Given the rapturous reception for Marvel and Netflix's Daredevil earlier this year, the streaming service's next superhero series certainly has big shoes to fill. Centering on superhero-turned-private-investigator Jessica Jones (Krysten Ritter), the show will introduce the second eventual member of the Defenders, cementing Netflix as a platform that can support an interconnected Marvel television universe. Looking at Netflix's listing for the series today, it appears that the show, previously called A.K.A. Jessica Jones, has undergone a slight name change.
With his earthquake pic San Andreas making sizable waves at the box office and his HBO series Ballers just weeks away, Dwayne Johnson is riding higher than ever in Hollywood. Six days back, the actor signed on for a very unexpected project in a remake of John Carpenter's cult classic Big Trouble in Little China, and now he has spoken at greater length about the redo, voicing his desire to get the original director involved while also addressing the divisive reaction from fans.
Later this month, MTV will debut its continuation of the hit horror-comedy franchise Scream, enlisting a cast of teen stars to tell the next chapter. Inexplicably, that next chapter won't include Ghostface, and the mask looks like a Fifty Shades of Grey set prop, but I'm holding out hope for the series, if just because MTV has delivered some surprisingly solid programming over the years, from Teen Wolf to Awkward.
Like The Impossible before it, No Escape continues the time-honored Hollywood tradition of charting a catastrophic foreign event by following a sympathetic, white family as they struggle to survive being outside their safe home country. This time around, it's not a tsunami but a violent revolution that threatens said family (led by Owen Wilson and Lake Bell), but the song remains the same - stranded in an unspecified Asian country they don't know, the Americans must hide from all the Asians and enlist the help of another, more grizzled white guy (Pierce Brosnan) if they are to get out alive.
What's next - Candy Crush Saga: The Series? Probably shouldn't joke about that, actually - I might jinx it. But this one is equally ridiculous: ZeptoLab and Blockade Entertainment have announced that they are teaming up to develop an animated feature based on the Cut the Rope mobile app.
This one's going to make some waves. As it pushes to expand its lineup of original feature programming, Netflix has secured a jaw-dropping package. The streaming service today acquired distribution rights to War Machine, a high-profile drama starring Brad Pitt as a four-star U.S. military general modeled after General Stanley McChrystal. Far from a straight biopic, however, the pic is a satirical comedy that attacks U.S. foreign policy in the Middle East through the character of a "rock star" general terribly representing American interests abroad.
Honestly, HBO doesn't even need to advertise the second season of True Detective - after that powerhouse of a freshman year, audiences will be tuning in when the anthology series returns later this month regardless of whether they see any trailers. Nevertheless, the premium network is piling on the atmosphere in its marketing campaign for the second season, and the result has been some remarkably moody and reticent previews.
Jurassic World recently premiered to overwhelming praise in Paris, and anticipation for the prehistoric franchise update is tremendously high. With the film opening this Friday, Universal has dropped a brooding final trailer for the blockbuster fourquel, as well as a slew of new photos depicting the movie's human and CGI casts. An unfortunate result of the studio's gargantuan marketing effort for the tentpole is that a ton of major plot points have already been given away, so if you want to avoid any further spoilers for the pic, you may be well-advised to skip the trailer and images.
Time to utilize that Eagle Vision. The first poster for next year's Assassin's Creed adaptation, starring Michael Fassbender and Marion Cotillard, is little more than a reminder that the film is on its way, but it references some key aspects of the bestselling game franchise, including the lines of the Animus, which is sure to please fans.
In the wake of Cary Fukunaga's saddening IT exit (over squabbles between the director and New Line about the two-part adaptation), all eyes have naturally turned to Josh Boone's epic take on The Stand for Warner Bros. An even more ambitious Stephen King adaptation than Fukunaga's IT, The Stand was previously announced by Boone as a four-film blockbuster event, featuring an A-list cast and considerable budget. Unfortunately, a new report from TheWrap states that a tetralogy is no longer the plan - though WB is still standing by Boone and giving him the massive scale such a property demands.
