It's interesting that the titular figure (Keanu Reeves) in John Wick, a visceral and vivid actioner of uncommon simplicity, is presented as the fresh face of a brand-new action franchise when he's actually a throwback to the unstoppable juggernaut in James Cameron's The Terminator. That's not a knock so much as a raised eyebrow aimed at the kinds of characters that directors Chad Stahelski and David Leitch and writer Derek Kolstad think modern-day audiences want to watch. And after sitting through the slick and stylish feast of action trash they've whipped up, it's easy to nod your head and acknowledge that they're onto something.
It was the snub heard around the world when Selma director Ava DuVernay didn't make the cut for Best Director in this year's polarizing Oscar nominations. Though she was widely considered a lock for the category, a nomination in which would have made her the first African-American woman to receive a Best Director nod, Selma was widely spurned by voters, with star David Oyelowo also losing out.
Following The Book of Eli scribe Gary Whitta's departure from Godzilla director Gareth Edwards' upcoming Star Wars spinoff, a new screenwriter has been recruited to explore the galaxy far, far away - About a Boy co-director/co-writer Chris Weitz.
After lots of stops and starts for Relativity's high-profile reboot of cult classic The Crow, Luke Evans has officially backed away from the project. The Hobbit actor had been attached to the lead role since May of last year, when F. Javier Gutierrez was signed to direct, but the many delays experienced by the project left Evans, whose star has been on the rise thanks to this fall's Dracula Untold, with no choice other than to jump ship.
Another key character has been cast in MGM's upcoming Ben-Hur remake. Danish actor Pilou Asbæk, who had a small role in Lucy and previously stunned in the barely-seen Danish film A Hijacking (one of my top films of 2013), has joined the production in the role of Judean emperor Pontius Pilate.
Proving that it learned absolutely nothing from Gracepoint, its failed remake of British mystery series Broadchurch, Fox is moving ahead with a remake of the BBC cop drama Luther, having handed the adaptation a pilot order. Additionally, the network has ordered dramas Frankenstein and Rosewood, and half-hour comedy 48 Hours 'Til Monday.
Fox's new police procedural Backstrom is one of the least fresh-feeling dramas that the network has premiered in some time. It continues Fox's time-honored tradition of building shows around a toxic genius character, as abrasive and irritable as he is brilliant (from House to Lie to Me to recently failed Rake, it seems that Fox has an anti-hero complex). Backstrom also shares showrunner DNA with long-running detective show Bones and its one-and-done spinoff The Finder. And even its setting, perpetually rainy Portland, has been in use by another network's crime procedural for years (NBC's Grimm).
B-movie classic The Blob is getting another remake. Why? I couldn't tell you, but here we are. Goldcrest Films is moving forward with the project, which the studio has set The Expendables 2 helmer Simon West to direct.
Disney is taking its time with the upcoming fifth installment of its massively successful Pirates series, Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Men Tell No Tales, hopefully because the studio recognized the need to reorient the franchise after 2011's middling On Stranger Tides. We've heard from Orlando Bloom that the fivequel may act as a soft reboot, and that many new actors will board the franchise in major parts. Now, we've learned that Disney is zeroing in on The Maze Runner actress Kaya Scodelario for the lead female role.
