Good afternoon, it’s Friday, and it’s time for the News Bites. Now, I know normally this is a morning post, but it’s going up just a bit late today thanks to taking yesterday off for the Thanksgiving holiday. Blame it on an overdose of L-tryptophan. But even though it’s a bit of a light week for news, Hollywood never seems to completely shut down the hype machine, so there’s still a few bites of news to report in between bites of leftover turkey.
Before that, though, a bit of news from the movie blogging community. Dan Fogarty, of Fogs Movie Reviews, has sadly decided to shut down operations on his site due to time commitments at work. Fogs’ site was one of the biggest in our movie blogging community, and he helped me get started here with my own writing. Between his weekly “Movies That Everyone Should See” and “Tossin’ It Out There” straw polls, plus his regular reviews — which were always written to be entertaining and easy to read — I probably spent more time reading and commenting on his site than on my own, even before he asked me to write my “Catching the Classics” column for his site. Fogs, thanks for the laughs and all the great discussions, and thanks for letting me be a part of it.
And now, if you can pry yourself away from elbowing little old ladies in the guts to score an X-Box, here’s what’s been happening in Hollywood this week.
News:
Those who are looking forward to more of Disney’s live-action takes on their classic stories can pencil in a couple more release dates on their calendar. Disney has set The Jungle Book for a October 9, 2015 release date, while Alice in Wonderland 2 will come out May 27, 2016.
Executive producer Greg Berlanti has said there are no plans to connect his TV series Arrow (based on DC Comics character Green Arrow) to the current and upcoming DC Comics movies.
Dalton may be bouncing people off the big screen again. MGM plans to remake the cult-classic Road House, with director Rob Cohen (The Fast and the Furious, xXx, Alex Cross) attached. Cohen is also, according to IMDb, attached to the remake of The Monster Squad. Might be time to leave the 1980s alone, Hollywood.
Speaking of the 1980s, who remembers Jason Patric? Patric has been active in Hollywood consistently, but most of us still remember him primarily for The Lost Boys. Well, he’s going up against Bruce Willis in the upcoming The Prince, an action film which stars Patric as a retired mob enforcer searching for his daughter. Bruce Willis co-stars in a rare villainous turn, while John Cusack plays a dubious ally of Patric’s.
Both have been rumored for a while, but now Marvel.com has officially confirmed that Aaron Taylor-Johnson will play Quicksilver, and Elizabeth Olson will play the Scarlet Witch in Avengers: Age of Ultron.
Peter O’Toole isn’t quite completely retired yet. Although he announced his retirement in 2012, he’s coming out for at least one film, the independent historical film Katherine of Alexandria.
Marvel comics creator Stan Lee is teaming up with Avi Arad to produce a film based on a new character created by Lee. All other details are currently being kept secret, including the title.
Also in vaguely-specified movie news, Quentin Tarantino announced on Tuesday’s episode of The Tonight Show that his next film will be a western. He told Leno that he had so much fun working on Django Unchained that he wanted to make another western “now that I know what I’m doing.”
The video game adaptation Warcraft — which was previously going by World of Warcraft — directed by Duncan Jones is getting a slight delay. The film has been moved to March 11, 2016, from its original release date of December 18, 2015; as the Hollywood Reporter notes, it’s probably not a coincidence that it just moved away from a date that was recently announced for Star Wars: Episode VII.
Also getting release dates from Universal are the oft-delayed Jeff Bridges fantasy film Seventh Son (February 6, 2015), the Jennifer Lopez thriller The Boy Next Door (January 23, 2015), the new The Mummy movie (April 22, 2016), and a still-untitled “cyber thriller” from director Michael Mann (January 16, 2015).
Finally, a bit of good news for people who are easily confused by dueling movies with similar themes and titles. The film Hercules 3D, starring Kellan Lutz, and not to be confused with Hercules starring Dwayne Johnson, has gotten a new title. The film is now The Legend of Hercules, making it just a little easier to distinguish. The film will be coming out in just a few months, on January 10, 2014. Its competitor is due out July 25 of the same year. Hmm… dead of winter vs. the height of summer for similarly-themed action films. It’s almost like MGM & Paramount have more faith in Dwayne Johnson’s drawing power than Summit has in Kellan Lutz’s, but why would that be?
That’s all for this week’s News Bites. Thanks for reading, and leave a comment below with your thoughts!
Morgan on Media 
Some nice news again this week. Just wanted to make a quick note because I like sharing trivia. There was an episode of Mythbusters that showed it’s not the tryptophan in turkey that makes people sleepy, it’s the size of the meal itself.
Yeah, I know. Knew that before the show even aired, actually; there’s as much L-tryptophan in beef. But it’s fun to pun. 🙂
I’m with you, Morgan, about Fogs wonderful contributions to the web and blogosphere. He will be missed.
A Michael Mann project…coming out in the dumping ground of January?!? What’s wrong with this picture?
Yeah, I thought he deserved a mention outside his own blog. 🙂
Mann’s project has got to have something strange going on with it, is all I can figure. He’s not a “dumping ground” director, as a rule… and it seems like it’s awfully close to its release date to not even have a title yet. Most films have a title a year before they’re released, right?