It’s another Friday morning, and that means another edition of the News Bites. Last week was a bit on the light side. This week, not so much. There’s a bit of Pixar, some Marvel Comics movie news, news of TV series and a TV special, and of course, yet more remake discussion. There’s also some rumor-mongering about Star Wars and James Bond, and a double dose of Keanu Reeves news. Because apparently there’s no such thing as too much Keanu.
Click the continue link to find out what’s going on.
For those who can’t get enough Toy Story, Pixar has announced on their Twitter account that this Halloween will bring Toy Story of Terror, a new animated short, to ABC.
Lots of news has been flying around about the next generation of video game consoles, and the Xbox One in particular. Most of that’s outside Morgan on Media’s normal coverage, but there is an interesting tidbit regarding a TV series that is planned for Xbox Live. Steven Spielberg is teaming up with Microsoft to produce a series based on the Halo video game franchise, apparently in the belief that a TV series based on a video game will be more successful than a movie based on a video game (a notion which, historically, has also not borne out particularly well). Bonnie Ross, while announcing the series, stated “Halo has always been more than a game”, which I’m pretty sure is untrue, but best of luck to them in their venture.
Timecop is getting a second chance at the big screen. Universal Pictures is working on a reboot of the Dark Horse Comics property, to be produced by Marc Shmuger and Tom McNulty.
Keanu Reeves’ directorial debut, Man of Tai Chi, was picked up at Cannes by Radius-TWC. The film’s release is planned for the fourth quarter of 2013.
In more Keanu news, the Weinstein Company will distribute the sci-fi romance Passengers, starring Reeves along with Reese Witherspoon. In the story, Reeves is a passenger on a spacecraft traveling to a distant planet, with all the ship’s passengers in suspended animation. When he is accidentally awoken prematurely, he awakens Witherspoon in order to avoid living the rest of his days alone. A release date for the film is not yet known.
The Spike Lee remake of Oldboy has been delayed by two weeks. It is now set for release on October 25, 2013.
Speaking of remakes, the latest Hollywood classic to be the target of a prospective remake is The Wild Bunch. Will Smith is expected to star in the film, which won’t be a direct remake, but a modernization of the film, which was originally a western. The new take will involve a former DEA agent who assembles a team to take on a Mexican drug cartel. Given that the setting and purpose is merely inspired by the original rather than remaking it directly, one wonders why they don’t just change the name and let it stand on its own.
Warehouse 13 is getting one last season, but not a very big one. Syfy has renewed the series for a final season of only six episodes, which will air in 2014.
The 2016 Pixar feature briefly had a name: Día de los Muertos. The film will be inspired by the Mexican holiday, which falls on November 1st and has similar themes to Halloween, but different traditions. There was some flak directed at Disney for filing a trademark on the name, and they have withdrawn the claim, saying they have changed the name of the film. Personally, I think any upset over the trademark claim is silly; trademarks are context-specific, and only meant to protect the use within that context. Trademarking Día de los Muertos in the context of movies does not, in any way, impact a person’s ability to use it in other contexts (such as the holiday or anything else), just like we can still talk about the holiday Halloween in a post-John-Carpenter era. A new name for the film has not yet been announced, but it is known to be directed by Lee Unkrich.
Brian Singer has revealed on his Twitter account that Evan Peters, who has starred in American Horror Story and Kick-Ass, will be joining the cast of X-Men: Days of Future Past as Quicksilver. With news from Joss Whedon a short while back confirming that Scarlet Witch and Quicksilver would be in The Avengers 2, this is the first confirmation that the characters would also be in the X-Men film franchise. Though the franchises are put out by different studios, this oddity is made possible due to the characters having a history with both franchises in the comics, and the studios have already agreed that each can use them, so long as they don’t explicitly mention the other franchise (i.e., in X-Men, they can’t mention the Avengers, and in The Avengers, they can’t mention Magneto). It is not yet known if they’ll be using the same actors or different ones, but given the prequel/time-travel nature of Days of Future Past, it’s likely they’ll take advantage of that to avoid cross-promotion and scheduling conflicts.
Rumors and Speculation
Speaking of Quicksilver and Scarlet Witch, there’s been a rumor that Saoirse Ronan is being considered for the latter role in The Avengers 2. There is no confirmation this yet, but Ronan has said in an interview that she would love to be a part of it.
Who will direct the 24th James Bond film? Reportedly, an approach has been made to Christopher Nolan, but no official word has been announced yet.
It’s been a while since we’ve had an unsourced Star Wars rumor, but has a new one for those who have been waiting. They report that Jonathan Rhys Meyers, who has starred in Mission: Impossible III and the upcoming The Mortal Instruments: City of Bones is in talks for a role in the seventh Star Wars film.
Morgan on Media 
Man of Tai Chi trailer looks terrible, but as I like Keanu, I’m looking forward to Passengers and 47 Ronin, if that ever gets released! WOW, I’d LOVE to see Nolan finally realize his dream to direct a Bond film! As for The Wild Bunch, I’d have been more intrigued if it weren’t for Will Smith and his increasing nepotism, he always cast his son in all his projects now. I lost respect for him since.
I haven’t checked out the Man of Tai Chi trailer yet… I’ll have to see if T’s put that up. 😀 I’m kind of interested in it from a technical standpoint, though, as apparently Keanu has come up with an innovative camera technique for fight scenes that other directors are interested in. Might be worth seeing just to see how that pans out.
And yeah, it does seem like Will Smith and Jaden Smith are a package deal now, which doesn’t really enthuse me about any of his projects any more. To be honest, I kind of hope just for his sake this time he doesn’t bring his son on board (and I would think this would be a film which wouldn’t call for a teenaged role). If he keeps up with the nepotism all the time, it’s going to be hard to reestablish himself as a big star again, and I feel like his shine has rather faded in the public’s eyes over the last few years.
Why doesn’t Will Smith invite Meryl Streep to a fancy morning meal and call the film the Wild BRUNCH. You’re right about changing the name here; the original Wild Bunch, I’ve always thought, is something of a classic and probably shouldn’t be redone. Nice post.
*Snicker* The Wild Brunch. Nice one, S.
I’d almost rather NOT have Nolan direct Bond. I’m Nolan’ed out.
Happy to hear about a new Toy Story short, those are always awesome! 😀
This was way too funny: ” “Halo has always been more than a game”, which I’m pretty sure is untrue” 😀
I wouldn’t say I’m Nolan’ed out, exactly… but I do think that with the Batman films I’ve seen enough of “Nolan’s take on [Property X]” for a while. His own ideas are good enough that I can get my fill of Nolan on those.
Glad you liked the Halo quip… I get irritated when marketing people overstate the importance of their product, so deflating it is fun. 😀
Nolan directing a Bond movie might be interesting to see.
What would be really interesting to see would be the general fan reaction… already seeing a lot of “That’s great!” “No, that’s awful!” 😀
Let me see, Will Smith remakes Richard Matheson’s seminal I AM LEGEND novel into its third film adaptation (a mess, btw, with Matheson’s original construct obliterated) and now he wants to do similar with another pioneering work from the 60s. Sam Peckinpah’s THE WILD BUNCH. I think I can say without a hint of irony.
SHOOT ME NOW.
He’s topped himself for bad ideas with this, me thinks. I can deal with everything else you’ve covered except this. Oh, boy.
He really needs to get entirely away from remaking older films… this, Legend, Karate Kid… there’s a distinct sense that he (or his agent) just doesn’t “get it” when it comes to what made the films popular to begin with.
Evan Peters was great in the first season of AHS. Second season… I didn’t like his character’s arc, but he did well. He’s a genius casting, because he’s a pretty strong young actor, who’s already garnered a pretty sizeable young girl following based on his work in AHS. It’ll be interesting to see if they give him the part in both franchises.
Glad to hear he’s a good actor. Casting news on the role for Avengers will be interesting, no doubt. I suspect it’ll be someone different, though.
The Toy Story news makes me happy. Keeping my childhood alive. 😀
People do seem to enjoy the shorts. 🙂