’ Web-head any time soon. In addition to Venom, Silver Sable and Black Cat have the Silver and Black team-up movie in development, and there are also currently loose plans to give solo pictures to both Mysterio and Kraven the Hunter.

To be directed by Zombieland’s Ruben Fleischer, Venom is currently set for an October 2018 release.

How many symbiotes are too many? Well, we could be about to find out.

There’s no doubting that the likes of Venom, Carnage and Toxin are some of the most interesting characters in the Spider-Man corner of Marvel Comics, but it looks as if next year’s Venom could be about to overdo it from the get-go. Just when we were starting to get a little on board with the Tom Hardy-headlined effort, now comes word that the film could see Hardy’s Venom going up against enough symbiotes to have casual fans scratching their heads at what they’re seeing

As per MovieWeb, it’s now being reported that Venom will adapt the first arc of the Venom: Lethal Protector story. In that tale, Eddie Brock finds himself battling five symbiotes.

To get you up to speed on Lethal Protector, the official blurb on that comic book story reads:

Before the story begins, Venom makes an agreement with Spider-Man that they will leave each other alone, on the condition that Venom commits no crimes. Venom then moves from New York City to San Francisco and takes up with a group of Californian mole people. Shortly thereafter the father of one of Venom’s victims seeks him out with a group of super-powered mercenaries to take revenge. Spider-Man, seeing misleading coverage of Venom on television, heads to San Francisco to confront him and instead winds up fighting alongside Venom against five new offspring of the Venom symbiote: Scream, Phage, Riot, Lasher, and Agony.

Of course, there will be no Spider-Man in Venom, but we do know that both Carnage and She-Venom will be making appearances – bringing the symbiote total up to a potential eight including Brock as Venom. Then again, this is far from official right now, so it could be that other elements of Lethal Protector are used rather than introducing five further symbiotes in to the fold.

Maybe it’s just us, but you’d think that maybe keeping the symbiotes to a minimum would make Venom himself feel more special and unique. After all, having so many other characters in the film who can do pretty much exactly what your headline act can do doesn’t seem like a particularly wise move and simply serves to water down your main attraction. But what do we know.

As well as Hardy as Eddie Brock, at this stage Venom also has Michelle Williams, Jenny Slate and Riz Ahmed on board, while Reid Scott is currently in talks to join the film.

Venom, of course, is the first film in Sony Pictures’ shared cinematic Spider-Verse – which won’t actually be featuring ol’ Web-head any time soon. In addition to Venom, Silver Sable and Black Cat have the Silver and Black team-up movie in development, and there are also currently loose plans to give solo pictures to both Mysterio and Kraven the Hunter.

To be directed by Zombieland’s Ruben Fleischer, Venom is currently set for an October 2018 release.

Seeing as we’re big fans of a good (or even bad) shark movie here at Moonbase Alpha, one of the upcoming films we’re most looking forward to is the adaptation of Steve Alten’s MEG. Well, that 2018 release has now been given a slightly reworked title.

As confirmed by Warner Bros. Pictures, the Jon Turtletaub-helmed MEG has seen its title tweaked to simply The Meg. Earth-shattering news, we know.

On board for The Meg are Jason Statham, Lee Bingbing, Cliff Curtis, Rainn Wilson, Ruby Rose, Winston Chao, Page Kennedy, Jessica McNamee, Robert Taylor, Olafur Darri Olafsson, Sophia Shuya Cai and Masi Oka.

In case you’re not familiar with MEG, Steve Alten’s MEG: A Novel of Deep Terror was released in 1997 and has spawned several follow-ups, with the action focussing on the 80-foot megalodon and the tale often described as “Jurassic Park with a shark” as the California coast is terrorized by this ancient threat.

The current synopsis for the film reads:

A deep-sea submersible – part of an international undersea observation program – has been attacked by a massive creature, previously thought to be extinct, and new lies disabled at the bottom of the deepest trench in the Pacific… with its crew trapped inside. With time running out, expert deep sea rescue diver Jonas Taylor (Statham) is recruited by a visionary Chinese oceanographer (Winston Chao), against the wishes of his daughter Suyin (Bingbing), to save the crew – and the ocean itself – from this unstoppable threat: a prehistoric 75-foot-long shark known as the Megalodon. What no one could have imagined is that, years before, Taylor had encountered this same terrifying creature. Now, teamed with Suyin, he must confront his fears and risk his own life to save everyone trapped below… bringing him face to face once more with the greatest and largest predator of all time.

At present, The Meg is set to make a splash on the big screen from August 10th, 2018.

In some news that’s sure to please many genre fans, it seems as if we could well finally getting some movement on the longstanding Lone Wolf and Cub adaptation.

As per The Hollywood Reporter, Paramount Pictures have picked up the project and brought in Se7en’s Andrew Kevin Walker to write the script. An adaptation of the famed manga has been on and off for years now, with Star Trek Beyond’s Justin Lin on board to direct back in 2012. At this stage, it seems as if Lin is definitely on board as a producer with a chance of him now directing.

Lone Wolf and Cub began live back in 1970 from Kazuo Koike and Goseki Kojima. That initial series ran for an impressive twenty-eight volumes over six years. Centred on Itto Ogami and his initially infant son, the story follows this badass samurai sort on a quest for vengeance following the murder of the rest of his family. As the series progresses, son Daigoro grows up and becomes a tough-as-nails assassin alongside his pops.

Previously, Lone Wolf and Cub had been given the live-action movie treatment in six films throughout the ‘70s. Since then, a couple of TV adaptations have followed, with the most recent one coming to an end in 2004.

As ever, expect more on this as we get it.