Back in October of last year, the news got out that Deadpool scribes Rhett Reese and Paul Wernick had signed on to pen the planned Pirates of the Caribbean reboot, and in the months since, Disney’s film production chief Sean Bailey has been vocal in his enthusiasm about the new recruits, telling THR in December that he believed the pair could give the franchise a much-needed “kick in the pants.” However, it now seems that the producer’s enthusiasm was a little premature, with Deadline reporting that Reese and Wernick have departed from the project.
Though Marvel Studios has a lot of money to throw around these days, the studio has a reputation for being relatively stingy when it comes to the amount they pay their biggest stars for their first outings in the franchise. Chris Hemsworth, for example, received just $150,000 for 2011’s Thor, despite the film’s total budget being one thousand times that amount. For the upcoming Captain Marvel, however, it seems that Brie Larson landed a much better deal than her colleagues.
Though a recent report alleged that Billy Dee Williams’ role in Star Wars: Episode IX may not amount to much more than an extended cameo, the actor is certainly putting a lot of time and effort into the return of Lando Calrissian, taking to Twitter once more with another video of intense physical training.
Producer Lauren Shuler Donner has been involved in the X-Men film series right from the start, having helped guide the cinematic universe through some varied, sometimes risky territory over the years. But with the producer set to walk away from the property as Disney takes the reins, it seems there’s at least one more project that she wishes she’d been able to make.
With Hugh Jackman looking pretty committed to leaving his run as Wolverine in the past, the fans have been doing a lot of speculating lately on who might be next to wield the claws, and have so far come up with some pretty weird suggestions.
A few days ago, actor Dominic Monaghan claimed via Instagram that director J.J. Abrams is the only one who knows the official title of Star Wars: Episode IX, making it harder than ever to buy into any of the growing number of rumored names that have been the rounds online. Nonetheless, in the last couple of days, the forums have seen one more suggested subtitle emerge that’s managed to get a fair amount of attention for the optimism it represents.
The upcoming release of Extremely Wicked, Shockingly Evil and Vile has stirred up a lot of discourse around serial killer Ted Bundy, whose execution was 30 years ago as of last month, but as we move further into the year, you can expect to see similar conversations unfold around the subject of Sharon Tate, whose murder at the hands of the Manson Family has its 50th anniversary in August. Like Bundy’s execution, Tate’s tragic death has inspired the release of several projects that depict the late actress, perhaps the most controversial of them all being The Haunting of Sharon Tate.
With the 30th anniversary of the execution of Ted Bundy landing just last month, we have a lot of material on the notorious serial killer coming to our screens this year, much of which was the work of true-crime filmmaker Joe Berlinger. Not only is Berlinger’s 4-part documentary series Conversations with a Killer: The Ted Bundy Tapes currently available on Netflix, but the director also helmed the narrative feature Extremely Wicked, Shockingly Evil, and Vile, which premiered at Sundance a few weeks ago.
The rumor that The Last Jedi director Rian Johnson is walking away from his planned Star Wars trilogy has popped up a few times in the last year, to the point that the filmmaker himself felt the need to shoot down the assertion back in August. And while the hearsay once more found renewed traction last night, Johnson was again on hand to offer his assurance that the claim is still without basis.
It’s been a relatively quiet couple of years for the Alien franchise ever since Alien: Covenant came out to a mixed reception and underwhelming box office returns. Nonetheless, a ray of hope was offered last year with the rumor that a TV series based on the sci-fi franchise was making its way to an unspecified streaming service, and if a new report from HN Entertainment is anything to go by, then plans for the property just might go beyond a single show.
