News Bites: Evening Edition

It’s Friday, and that means that once again it’s time for me to do a roundup of interesting movie news. Now, unless I’m mistaken, this is the latest in the day I’ve ever posted the News Bites — 7:00 PM as I type this, and probably closer to 8:00 by the time I’m finished. But I have a good excuse; I was sick yesterday (so no prep time), and I was out Christmas shopping today. Not that anybody was likely to call me to task on it, mind; one of the nice things about the blogging community is that it usually is nice and relatively free of the trolls that infest most of the internet.

So, enough delays already. Let’s get on with this.

Awards:

The Golden Globe nominations are out. The full list can be found here, but here are the Best Picture highlights:

Best Drama:
12 Years a Slave
Captain Phillips
Gravity
Philomena
Rush

Best Comedy or Musical:
American Hustle
Her
Inside Llewyn Davis
Nebraska
The Wolf of Wall Street

Best Animated Feature:
The Croods
Despicable Me 2
Frozen

Best Foreign-Language Film:
Blue is the Warmest Color (France)
The Great Beauty (Italy)
The Hunt (Denmark)
The Past (Iran)
The Wind Rises (Japan)

News:

It’s official: Paul Rudd is Ant-Man.

In an apparent attempt to dethrone Watership Down‘s status as “most traumatizing children’s cartoon”, Ari Folman (Waltz With Bashir) plans an animated adaptation of The Diary of Anne Frank. (Actually, I remember watching the black-and-white live-action film in school; this will likely be similarly helpful for educating youngsters.)

Sony has signed writers to produce scripts for more films centered in the Spider-Man movie universe, centered on other characters. In the works are Venom, about the villain featured in Spider-Man 3, who sometimes goes through semi-heroic turns in the comics, and The Sinister Six, about a superteam of Spider-Man’s enemies.

Ed Helms will play Frank Drebin in a remake of The Naked Gun. Ed Helms, as you might recall, is also playing Rusty Griswold in a sequel/spiritual remake of Vacation. Ed Helms is not currently slated for the lead in a remake of Private Benjamin, but it may only be a matter of time.

Speaking of remakes, or rather reboots, Emilia Clarke has been cast as Sarah Connor in the new Terminator film.

The comic isn’t even out yet, but Fox is already looking to adapt Mark Millar’s Starlight, about an aging Flash Gordon style character. As a fan of the real Flash Gordon and other serial sci-fi heroes, I’m all in favor of a new take on the concept.

Here’s one that will have comic book fans excited. Joseph Gordon-Levitt will direct and star as the lead in a film adaptation of Neil Gaiman’s Sandman, the cult-classic comic about Morpheus, king of dreams. Promotional material has already indicated the title may be Sandman: Preludes, referencing the first collected volume of the series… and hinting at sequel plans, as after all a prelude has to be a prelude to something.

And in adaptation news probably nobody has been anticipating: Josh Gad will play the lead in Gilligan’s Island. Well, at least this time they should get off the island relatively quickly…

The first film has yet to be released, but the Divergent sequel Insurgent is already seeking a new director. Neil Burger has withdrawn due to schedule conflicts.

Man of Steel 2: Superman vs. Batman, which is due out a year and a half from now, is getting another rewrite, this time courtesy of Argo screenwriter Chris Terrio. How many does that make, now?

Hugh Jackman is in talks to play the villain in Pan, a story of the beginning of the Peter Pan legend. The villain, however, isn’t the familiar Captain Hook, but the infamous Blackbeard.

Zoe Bell is in talks for The ExpendaBelles, the all-female equivalent of The Expendables. If they also cast Kristen Bell and Catherine Bell, I shall applaud them for their audacity.

Miramax and the Weinstein Company have signed a production deal, which will include sequels to Shakespeare in Love and Rounders, because both of those stories obviously begged for continuation. Harvey Weinstein is quoted as saying “It’s like unlocking a kingdom full of gold, which Tom [Barrack Jr.] describes as diamonds”. The quote indicates at least one of the individuals is deeply confused, but it’s unclear which.

A live-action Jonny Quest film is still in the works according to Grudge Match director Peter Segal, who has been working on the project for four years. Segal hopes to make the project his next film.

Animation fans, who among you would be interested in seeing a 3D animated take on Egyptian mythology? Well, too bad, you’ll have to wait a while. The Fox/Blue Sky film Anubis is being pushed back from 2016 to a new date of March 23, 2018, two years later. Why the delay? To make room for Ice Age 5. Sigh…

Rumors and Speculation:

According to Variety, Joaquin Phoenix is being sought for a role in Superman vs. Batman, possibly as Lex Luthor. Well, at least it’s not a “We think it’s him because he’s bald” rumor this time.

Speaking of comic book villain rumors, there’s an Avengers 2: Age of Ultron one from Latino Review. The rumor site is alleging that there will be a second villain in the film: Baron Strucker, head of HYDRA (the Nazi off-shoot Captain America fought in his first film). It’s plausible, given the character ties, and it would provide a way for Ultron to be created in the film, given that his creator in the comics, Ant-Man, is not in the feature.

That’s all for this week’s News Bites. Thanks for reading, and leave a comment below with your thoughts!